McGuinness and Jefferies share top spot

John McGuinness and David Jefferies are the fastest men at this year’s Isle of Man TT after Tuesday evening’s practice session.

McGuinness took his British Superbike spec Ducati 998 to the top spot in the F1 class while Jefferies heads the 1000cc production class on his Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Two times TT winner McGuinness took the 2002 factory Ducati to an average lap speed of 124.57mph rounding the circuit in 18:10.40. His closest rival was TAS Suzuki rider Adrian Archibald who finished ten seconds down on his GSX-R1000 followed by Ryan Farquhar, also on a GSX-R1000, another eight seconds down on a 122mph lap.

Farquhar held up McGuinness for some of the lap leaving the Ducati rider confident that he can put down an even faster time.

David Jefferies only managed a 119mph lap on his GSX-R1000 F1 bike leaving him in ninth place.

The Honda UK team seem to be getting to grips with the handling problems that have dogged them both here and at the North West 200 races, with Ian Lougher taking the ex-Colin Edwards SP-2 to the fourth fastest time. The team said that changes to tyres and geometry had made significant improvements to the bike but refused to go in to any further detail.

In the 1000cc production class Jefferies was fastest on a 121.57mph lap, 30 seconds ahead of second placed Nigel Davies.

Bruce Ansty took the third fastest time followed by Richard Britton and Iain Duffus, all on Suzuki GSX-R1000s, but McGuinness only managed to take the Ducati 999 to ninth place, over a minute behind Jefferies.

The practice for the smaller machines was cut short to allow the sidecars a chance on the roads before mist smothered the Mountain, but they still only managed to get in one lap before visibility became too restricted.

The announcement was then made that this mornings session was cancelled due to the expected rain and fog giving everyone a lie in, but reports for this evening and the rest of the week show the weather clearing so we can expect to see the times coming down.

This week’s MCN features a full 24-page supplement including interviews with all the top riders, a guide to the TT circuit and the best places to watch.

Click the link on the right to get the latest update from our first-time TT rider Chris McGovern as he prepares to race his RVF400 in the lighweight race. Or go to our TT discussion board to comment on the events so far.