Packed final day as rain wrecks plans
After a fine first race weekend, bad weather has wreaked havoc with the midweek schedule at the 2024 Isle of Man TT Races, leading to a three-race final Saturday.
Tuesday proved a washout, while only one race could take place on Wednesday before the rain set in. That left three races scheduled for the planned rest day on Thursday, only for a return of the rain to push the second Monster Energy Supersport TT back to Friday. Friday again fell to the weather, leading to the complete cancellation of the PE Superstock TT race two, while the other three races are scheduled for a packed out Saturday programme, which is forecast to go ahead in fine weather.
Saturday’s programme will therefore consist of three solo races over a total of eight laps, starting with the second Monster Energy Supersport TT before moving on to the Entire Cover Insurance Supertwin TT and ending, as is tradition, with the Milwaukee Senior TT. All races will be run over reduced race distances, two laps each for the Supersport and Supertwins (down from four and three laps respectively) and four laps (from six) for the Senior.
To give riders and teams an opportunity to rest between races, two parade laps will also be taking place. The Rutter legacy lap, rescheduled from Wednesday, takes place at midday and fills the gap between the Supersport and Supertwin races, while an 85th anniversary of BMW at the TT lap takes place after the Supertwins, at 3pm, with the Senior getting a late start of 4.15pm.
Three solo races in one day will present a unique challenge for the competitors and although the two lap races are relative sprints by TT terms, at over 75 miles they are still longer than most MotoGP races.
So far Michael Dunlop has taken two solo race wins, while Davey Todd and Peter Hickman have shared the other two – with the Crowe brothers winning both Sidecar TTs.
