NEW WEEKEND RACE SCHEDULE FOR ISLE OF MAN TT RACES AS FINAL FULL QUALIFYING SESSION COMPLETED

With morning rain having cleared, dry roads and clear skies greeted competitors for Friday evening’s practice session at the 2015 Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy, but increasing winds would be problematical throughout the evening.

The paddock was already aware that Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson had announced a change to the proposed race schedule with Saturday’s RST Superbike moving to Sunday due to a near gale forecast for the Isle of Man.

The F2 sidecars to go away first and, as with previous sessions, the outfits left the line in numerical order with Dave Molyneux/Ben Binns, Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott, Ben and Tom Birchall, Tim Reeves/Patrick Farrance and John Holden/Dan Sayle the first five crews to head towards Bray Hill.

Molyneux led the lap all the way round and was first across the line at 113.12 with Harrison next quickest at 111.96. Holden went to the top of the leaderboard with a speed of 113.22 but pulled in immediately to make adjustments to his suspension. Reeves had a slow lap at 104.91 but the Birchalls fared even worse at 90.65 and clearly had problems.

Gary Bryan/Jamie Winn and Karl Bennett/Lee Cain posted almost identical times at 109.58 and 109.55 respectively, the former reporting blustery winds over the Mountain.

Molyneux continued straight through for a second lap and went quickest at 114.687, just a whisker outside Holden’s fastest lap of the week set on Thursday. Reeves, who was running in an engine in on his first lap, posted a speed of 113.30 with Gary Knight/Jason Crowe (109.16) and Tony Baker/Fiona Baker-Milligan (108.57) also showing well.

Holden failed to go quicker on his second lap but Knight continued for a third lap and improved again to 109.67.

At 7.22pm, it was the turn of the Supersport and Lightweight machines with Lee Johnston, Ian Hutchinson, Keith Amor, Conor Cummins, Michael Rutter, Gary Johnon, William Dunlop and John McGuinness the first to leave the line. All were 600cc mounted with the exception of Rutter who was again out on the Paton.

Hutchinson was first back at 123.13 followed by Johnston on 119.85 and Johnson 117.49. McGuinness went quickest briefly with a speed of 123.99 but that fellow Honda rider Anstey bettered that with 124.36. Speeds fluctuated though with William and Michael Dunlop and Dan Kneen all in the 115-117mph bracket.

James Hillier was the quickest Lightweight at 113.74 as Rutter pulled in with a broken steering damper but Jamie Hamilton’s second lap of 115.74 sent him top.

Second time around for the 600s and speeds were up too as Hutchinson improved to 124.92. It was close at the top of the leaderboard though with McGuinness, the two Dunlops and Dean Harrison all breaking the 124mph mark.

The 1000cc machines were let out on the Mountain Course shortly after 8pm with Martin Jessopp away first on the Riders BMW soon followed by Guy Martin (Tyco BMW), Hutchinson (PBM Kawasaki) and William Dunlop (Tyco BMW).

Martin was first back at 127.861 with Michael Dunlop’s opening lap on the BMW Superbike only slightly slower at 127.755. However, Bruce Anstey again showed his race winning credentials with a speed of 129.394 to jump to the top of the leaderboard.

No one managed to get close to Anstey’s lap second time around although Dan Kneen did improve to almost 126mph. One man who did get over the 126mph mark was Dean Harrison who’s lap of 126.59 made him the quickest Superstock on the night. Gary Johnson was out of luck though pulling in on the exit of Ballaugh village.

At the end of the evening a few of the Zero machines also had their first outing ahead of Wednesday’s SES TT Zero with lap record holder John McGuinness showing the form that saw him triumph in last year’s race with a lap of 113mph although his Mugen Shinden teammate Bruce Anstey broke down. The Victory Racing pair of William Dunlop and Lee Johnston both posted hugely impressive debut laps of 105.185 and 104.185 respectively.

More, from a press release issued by Victory Motorcycles:

Victory Racing breaks the 100mph average lap speed barrier on its first TT Zero practice session

· Dunlop and Johnston achieve greater than 100mph laps

· First ever lap of the TT course for Victory’s electric bike

· Further technical insights revealed by the team

Victory Racing has successfully run its two electric bikes in the first practice session ahead of the TT Zero race. Six racers set out on the practice, but only three crossed the line with two of those being the Victory machines. Getting both bikes back across the line and breaking past 100mph laps on Victory’s first ever attempt at the TT is a promising start.

William Dunlop and Lee Johnston rode one lap of the course, achieving average lap speeds of 104.185mph and 105.185mph respectively. Both riders also achieved 140mph through the Sulby speed trap – testament to the GVM Parker electric motor installed in the machine. This means that Victory is now the third electric bike team to ride over a 100mph lap, something made extra special by doing this on their first ever time around the course. Dunlop completed his lap in 21:43.717 minutes while Johnston was 12 seconds faster, crossing the line after 21:31.322 minutes.

