By Phil Wain
June 3 2006

John McGuinness concluded practice week at the Isle of Man TT Races with the fastest time in two of his three classes, one of which was quicker than the existing circuit lap record. The Morecambe rider posted a sensational lap of 127.81mph on Wednesday evening, aboard his HM Plant Honda Superbike, just inside his own record of 127.68mph. He believed he could have gone quicker had it not been for being held up over the mountain, which he felt had lost him somewhere in the region of five seconds.

With the Island bathed in sun for all of the practice sessions, the winds that had affected times at the beginning of the week began to ease and, on Friday evening, McGuinness lapped at 124.15mph on his usual Superstock mount - to move to the top of the leaderboard in this class also. A lap of 121.90mph on his Supersport machine has placed him second overall in the class, so the 34-year old is well placed as the racing gets underway on Saturday.

Speaking on the eve of the first race, John commented:
“Everything has gone pretty well this week, and I’m really happy with the way the bikes are performing. The Blade is an absolute missile, and we got the set up sorted quite early, so to set an unofficial lap record was mega, although it was a bit of a surprise. The 600 is spot-on and the only real problem I’ve had has been with the Superstock bike, which has confused me a bit as it’s the bike I ride all year. For some reason, it hasn’t felt right and, although it was a lot better in the final practice session, we’re still some way off the lap record.

“I’ve done plenty of laps during the week and, to be honest, I feel a little bit burned out now! I’m just itching for the first race to get underway, and once I get that one done and dusted I’ll be happy. The racing will be tough, as riders like Guy Martin, Bruce Anstey and Ian Lougher, to name just three, have been putting in some good times - but the boys in the team have been working really hard, so let’s hope race week goes as well and we have some good, safe races.”

The six-lap TT Superbike race gets underway at 1pm on Saturday 4th June.