Morecambe’s John McGuinness finished 11th in Wednesday’s heavily delayed second Supersport 600cc race at the Isle of Man TT races with the race being held in extremely damp conditions. Rain on the west part of the Island left a long section of the course with a lot of standing water and with the other parts of the course dry, conditions were extremely tricky.
Starting at number two once more on his HM Plant Honda, a couple of major slides, particularly one at Rhencullen, meant John found himself down in 11th place at the end of lap one and a lap of 115.518mph was over a minute and a half slower than the times of the previous day. The Glen Helen section remained damp throughout and John slipped further back on the 2nd lap to 14th but a final lap of 119.402mph elevated him back up to 11th at the end of the four laps.
Speaking later a disappointed John said,”It was really tough out there today and the roads were really wet on the first lap. There was standing water for a good ten miles on the first lap and I had a couple of really bad slides, one at Rhencullen putting me out of the saddle and nearly over the handlebars. I was as close to coming off as I’ve ever done and it really knocked my confidence. After that, I just rode at a pace I felt comfortable with in the conditions but 11th obviously isn’t where I want to be.
“Some of the boys were pushing really hard today and I just didn’t think it was safe to do that. There’ll always be another TT race so I just concentrated on bringing the bike home and getting a finish. We’ve just got the Senior race left now and having won the Superbike race earlier in the week, I’ll be hoping to do the same again on Friday.”
Picture by Mark ‘Wally’ Walters