17:20 ~ 17:45 - MGP & Classic TT Newcomers Speed Controlled Lap (Untimed)

17:35 ~ 18:30 - MGP Senior / MGP Junior / CTT Lightweight / CTT Superbike  (No Newcomers)

18:35 ~ 19:30 - CTT Junior / CTT Senior / MGP Lightweight & Ultra Lightweight (No Newcomers)

1935 ~ 20:00 - All Newcomers (Untimed) and selected Experienced Riders

Detailed forecast

Issued on Saturday, 18 August 2018 at 11:00am by Ronaldsway Met Office

Cloudy but dry this afternoon with some brighter spells developing at times especially in the north, cloud will thicken up again this evening with rain due around midnight.
A fresh southwest wind at first will fall light for a time this evening, temperatures in the brighter spells will get to 19 or 20 Celsius.

Evening Practice Coverage on Manx Radio AM1368 :

Saturday 18th   August : 5pm - 9pm

Announcement @ 17:26 - Expected to go at 17:40

17:40 - Controlled Lap - Newcomers take it away.

19:45 - Tonight’s qualifying session has been flagged early due to deteriorating conditions on the Mountain

Described as an ‘assault on the senses’, fans around the Mountain Course were again treated to the sights, sounds and unique 'Castrol R' smell of some of the most iconic historic bikes as the world’s leading Classic Race meeting – the Classic TT Races presented by Bennetts - got underway this evening on the Isle of Man.

After a short delay to move cars from the course, the session got away at 5.40pm with an untimed lap for Classic newcomers before the session began in earnest with Superbikes and Lightweight machines the first out on the course.

Dean Harrison enjoyed a mixed evening in the opening qualifying session while 23-time TT Race winner John McGuinness completed his first lap of the course since the 2016 Classic TT, appropriately riding the same Winfield Paton that he won the 2016 Bennetts Senior Classic TT Race on.

In the opening Superbike session Harrison, belying the perception of Classic Bike racing, posted the fastest lap of the evening – 122.266mph - on his opening lap on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki but he was reported as a retirement at Glen Duff on his second lap and missed the rest of the session.

While Harrison was laying down his marker for the week, 2016 Junior MGP Race winner Andrew Dudgeon on a ZXR750 Kawasaki, Michael Rutter (Team Winfield) and Horst Saiger (Greenall Racing Kawasaki) all posted 115+mph laps on their first laps on the Mountain Course since the TT. Dudgeon’s 118.93 on the second lap was the second fastest of the evening, fractionally ahead of Saiger’s second lap (118.92).

In the concurrent Lightweight Classic TT session rising road racing star Adam McLean posted the two fastest laps – improving his opening lap of 112.328 to 114.740 while Dan Sayle, after problems on his opening lap posted 109.671 on the Steelcote Solutions Yamaha.

Conditions were deteriorating around the course with mist coming in ahead of the second session which was eventually flagged at the end of the opening lap. However, there was time for John McGuinness to make a popular return and the ‘Morecambe Missile’ showed that he had lost none of his ability after a two year absence with an opening lap of 104.95 in the Senior Classic TT session. Maria Costello (Team Beugger Racing/ Paton) and Olie Linsdell on the Flitwick Motorcycles Enfield also posted 100mph+ laps.

Hondas dominated the Junior Classic TT session with the Davies Motorsport pair of Dominic Herbertson and Michael Rutter topping the board – Herbertson with 99.71mph fractionally ahead of Rutter who posted 99.19mph.

With all the newcomers completing their first laps, Monday’s session is due to get underway at 18.20 with Lightweight and Junior machines with the CTT Junior and Senior session scheduled to start at 19.10.

Travelling Marshal Tony Duncan prepares to take the Manx Grand Prix newcomers on their

speed-controlled lap of the Mountain Course.

Dean Harrison, Kawasaki.

John McGuinness (500 Paton/Team Winfield) and Lee Johnston (500 Honda/Davies Motorsport)

leave the start line on the opening nights practice for the Classic TT.

After a short delay to move cars from the course, the 2018 Manx Grand Prix got underway at 5.40pm – a delay of around twenty minutes - with an untimed lap for the newcomers.

This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the Newcomers Race and this year is notable for the first Columbian rider to compete – Daniel Fernandez from Medellin. In total 31 riders are competing as newcomers in this year’s meeting including riders from France, Switzerland, New Zealand, Japan and Czech Republic.

The qualifying began in earnest once the newcomers untimed lap was well underway with a session for the Senior and Junior classes.

The Peoples' Bike rider Stephen Parsons from Cumbria set the early pace with a lap of 116.45 while Liverpool’s Stephen Smith, Steven Procter, local rider Dean Osborne, who won the 2014 MGP Newcomer B Race, and Darryl Tweed also posted laps in excess of 115mph.

This year sees the introduction of a second Lightweight Race, on Senior Race day, as well as the introduction of the Ultra Lightweight Class, and Dave Butler and Chris Moore both posted 107mph laps while Spain’s Victor Lopez Santos, who finished fourth in last year’s Lightweight Race, completed the top three on the night with 106.57.

In the Ultra Lightweight class Daniel Ingham topped the leaderboard with the only lap in excess of 100mph (100.28) with Mike Carter and Alex Sinclair completing the top three.

Monday’s qualifying will see Senior and Junior machines out first at 18.20 with the Lightweight and Ultra Lightweight’s out at 19.10 and newcomers due to get their first timed laps just before 19.50.

Newcomers get first taste of closed roads lap