Isle of Man riders again dominated the headlines in this evening’s qualifying session for the Manx Grand Prix powered by IMGold with Andrew Dudgeon clocking the fastest time to date in the Junior MGP class with a lap of 117.824 (19:12.808) and Michael Evans and Brendan Fargher posting laps of 112.591 and 110.830 respectively in the Newcomer A session.

Competitors enjoyed the best conditions of the week so far for the third qualifying session for the Manx Grand Prix Powered by IMGold with the island bathed in sunshine.

The improved conditions were reflected in the times with many of the riders now clearly dialled in and taking advantage of the dry roads to post their best times of the week.

Maidstone’s Tom Weedon opened up with a lap of 117.325 in the Junior class ahead of Dudgeon who was timed at 117.17 with another local rider Glenn Harrison (116.650) the third fastest on the opening lap but Dudgeon then moved to the top of the board with his second lap.  Other notable performances came from Gateshead’s Davey Lambert with 116.461 while fellow North-East based rider Richard Charlton posted 116.281 to complete the top five.

With the top thirteen qualifiers riding linked Junior machines for the Senior class it was left to Skerries based David Lumsden riding the Martin Bullock Manxsport Suzuki in fourteenth as the first Senior machine in the session with 113.211.

However, with a number of competitors in the Senior, Junior and Newcomers A session still circulating a red flag incident at the Creg Ny Baa curtailed the session and after a short delay, the bikes that remained on the course returned under yellow flags and were short lapped.

This meant that the second session, for SuperTwin/Lightweight and Newcomers B riders was delayed by over 20 minutes before the session finally got underway just before 7.40pm.

Dan Sayle continued to dominate the Lightweight class, opening with a lap of 106.12 before posting 106.187 on his second lap.  Rikki McGovern (104.101) and Nick Anderson (102.661) both posted their fastest times of the week while Alex Sinclair and James Caswell also went over the ‘ton’

In the SuperTwin class Jamie Hodson, from the Wigan racing dynasty, posted the fastest time of the week (111.977) while Dean Osborne (110.875) and David Lumsden (110.224) completed the fastest three times for the night and the week.

Australian Paul van der Heiden improved on his fastest time of the week on his second lap of the night with 106.278 while Jonathan Perry (104.534) and Marc Ironside (103.457) also noticeably improved on their best times.

In the Newcomers A session Stuart Hall (Kates) was reported to be off but unhurt while Andrew Cuthbert (Sarah’s), Shaun Wynne (Creg Ny Baa) and James Hinchcliffe (Graham’s) were all taken to Nobles Hospital for treatment and assessment.  Cuthbert received head injuries and Hinchliffe was reported to have leg injuries while Shaun Wynne was described as okay.

In a change to the advertised schedule Manx Grand Prix competitors will now be participating in tomorrow’s qualifying session. 

Gary Thompson, Clerk of the Course, said:

“As we lost Saturday’s session and had reduced track time tonight, we want to give all competitors in all classes the opportunity for additional laps so have changed the advertised schedule.”