First race postponed at Isle of Man TT

Saturday’s superbike race at the Isle of Man TT was postponed due to bad weather and will now take place on Monday, starting at 10.45am.

All the riders and bikes were sat on the Glencrutchery Road start line waiting for the midday start. The information board at the head of the grid warned riders of damp patches at several points on the track but only at the verges of the roads so all the teams were set to go on slick tyres.

But with minutes to go trackside marshals reported oil on the road at Bungalow and a travelling marshal was despatched to investigate. By the time the oil was cleared the start had been delayed half an hour and then reports suggested the weather was closing in and with visibility limited on the Mountain, the organisers decided to postpone the day’s racing until Monday.

Race favourite John McGuinness said: “It’s unbelievable. You build yourself up all year for this moment and they delay the start by half and hour and then call it off. It’s disappointing but safety is paramount.”

One of McGuinness’ main rivals Guy Martin added: “Conditions were not perfect but I guess the guys at the sharp end know what they are doing. The last thing any of us want is to start the Centenary TT with people getting injured in tricky conditions. They’ve done the right thing.”

Behind the scenes though there was a wrangle over the use of cut slick tyres. The TT rules specifically ban the use of hand cut tyres which riders use when the road is damp. It’s not possible to use slicks because of the high heat build up on the super fast sections of the TT course.

Dunlop don’t manufacture moulded intermediate tyres so it would have meant their leading runners like McGuinness, Ian Hutchinson, Ian Lougher and Martin would have been forced to run on slicks if the race had started on time with the road still damp in places, something that would clearly compromising their safety.

Relentless Suzuki pair Bruce Anstey and Adrian Archibald would have been able to run Pirelli’s moulded intermediates.

Clerk of the Course Neil Hanson said: “The rules, which make it clear there are no cut slicks, have been circulated to all the teams and no one has ever complained until this morning.”

McGuinness wasn’t happy by the TT organisers sticking to the letter of the law.

He said: “I wasn’t keen on racing in the damp but we would have needed intermediates. For some insane reason though, we’re not allowed to run cut slicks.”

Revised schedule:

Roads close on Monday June 4 at 10.00am with the Superbike TT starting at 10.45am with the first Sidecar race following that.

The Superstock race scheduled for Monday has been put back to Tuesday, starting at 12.15, followed by the Lap of Honour.