Ulster GP:Weather slows world's fastest road race

The unpredictable Irish weather hit the first qualifying sessions for the Ulster Grand Prix last night. Last year Ian Hutchinson set the average lap speed at a blistering 130.829mph but today he only reached a maximum of 127.509mph on his HM Plant Honda to secure provisional pole in the Superbike class.

As ever the man to beat in both Supersport and Superstock was Relentless Suzuki?s Bruce Anstey, who said: “The stock bike is going well. We made a few changes but the 600 is going good so I can’?t complain. The weather was tricky to start with but I got on with it and put in a good lap so it was all good. I’m hoping for a dry day tomorrow and it will be better…”

In the smaller classes it was road race veteran Ian Lougher who topped the time sheets in the 125s with a speed of 100.127mph. He was over 11s clear of his closest rival David Lemon.

John McGuinness is once again racing the Padgetts 250 and ended first qualifying in second place to William Dunlop.

The fast-talking Lancastrian Guy Martin and TT rival McGuinness actually agreed with each other for once, they were not happy about the mixed weather conditions. Martin said: “If you had to go race in those conditions then fair enough but to go and qualify in it, I don’t really want to stick my neck out.”

McGuinness echoed his sentiments saying: “I’m not keen on those conditions, maybe I’m a bit of a wimp, call me what you like, I’m not interested. I can ride in the wet as Oulton Park proved, I just don’t like doing 180mph into wet patches with the wrong tyres on. I’ll just save it for another day.”