Thursday 1st June
2006
This afternoon’s practice session for
the Isle of Man TT was halted when a sidecar crashed
and then went on fire. The course was opened to allow
the Fire Brigade to deal with the incident and so that
the sidecar and debris could be removed.
It happened at Rhencullen, about 16 miles from the
start, and involved the machine of Dave Molyneux, the
outright sidecar lap record holder and 11-times TT winner.
The outfit crashed and shortly afterwards went on fire.
Molyneux and his passenger Craig Hallam were taken to
Noble’s Hospital, by helicopter, and the sidecar
practice resumed after 40 minutes.
Molyneux has possible arm and chest injuries while
Hallam was said to be suffering from friction burns.
Earlier, Guy Martin got the session underway with a
lap of 126.799 miles an hour, from a standing start,
on his Superbike Yamaha and followed this up with a
second lap of 124.771.
Although the weather was fine, the blustery wind which
had been in evidence at the start of Practice Week returned
to pose a few problems for the riders on the mountain
section of the course. Despite this, speeds were still
well into the 120s with Ian Lougher’s Honda lapping
at 125.073 and 123.370. Bruce Anstey was also up there
at 123.897 while Carl Rennie posted 123.897 and Adrian
Archibald 122.152 and 122.373. Anstey’s Superbike
Suzuki was to go even faster later in the session, at
126.146, making the New Zealander the second fastest
of the afternoon.
John McGuinness, who set up an unofficial lap record
the previous evening, was also in the mix with a lap
of 124.651 on his Honda and also led the Superstocks.
Meanwhile, the official TT website at www.iomtt.com,
operated by Duke Marketing, clocked up a record of its
own on Tuesday. The site hosted 27,992 unique sessions,
beating the previous best single day total of 24,918,
which was established on Monday of Race Week last year.
Cumulative traffic during TT 2006 is now 45% up on the
same period last year.
Fastest speeds of the day – TT Superbike: Guy
Martin, Yamaha, 126.799; Bruce Anstey, Suzuki, 126.146;
Ian Lougher, Honda, 125.073. TT Superstock: John McGuinness,
Honda, 122.359; Gary Carswell, Suzuki, 121.525; Guy
Martin, Yamaha, 121.513. TT Supersport: Bruce Anstey,
Suzuki, 121.843; Ian Hutchinson, Kawasaki, 120.041;
Chris Palmer, Honda, 118.942. Sidecars: Nick Crowe/Darren
Hope, Honda 110.113; Gary Bryan/Colin Hardman, Baker
Yamaha, 109.576; Simon Neary/Stuart Bond, Baker Yamaha,
108.173.
Two solo riders were injured after crashing at Greeba
Castle. David Bell sustained a broken wrist while Robbie
Silvester was said to have leg fractures. He was taken
to hospital by air ambulance. Keith Stewart suffered
knee and rib injuries after coming off at the 33rd Milestone.
There has not been any change in the condition of riders
injured earlier in the week. James Cornell and Jun Maeda
are described as ‘critical’ while the medical
report in respect of Seamus Greene said he was critical
but stable. Travelling marshal Keith Trubshaw was due
to be discharged from hospital today.
|
