Chicane Pain and 204mph in the sun...
First night of practice got under way in bright and sunny conditions...but bitterly cold. I caught up with a few of the top riders and got their opinion of the new chicane at Mathers.
The general view was..."not another chicane." (number five on the circuit). Cameron Donald's feelings cannot be printed here!
Steve Plater was more philosophical about it as it's the same track for everyone and it could provide over-taking possibilities.
The provisional top six positions at the minute are :
125cc : William Dunlop, Chris Palmer, Renzo Van Der Donckt ( as tipped by Phillip McCallen !), Sam Dunlop, Jon Vincent and Nigel Moore.
Superbike : Steve Plater, John McGuinness, Stuart Easton, with Michael Dunlop the top Irish rider in 4th, Conor Cummins 5th and Ryan Farquhar in sixth.
Supersport: Bruce Anstey, William Dunlop, Keith Amor (on Johnny Rea's WSS 08 bike ) Ryan Farquhar, Guy Martin and Michael Dunlop.
An oil spillage put paid to the Superstocks tonight so Thursday's practice had better be rain free for these guys.
Stuart Easton, The Flying Scotsman, went straight out of the pits in the Superbike practice and posted 204mph through the speed trap on his Swann Honda Fireblade ! Unofficially this is a new triangle record ! Michael Rutter's crown has gone....
All in all, a good and safe evening's practice...apart from the stockers of course.
Hopefully the weather forecast for the rest of the week is wrong, but if you are coming up multiple layers and waterproofs are the order of the day. Must go back and check my Podium Predictor results. Hopefully won't be too far away!
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