A busy day concluded with the fourth qualifying session and second of the day concluding this evening and with good conditions once more, Michael Dunlop upped the ante in the Classic Superbike class with a superb lap of 125.537mph.
In a reversal of the afternoon session, and after a ten-minute delay, it was the Classic Superbike and Senior classes that got the action underway first. Team Classic Suzuki teammates Dunlop and Phil Crowe who headed towards Bray Hill first again, Dunlop with a new engine fitted to his XR69.
Michael Rutter (Bathams Ales Suzuki), Greenall Racing Kawasaki pairing Brian McCormack and Rob Hodson and Ryan Kneen (Herheim Racing Kawasaki) followed them off the line with David McConnachy (Peter Dobson Racing Triumph) again the first Senior machine to get away. Chris Cook, Samuel Mousley and Stephen Smith were next to go on their Supersport machines.
Dunlop set a rapid pace throughout the lap and completed his first 37.73 miles at a speed of 124.735mph, going straight through for a second lap. This speed put him 15 seconds up on Hodson (123.047mph) with Nathan Harrison (121.965mph) slotting into third whilst McCormack, Rutter, Dominic Herbertson, Michael Sweeney, Kneen and Paul Jordan all lapped in excess of 121mph.
Smith was again the quickest Senior competitor, the Alasdair Cowan Racing Kawasaki rider lapping at 119.317mph, which put him 6s ahead of Jamie Williams (NCE Racing Honda). Dan Ingham (116.786mph), Andrew Fisher (115.960mph), Tom Robinson (115.418mph) and Mousley (114.975mph) were next on the early leaderboard but McConnachy was out at the Bungalow.
Second time around and Dunlop set a ferocious pace, crossing the line at a speed of 125.537mph to firmly stamp his authority on proceedings. Craig Neve, Kneen, Herbertson and Sweeney were all over 121mph again with Julian Trummer not far off at 120.848mph.
In the Senior, Smith increased his pace at the top of the leaderboard, the Liverpudlian just missing out on a 120mph lap at 119.888mph with Ingham (117.772mph) and Cook (116.029mph) also bettering their first lap speeds.
At 7.10pm, the second session got underway for the Lightweight, Junior and Classic Senior machines, James Hind (Dennis Trollope Yamaha), Mike Browne (Laylaw Racing Yamaha) and Dunlop (MD Racing) the first of the 250cc machines out on track with John McGuinness MBE (Team Winfield Paton) returning to the fray on his spare bike after retiring in the afternoon session.
Hind was the first to complete a lap at 115.588mph and that saw him top the Lightweight class from Stuart Hall (112.305mph) and Dunlop (112.247mph) with Victor Lopez Santos (113.337mph) leading the Junior speeds from Jamie Williams (113.259mph), Francesco Curinga (112.041mph) and Ingham (111.008mph).
In the Classic Senior, it was Herbertson at the top of the leaderboard with a strong lap speed of 107.802mph on the Davies Motorsport Yamaha. That was comfortably quicker than Alan Oversby (102.781mph) and James Hillier (101.680mph) with McGuinness down at 92.741mph.
However, the Morecambe man had no problems on his second lap and set the fastest Classic Senior lap of the week at 109.680mph whilst Hillier also enjoyed his second lap, increasing his speed to 104.049mph.
Lopez was another rider to go quicker on his second lap, the Spaniard comfortably the quickest Junior rider on the evening after lapping at 114.419mph.
Chris Moore moved up to fourth in the Junior class with a lap of 111.391mph and in the Lightweight category Hall improved his speed to 113.106mph whilst late laps also came in from Ian Lougher (111.440mph) and Herbertson (110.626mph).
