RR: Cam Donald moves up to third in Isle of Man practice
Another glorious day on the Isle of Man meant that conditions were again perfect for the penultimate qualifying session for the 2010 TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy, where Australian Cam Donald finished proceedings with the third quickest time in the Superbikes.
Bruce Anstey and John McGuinness set off towards Bray Hill first during the session, the duo both Superbike mounted and the first group were in numerical order with Ian Lougher, Ian Hutchinson, Keith Amor, Donald, Guy Martin, Adrian Archibald, Conor Cummins and Gary Johnson away next.
Nearly all of the leading competitors were on the Superbikes with the exception of Dan Stewart and William Dunlop who opted for their Supersport machines.
Donald pulled off the circuit early and came round the back roads before going back out again but it was Hutchinson who completed a lap first at 128.303mph.
However, Amor was the fastest on the opening lap at 128.691mph with both Anstey and McGuinness surprisingly off the pace at 121.166mph and 119.827mph respectively.
Archibald and Martin were down in the 123mph bracket with Farquhar and Michael Dunlop also lapping above 125mph.
On the second lap, Hutchinson was really flying – and it showed. He crossed the line to record a lap of 130.165mph, his first ever 130mph+ lap, with Cummins and Donald flying at 128.838mph and 128.836mph.
Rutter and Dunlop were also upping their pace, setting personal best laps of 127.564mph and 127.946mph, comfortably his best ever speed.
Mark Buckley and Steve Mercer, one of the leading newcomers last year, showed they could well be the men to catch in the race for the Privateer’s Championship with laps of 124mph+.
Many of the leading contenders switched to their 600cc bikes for the second half of the session and it was Amor who went quickest, the Scotsman lapping at 124.797mph on the Kojak Racing Honda.
Hutchinson wasn’t too far behind at 124.685mph with Martin third at 123.902mph.
South Australian David Johnson was again the leading newcomer with a fine lap of 118.607mph, Stephen Thompson following closely at 117.387mph.
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