I think its worrying the amount of practice laps that have been completed this TT, i know we cant control the weather but we can control the amount of practice and the end of morning practice was a mistake.

I would say theres a lack of every thing this year

Riders, Spectators, Practice, Bandwidth, Information.

But guess what, No lack of excuses...

Pykey, you must be phsycic, I was thinking about posting at length yesterday about the lack of practice and the pressure on everyone particularly newcomers when I heard Bruce Anstey had still not qualified on his Superbike with one session to go.

But I though I better keep my trap shut. Anyone want to start the ball rolling on their concerns on this very important safety issue?

Not to keen on the idea that riders have to go like the clappers from day one.

Last time I rode in the TT was 2000, only got in 9 laps of practice, then the race was shortened to just two laps due to bad weather.
Seemed an expensive two weeks for just 11 laps.
Thankfully for me I only had one bike in one race that year, those with 3 or 4 bikes really had trouble! (I had four bikes in 96 myself, couldn't have managed without morning practice.)
Early mornings were tough going, for riders, pit crew and ofcourse marshals and volunteers.
But it is valuable track/bike time.

Sorry folks,you need updating on the facts behind the omission of morning practice.Three main reasons. 1) The Police couild no longer man it due to EEC regulations on overtime. 2) Marshals found it difficult to get to work after practice due to the increase in traffic, and also the lack of marshals due to the unsocial hours(they do a terrific job don't they).3) Common belief among the officials of the meeting that the modern bikes with their varied tyre compounds should not be ridden at the 200mph at 5.00a.m.From my point of view, I loved early morning practice, but it played havoc with your mechanics, and the rider if he/she was mechanicing aswell.
Don't forget that there is also practice after each day's racing, unless that plan has gone by the wayside.

Well said Nick
But today was a shambles, it was planned to have two practice laps after the racing today. The supperbike race was announced the it was going ahead at 3pm at 2-49 pm an anouncement was made that those that wanted to go out in the practice had to put the bikes through scrutineers, how could we do this when preparing to race, we had to rush about and get the other bikes up and then be told the super bikes was called off, many never got the chance to get the other bikes ready. They had all day to tell us to bring the bikes through as we were sitting about for 4 hours

Talk about taking the pizz out of riders, its a fockung joke now

Ye can always rely on Colin te have a good moan. Grow up man please

I make no apologies for speaking my mind but i was attending the TT purly as a specatator and as a marshall for 40+ years and love the mountain circuit but things changed.Why was the start time moved from 11am to 10am purly it was so the roads were open earlier for the yuppies to get home? ok i understand that but thousands of people go to the Island for their holidays and as a marshall it was difficult to be in position for the start, eg: getting from Douglas to Ballacrae.

What came over loud and clear on the radio was that more and more riders are becoming more vocal when it comes to the possibility of competing (racing) in the wet.

Interesting viewpoint from Nick. I can certainly agree that from a marshalling point of view there were significantly fewer people out in the mornings than evenings, and I always made a point of getting out to marshal in the morning if I wasn't riding. I can't comment on the getting to work angle but none of the regular marshals I met seemed to see this as a problem. Police overtime? Have they not opted out of the 60 hour limit? Again I never met a cop who was averse to a spot of easy OT. Or was it the cost of the overtime? Perhaps we should give them all speed guns.

Lastly the advisability of riding a fast bike on a cold morning. A difficult thing to avoid, in the TT or MGP as weather conditions are rarely ideal. Perhaps making the morning sessions untimed, as they did at first, would remove some of the need for speed. I know from bitter experience there is A LOT of pressure to get your laps in as soon and as fast as possible early in the week because if you lose a session or 2 through engine trouble, bad weather, etc you can really struggle to get enough laps in by the end of the week - especially if you are running more than 1 bike. I know people who have failed to qualify simply because mechanical gremlins at key times limited their laps and there are now only around half as many sessions available. Indeed I could suggest that increasing the pressure in qualifying is something of a retrograde safety step.

Unfortunately we have been our own worst enemies here. Many people didn't bother with the morning sessions (I always found them a surreal experience, another unique IoM tradition lost forever) so with declining numbers of riders out no wonder others lost interest, until eventually it became an opportunity to avoid the disruption to the dear old financial sector commute.

My view, they should bring back morning sessions and make the completion of at least one compulsory for qualification. Increasing the number of sessions not only allows riders more opportunity to familiarise themselves with the track but also reduces the pressure to try too hard in the evenings to get the qualifying laps in. It's a safety thing.

Good Post! my sentiments exactly, "it's a safety thing, I don't think you can get enough practice on such a long circuit

I think it is supported by the fact that it was said at Joakim's inquest that he was nervous of his 1000cc Suzuki".

Also I think John McGuiness said. "He was a newcomer, he was obviously going to quick to soon". Why would he do that if he was really nervous of his machine I ask myself?

Besides that, I thought that this year All of the newcomers set off first, for their first lap behind an experianced marshall, Like a sighting lap, so how was it allowed to hapen given the new format???