John McGuinness again sets the pace at the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races A dry, sunny evening met the competitors for Tuesday evening’s qualifying session and, apart from a stiff a breeze, conditions were almost perfect for the second night of the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy. After a 10-minute delay, the riders were out at 6.30pm and Michael Dunlop and Guy Martin who, as on Monday, were the first to leave the line, Martin on the Superbike and Dunlop on the Supersport machine. Cameron Donald and Gary Johnson were the next pairing to go, swiftly followed by Ryan Farquhar, Bruce Anstey, Keith Amor and Dan Stewart. All were Superbike mounted as was Adrian Archibald out for the first time on a brand new ZX-10R Kawasaki. Fifteen time race winner John McGuinness was in the 8th pairing away. Meanwhile, Frenchman Guillame Dietrich left at the back of the field in order to complete his sighting lap with Richard Quayle, the Relentless by TAS Suzuki rider having tipped off at Sulby during Monday evening’s qualifying. Johnson was the first man back at 127.71mph just ahead of Martin at 126.325mph, followed by Donald at 125.05 and Anstey at 126.24. Amor and Stewart were slightly slower at 125.9mph and 125.8mph whilst McGuinness moved up to second quickest on 126.975mph. Meanwhile, Dunlop was the fastest 600 with a lap of 123.59mph followed by James Hillier on 118.415mph and Luis Carreira on 118.402. Conor Cummins was also improving steadily, breaking the 120mph at 120.203mph. McGuinness clocked the quickest time through the Sulby speed trap at 190.6mph Johnson pulled in and switched to his 600 with Donald doing likewise to the Superstock bike but many of the other riders went straight through, keen to get two early laps in on the Superbike. Martin increased his speed to 128.261mph but McGuinness followed him in at 129.041mph. Dunlop increased his 600cc lap speed to 125.464mph with both Hillier and Carreira in the 119mph bracket but Davy Morgan stopped at the Mountain Box, Conor Cummins at Greeba Castle and Michael Rutter at Quarter Bridge although the latter was able to proceed. Donald briefly went quickest in the Superstock class with a lap of 124.447mph as McGuinness reported track conditions to be good except for a slightly dusty road at Ramsey. His only concern was leathers that were too tight but he was soon back out on the circuit, this time on his Padgetts Superstock Honda. Impressive laps were also being put in by some of the newcomers with Simon Andrews at 116.26, Piotr Betlej at 113.58, Dean Harrison at 112.58mph and Robert Wilson at 111.112. Michael Dunlop then topped the Superstock class with a lap at 126.26mph whilst Johnson went quickest through the speed trap at 192.3mph. Rutter’s adjustments also paid dividends as he put in a lap of 124.143mph but Farquhar was out at Kerromoar. Most of the main contenders were able to complete 5 laps during the session with Donald putting in a late flyer of 128.08mph on his Superbike. To listen live to Radio TT’s commentary for all qualifying and Races and follow live timing at the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races go to www.iomtt.com More, from a press release issued by Tim Reeves’ publicist: Tim Reeves Reeves gets 2011 TT campaign underway Tim Reeves get his assault on the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races underway on Monday evening and although conditions were far from ideal around the Mountain Course, the Kent driver was pleased to get his first two laps completed. The laps were, of course, Tim’s first with passenger Gregory Cluze and the Frenchman has already lapped quicker than what he did on his debut with German driver Mike Roscher 12 months ago. Sunshine during the day gave way to cloud by the time the roads closed and although it was dry at the start and finish, roads around the course were damp with the section from Glen Helen to Ramsey particularly affected. The sidecars were first out on the course and Tim and Gregory were the third pairing to leave the line just after Simon Neary/Jason Crowe and Klaus Klaffenbock/Daniel Sayle but the conditions of the course could be seen in the relatively slow lap times and Tim’s first lap was down at 101.711mph. However, he was able to improve his pace to 105.576mph to go fifth quickest on the night – and this was despite hitting a pheasant at Kerromoar! Speaking afterwards, Tim said; “We were just steady away tonight and with it being my first time with Greg here we just wanted to get dialled in. Conditions were pretty slippy out there so I just cruised round the first lap, came in to make a few adjustments and then went out for another lap. The roads weren’t quite as wet second time around but I got held up all the way from Douglas Road Corner to Rhencullen and again at Governor’s Bridge, which probably lost us about 30-40 seconds but I’m not bothered about the lap times yet, it was just a case of getting out there and getting some miles in. That’s already Greg’s best lap here so it’s job done so far. The bike felt strong so once we get the set-up fine tuned, we’ll look to push on.”