Team manager Brian Wismann (also head of Brammo product development) said this first ever ride of the course by Victory Racing follows a trouble-free week of testing at Jurby. “We are really pleased with our first lap of the TT course,” he said. “Both riders executed clean laps to bring a pair of 100mph+ laps on our first attempt. The reliability of the bikes has been a strong suit for us so far at the TT, with very few technical problems arising. I think this will continue to be a key to being able to translate practice results to race results when it counts.”

Following this first TT Zero practice session, William Dunlop and Lee Johnston were in extremely high spirits. Both said the bikes were extremely stable and coped well with the lumps and bumps of the TT course, something they hadn’t been able to replicate in testing.

Lee Johnston said as he climbed off the bike: “That was just mint. It feels so stable, it’s unbelievable. It’s just so peaceful. No revving.” Asked what the stand out memory from his lap was, he said: “I think just the peace and quiet and riding over the mountain, no noise and seeing the sunset. Everything’s just mint on the bike and I’m ready to go and do more.” Lee also joked: “There were load of people waving iPhones at me when I was out on the course – I wondered if they wanted me to recharge them.”

William Dunlop was equally happy with the bike saying that: “It was surprisingly good, it really was, and I’m not just saying that. It was good to just go out and not have wrestle something with 200hp around.”

The next TT Zero practice session will be on Saturday June 6th with the third and final practice session on Monday June 8th . The TT Zero race takes place at 10:45am on Wednesday June 10th.

TECHNICAL INSIGHTS

Following these promising results, Victory Racing has also revealed more technical insights in to the electric bikes.

The bike has two Brammo batteries that sit on top of one another and they actually form part of the bike’s structure. These batteries sit between a twin-spar aluminium frame with Ohlins suspension connecting the swingarm to the top of the batteries. While Brammo has created the batteries, the electric motor is made by Parker, joining Victory Racing’s TT effort under the name of Parker Racing.

The configuration of the Parker GVM motor and the swingarm is unique too. On conventional petrol-fuelled bikes the swingarm pivot point is behind the engine, but on these electric bikes, the swingarm pivot point is in front of the motor. The bikes have chains and sprockets, but the chain is set tighter than on conventional motorcycles because there is so much torque from the Parker GVM motor.

The wheels are forged magnesium, made by OZ Racing and mounted onto Ohlins forks with World Superbike-spec Brembo brakes. The rider’s display is a Motech ADL3, which also records all of the data from the electrical system.

Victory Racing has also announced that the bikes have an in-built energy recovery system, with the rate of this recovery configurable. Interestingly, Lee likes to run his recovery setting some 30% less than William’s. As Brian Wismann explains: “This is all down to riding style and how each rider prefers to get the chassis set for the entry to the corner. William prefers the regenerative braking to be higher to help slow his entry speed.”

Victory Racing has also announced that the electric bike has actually been developed for short circuit racing, so the longer 37-mile length of the TT course poses a greater challenge for setting the bike up for the race. While there are the two Brammo batteries linked to the Parker GVM electric motor, extra ‘boost modules’ can be added or taken away from the bike. Brian explains: “Here at the TT we are running the highest number of boost modules that we can carry. With these on board we can make 165bhp at the rear wheel. The bike in its TT configuration weighs around 220kg, but in its short circuit configuration drops to 209kg.”

Part of the challenge, says Brian Wismann, is to get the maximum amount of power from the batteries and boost modules while making sure the bike has enough electrical energy to get around the course.

More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing:

Honda Racing is ready for action on the Isle of Man

Practice week for the 2015 Isle of Man TT races concluded yesterday evening with John McGuinness and Conor Cummins posting the second and seventh-quickest laps respectively around the 37.73-mile Mountain course on their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines.

A change of schedule saw the RST Superbike race being moved to Sunday 7 June and, with the alteration, an additional practice session had been scheduled for today. This session has now been cancelled, however, due to high winds around the circuit.

A week of mixed weather conditions saw the first Superbike outing for the Honda Racing duo cancelled completely on Monday due to rain and high winds, but practice began in earnest on Tuesday.

Both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s sessions took place in near-perfect conditions with most of the riders recording their fast est times on Thursday night. McGuinness posted a 130.030mph lap, which places him second overall, while team-mate Cummins’s 128.331mph lap, also on Thursday, gave him the seventh-fastest time.

Ian Hutchinson topped the overall Superbike timesheet ahead of McGuinness and Bruce Anstey. The six-lap RST Superbike race is scheduled for tomorrow at 2pm.

John McGuinness

It has been a real tough week for everybody with the weather and a lot of people haven’t got as much practice as they’d like – me being selfish, my bike is ready to go! Our Fireblade is great; it’s been faultless all week, every lap we’ve been fast and consistent. I’m happy with the 130.030mph lap and I’m confident and motivated for tomorrow’s race. I just want to get stuck in now and wish everybody all the best.

Conor Cummins

I’m really happy with how we’ve been going this week, the CBR is awesome and I really enjoying riding it. Obviously with the weather we haven’t had as much practice as planned, but I’m really pleased where we are and looking forward to the race tomorrow. Every lap I’ve completed the bike’s come back and we’ve had no problems, so hopefully the sun will shine tomorrow and we’ll be racing – all the best to everyone for the race.