On his second lap, John posted a lap of 129.085mph, just a handful of seconds outside his own outright lap record set 12 months ago.

The 35-year-old is also handily placed in his other two races, the Supersport and Superstock.  Riding his usual British Supersport Championship Padgett’s Honda, a final lap on Friday evening of 122.423mph elevated him to second on the leaderboard, whilst Thursday evening’s lap of 124.295mph placed him in a similar position in the Superstock class, where he lines up for the first time this season on the HM Plant Honda.

Speaking at the conclusion of practice, John commented:

“We’re in the ball park with all of the bikes, and the big bike especially has been flying - I was ready to race it on Tuesday evening!  I had a bit of a go on my second lap on Thursday, but I’d already used my two tear-offs as the flies were really bad, so I so had to ease off in places.  I think there’s more to come from both me and my bike, and I’m sure in race conditions we’ll be going a fair bit quicker and the magical 130mph barrier could well go.

“The bike’s a missile and it’s handling really well, especially stable at high speed, and we’ve got the best tyres for the job so let’s hope we have a good, dry race and have some high speed racing.  The 600 wasn’t going to my liking at the beginning of the week, which was a bit strange as it’s my regular British Championship bike, but I just did 122mph so I’m feeling a lot better now.  No-one has really upturned trees on the 600s, so we’ve all got a fair bit more to give and we’ll certainly be well in contention.

“The Superstock bike was a similar story, as we’d been experiencing a misfire problem, and with the new rules allowing a quickshifter we’ve had all sorts of dramas trying to get that set up.  I managed a half decent lap on Thursday though, and the Honda is definitely in the frame this year so, all in all, I’m reasonably happy with the way things have gone - and although you always want more track time, we’re looking in good shape - I just want to go racing now!”

The opening TT Superbike race gets underway at 12.00pm tomorrow, Saturday 2nd June.