The penultimate qualifying session for this year’s Manx Grand Prix took place with perfect conditions all around the Mountain Course and it was again Team Classic Suzuki’s Michael Dunlop who was quickest on the night with a lap of 124.676mph in the Classic Superbike class.
It was close session with just 3.5 seconds covering Dunlop, David Johnson, Craig Neve and Rob Hodson, all four above 124mph, whilst James Hind (117.488mph) set the fastest lap of the week in the Lightweight class. Stephen Smith (119.442mph) was again quickest in the Senior category with Victor Lopez Santos (114.894mph) and Lee Johnston (108.410mph) topping the Junior and Classic Senior leaderboards.
A short, ten-minute delay meant it was a 6.30pm start for the Classic Superbike/Senior session and Dunlop (Team Classic XR69 Suzuki) and Michael Rutter (Bathams Ales Suzuki) were first away followed by Brian McCormack (Greenall Racing Kawasaki), Phil Crowe (Team Classic Suzuki), Ryan Kneen (Herheim Racing Kawasaki), the Alasdair Cowan Racing Kawasaki pairing of David Johnson and Craig Neve and Dominic Herbertson (Bob Henderson Racing Kawasaki).
Meanwhile, in the Senior class, it was Victor Lopez Santos (Xecretia Road Racing Yamaha) who was first to leave the line followed by Jamie Williams (NCE Racing Honda), David McConnachy (Peter Dobson Racing Triumph) and Radley Hughes (RAF Motorsports Kawasaki).
Dunlop only got as far as Glen Vine before pulling off the course but on track, there was little to choose on the opening lap between Johnson (123.653mph) and Neve (123.519mph) with Nathan Harrison (122.911mph), Rob Hodson (122.703mph), Kneen (122.212,mph) and Herbertson (121.923mph) hot on their heels. Dunlop made it back to the pits and headed back out on his 750cc SRAD Suzuki, lapping at 122.167mph.
Just 1.2 seconds separated Johnson and Neve on the opening lap and it was a similar story on lap two, although Johnson was again the quicker at 124.504mph compared to Neve’s 124.275mph. Hodson (124.279mph) split the two teammates with Kneen also increasing his pace to 123.611mph. Harrison slid off, uninjured, though at Quarter Bridge.
Lee Johnston (118.921) had an encouraging session on the Ashcourt Racing RC45 Honda but, once again, Dunlop had the final say and after switching back to the XR69 Suzuki, a lap of 124.676mph was 1.5s quicker than Johnson and sent him back to the top of the leaderboard.
In the Senior, it was Smith who was again quickest on the opening lap at 119.442mph followed by McConnachy (117.942mph) and Lopez (117.160mph) but Williams was reported as having stopped at Cronk y Voddy.
Smith was on course to break the 120mph barrier on his second lap but ran out of fuel at Bedstead whilst Lopez Santos (117.685), Chris Cook (117.486) and Tom Robinson (116.850) all bettered their previous lap speeds. French newcomer Amalric Blanc was also going well at 113.429mph.
At 7.10pm, the Classic Senior, Junior and Lightweight machines were next to tackle the 37.73-mile circuit and in the latter, Mike Browne (Laylaw Racing Yamaha), who had dispensation to go out in the first session, lapped at an impressive 116.917mph which put him ahead of teammate Ian Lougher (114.308mph), Hind (113.308mph) and Herbertson (112.931mph).
Lopez Santos (114.894mph) made the running in the Junior class from Francesco Curinga (113.955mph), Jamie Williams (112.838mph) and Ben Rea (112.122mph) whilst it was Hodson (107.517) who was quickest in the Classic Senior from Jamie Coward (106.825mph), Johnston (106.824), John McGuinness MBE (106.700mph) and James Hillier (106.489mph).
Hind (117.488mph), Herbertson (113.848mph) and Rhys Hardisty (111.160mph) posted their best Lightweight laps of the week on the second lap and the same occurred in the Classic Senior for Johnston (108.410mph), Herbertson (108.114mph) and Hillier (107.058mph) on their TX500 Yamaha’s but McGuinness retired at Quarter Bridge. Williams, meanwhile, closed the gap to Lopez in the Junior class with a lap of 114.575mph.
The competition really gets started tomorrow afternoon as the Dunlop Lightweight Manx Grand Prix, the first race post-qualifying is due to start at 14:40.
