Conditions on the Isle of Man were definitely cooler than last night for the fourth qualifying session for the IMGold Manx Grand Prix but nothing changed for local rider Andrew Dudgeon who continues to dominate the meeting.
The Ramsey rider again topped the leaderboard in the Junior class, improving his fastest lap to 118.96mph, fractionally outside a sub 19 minute lap. Tom Weedon (118.23), Barry Lee Evans (117.26) and Glenn Harrison (116.94) all improved on their lap times ahead of next Wednesday’s Mylchreest Group Junior Manx Grand Prix.
With many riders opting to run Junior machines in the Senior Manx Grand Prix, David Lumsden on the Martin Bullock Manxsport Suzuki was the fastest Senior machine, posting a lap of 115.98 (19:31.105) to improve on his fastest time of the week.
In the Newcomer A class Austrian rider Julian Trummer was the fastest on the night, improving on his fastest lap with a time of 109.37 (20.41.911) from Michael Evans (106.51).
However with riders in all three classes still on the course the session was red flagged from sectors 1 to 8 following an incident at Churchtown on the approach to Ramsey and the session was brought to a halt shortly before 6.45. The riders who hadn’t got past the incident were brought back to the grandstand by the travelling marshals.
James Bucket, the rider involved in the incident at Churchtown, was taken by airmed to Nobles Hospital where he was reported to have fractures while Richard Lambourne also came off his machine at Quarterbridge and was reported to have a bruised elbow.
Unfortunately, while the road was being swept ahead of the Manx Grand Prix SuperTwin/Lightweight and Newcomer B session, the mist came in on the mountain section and Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson was forced to end the session at 7.20pm.
As a result of this evening’s shortened session, Gary Thompson announced, in a change to tomorrow’s final qualifying session schedule, that the Manx Grand Prix SuperTwin and Lightweight and Newcomer B competitors would have first use of the track followed by the Junior and Senior machines.
Photo by Dave Kneene