Clerk of the Course switches to untimed session as rain affects IMGold Manx Grand Prix meeting

With heavy rain on the Isle of Man in mid afternoon, Clerk of the Course Phil Taubman decided to make tonight's Manx Grand Prix Qualifying on the Isle of Man an untimed session.

By the time the riders got underway shortly after 6.20pm, the roads were reported as drying quickly but the riders were still warned to expect damp patches under the trees and possible showers during the session.

The F1, F2 and 350cc machines were given the night off as they have an extended practice scheduled as part of Saturday's Race day, so the session gave riders the chance to focus on their 500cc machines.

Manx Radio's Chris Palmer said that many of the riders would opt to miss the session unless they needed to qualify or wanted to carry out suspension or gearing checks, bed tyres in or stretch chains. That was reflected in the fact that only around 250 bikes went through scrutineering across both the Classic TT and Manx Grand Prix, as opposed to the 387 through on Monday night's session.

Riders who took the opportunity to go out included Andy Soar, Peter Symes, Paul Smyth and Gavin Lupton on their Senior machines, Andrew Farrell, Dean Roberts and Michael Moulai on their Junior machines, Stuart Garton on his SuperTwin and Mick Jordan on his Lightweight bike. Newcomers who took the opportunity for additional laps included fastest qualifier to date Malachi Mitchell Thomas, who recorded 163.28 through the Sulby speed trap, marginally slower than Andrew Farrells 167.35mph which was the fastest recorded time on the night.

With no times recorded from this evening's session, Michael Moulai's 117.274 set in Wednesday's qualifying remains the fastest Junior time of the week, slightly ahead of Andy Lawson's 116.332 which is the fastest Senior qualifying time. Mick Jordan's 105.882 tops the Lightweight board with James Neesom's 110.772 the fastest SuperTwin to date.

Malachi Mitchell-Thomas tops the Newcomer A qualifying board (112.530) with two further qualifying sessions ahead of Monday's Newcomer A race with Dean Osborne (106.353) and French rider Lancelot Unissart (97.651) leading the B and C respectively.



Picture by Dave Kneen
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