John McGuinness sets early pace in IoM TT practice

Morecambe’s John McGuinness continues to lead the way after two nights of practice for the 2006 Isle of Man TT Races, with a speed of 122.013mph.

The HM Plant Honda rider posted this on Saturday evening on his CBR1000RR Honda FireBlade, despite the blustery conditions, and no one was able to better this on Monday, when over an hour of the session was lost due to an incident on the Ballahutchin section of the Mountain Course.

McGuinness managed four laps on Saturday, two on the Superbike and one each on the Supersport and Superstock machines, and two on Monday, again one each on the Supersport and Superstock machines. A loose steering damper and the red flag meant his speed on the 600cc machine was low, but when the session resumed a lap of 118.935mph on the Superstock bike elevated him to fourth overall on that particular leaderboard.

Speaking late on Monday evening, John commented:

“Everything is going along nicely, and I’m getting in plenty of laps and building things up gradually. I’ve managed seven laps so far, and am pretty happy with all of the bikes, so it’s just a case of more of the same over the rest of the week. Conditions out on the course have been affected by the wind, but Monday was better than Saturday, when it was blowing you all over the place and pretty dodgy.

“The steering damper on the 600 worked its way loose on Monday, and I stopped at both Ballacraine and Glen Helen to check it out, but I’d also passed the incident and wanted to tell the marshals not to let anyone else leave the start line, so I just toured for the rest of the lap. The resurfacing work at Joey’s and the Mountain Mile is really good, and I’m graduallly getting the hang of the modified Windy Corner so, hopefully, the wind will ease over the next few nights and we’ll be able to crack on a bit more.”

Practice continues for the remainder of the week, with the opening Superbike race taking place on Saturday.