Weather fears mean Isle of Man Superbike TT could be delayed

Poor weather forced Wednesday evening's combined Superbike, Supersport, Superstock, Newcomers and Sidecar sessions to be cancelled, making it the third day affected after Saturday and Monday's running was called off. Two solo and Sidecar sessions are now scheduled for Thursday, with final practice due for Friday. However, current forecasts predict further rain to hit the Island.

Speaking to Manx Radio, Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson confirmed a draft schedule is in place to run qualifying on Saturday June 1 and delay the opening SBK and Sidecar races to the Sunday if any more sessions are lost to the weather.

“People keep saying it is what it is, but it's becoming difficult actually,” said Thompson. “I'm hopeful. Obviously the schedule is out for tomorrow, hopefully we'll get away tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow night is looking sketchy, same details for Friday.

“But I've already got a draft schedule for qualifying for Saturday, because although it's not been confirmed yet – we'll see how the next couple of days go – but we could be looking at a Saturday qualifying with the race day on Sunday.” 

So far, just one SBK and Sidecar session has been held this week, both of which coming on Tuesday after Monday's running was rained off.

Double TT winner Dean Harrison led the way in that session on his Silicone Engineering Kawasaki with a lap of 17m28.610s at 129.53mph, and was also fastest in the STK classification. John Holden and Lee Cain, who took a brace of runner-up spots in last year's Sidecar races, were dominant on Tuesday evening, setting a lap of 18m41.234s at 114.99mph to put themselves six seconds ahead of the field. 

Thursday's practice is due to start at 13:00 local time, with the second session taking place from 18:20.