A good night's practicing at Billown tonight in dry but breezy conditions, just missing the rain that came in shortly after the session finished. I don't think there will be any official times until tomorrow, but most of the usual suspects seemed to be going very quickly. Ryan Farquhar was once again absolutely flying on the big bike and it was good to see him out on the 250 as well. It's a while since I've seen so many 250s out, and it's great to see and hear. Ian Lougher and Chris Palmer were both going very well too on a variety of machinery.
The two high-profile newcomers Martin Finnegan and Guy Martin were extremely impressive - Guy was grinning from ear to ear after the first session. Another talented newcomer to the meeting is TT regular, Welshman Paul Owen who has 125 and 250 machines and was going very well tonight. No sign of Bruce Anstey, though, after reports that he would be making his debut in the meeting.
The three female riders were all out tonight - Anita Buxton on her 1000 and 400 machines, Gail Musson on her 125 and newcomer Eleanor Forrest on 125 and 250s.
As far as I am aware the session was free of serious incident and as ever was very efficiently run by the Southern 100 club. Let's hope for more of the same for the rest of the week.