Wednesday 31st May

Qualifying takes place between 1820hrs - 2050hrs.

18:20 - 19:40 - Superbike, Superstock, Supersport, Newcomers (except Lightweight)

19:45 - 20:40 - Sidecars

20:40 - 20:50 - TT Zero

Detailed forecast
Issued on Wednesday, 31 May 2017 at 11:00am by Ronaldsway Met Office

Dry with sunny spells, however cloud will thicken and lower later this afternoon and evening with hill fog developing. 
A light southeast wind will freshen a little this afternoon then turn southerly this evening, temperatures rising up to 17 Celsius.

Picture from Government Webcam at the Bungalow, taken at noon.

Due to the threat of potential low cloud/mist 600 foot above sea level tonight and tomorrow, a  variation to Practice may well be implemented.

Based on the condition that the Helicopters can be up in the air over the part of the Course that doesn't cover the mountain,

Cloudy this evening, and as the evening goes on mist, low cloud and hill fog will gradually develop in many areas, perhaps with an odd spot of light rain and drizzle as well. 

The winds will settle to a moderate or fresh southerly later in the evening, then the overnight period will continue cloudy but mostly dry, still with some mist in places. 

Temperatures tonight will stay around 12 Celsius.

• 17:15 - Good to go for now, although mist and light rain may start to close in around 19:00 hrs. if it does, then practice will revert to the proposed alternative procedure.
  

• 18:21 - Wednesday Night Practice (Original Order) is GO
  
• 18:40 - Session is being flagged off as there has been an incident at the Gooseneck. (Dave Sellers - He is ok)
  
• 18:46 - Contingency plan will now come into effect at the re-start, as the weather is closing in on the mountain.
  
• 18:58 - Session is go again with a run to Ramsey; and then  escorted over the mountain by Marshalls.
  
• 19:19 - That's it for tonight folks. Weather has beaten us unfortunately.
  

Frustrating qualifying session as weather closes in

The second qualifying session for the 2017 Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy took place on Wednesday evening although weather conditions meant it was a truncated session with riders completing just one full lap.

The original intention by Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson, anticipating the deteriorating conditions, was to run additional laps at full speed to Ramsey Hairpin before red flagging the riders and escorting them over the Mountain but low mist even curtailed that attempt to establish qualifying laps and give the riders time on the track.

In the limited session that was available Ian Hutchinson and Michael Dunlop again set the pace with the Tyco BMW of Hutchinson edging out the Bennetts Suzuki of Dunlop, 128.98mph to 127.23mph.

The session got underway on time at 6.20pm with the riders briefed that they may be stopped at Ramsey but on the first lap, it was clear enough to at least get a full lap in and Hutchinson, first away from the line with Steve Mercer, put down the marker with his 128mph lap to top the evening’s and overall leaderboard, such as it is to date.

Mercer lapped at 123.98mph quickly followed over the line by Dunlop who time was second quickest. Michael Rutter and Martin Jessopp set almost identical lap times at 123.96 and 123.94 respectively, having set off together whilst James Hillier was slightly quicker at 124.52mph.

Bruce Anstey completed his first lap of the week on the Honda RC211V, lapping at 124.14mph, with Conor Cummins and Gary Johnson also above the 124mph mark. However, the third quickest lap of the night came from Dan Kneen on his DTR powered by Penz 13 BMW, who posted a speed of 125.19, which saw him again top the Superstock class as he had the previous evening.

The Norton Racing Australian duo of David Johnson and Josh Brookes were picking up the pace, lapping at 123.61mph and 122.58mph respectively while Guy Martin was also quicker than the previous night with a lap of 121.42mph.

Lee Johnston was the quickest 600 on the padgettsmotorcycles.com bike, with a speed of 122.16mph but conditions were already deteriorating with fog descending on the Mountain and visibility significantly reduced.

The riders were short lapped at the start and finish but went out again with all the front runners going at full pace to Ramsey.   Unfortunately, the cloud cover wasn’t just descending on the Mountain and was now coming down on the bottom part of the circuit and it was reported that, with no airmed cover possible anywhere around the 37.73-miles course, the session was ended at 7.15pm.

Dave Sellers was reported to be off at the Gooseneck and though reported as up and okay he was later transferred to Nobles hospital with a reported rib injury.