Isle of Man TT: Accident And Bad Weather Shorten Session

Cycle News Staff | May 28, 2014
  Conor Cummins in action at the Isle of Man TT during qualifying on Wednesday.

Today’s third qualifying session at the Isle of Man TT came to a premature end as just one was completed due to a combination of an accident at Barregarrow and bad weather moving through the area.

With a few spots of rain in the air around the 6 p.m., the session got underway at 6:25 p.m. with some riders opting for their 1000cc bikes and others playing it safe on their Supersport machines.

Conditions on the opening lap proved to be fairly good with Michael Dunlop first back past the Grandstand at 128.690 mph, just shy of his best lap set yesterday, while Guy Martin was also over 128 mph. William Dunlop was next up at 127.911 mph with Dean Harrison posting his personal best lap of the week so far at 126.521 mph. Michael Rutter, Ian Hutchinson and Dan Stewart were the only other three riders to break the 125 mph mark while Johnson was out of luck with mechanical woes at Douglas Road Corner.

Most riders opted to continue for a second lap but no sooner had they had done than the red flag was shown as a result of an incident that involved newcomer Laurent Hoffmann at the top of Barregarrow. Hoffman was airlifted to Nobles hospital where he was reported to have leg injuries and was undergoing further assessment.

As the incident was being cleared, the rain began to get heavier in the north of the island and the evening’s action was called off just after 7:30 p.m.