2011 IOM TT details announced

PROMOTERS of the Isle of Man TT have announced the calendar for the 2011 event, which represents the centenary of racing on the iconic Mountain Course circuit.

The TT Races first took place in 1907 but the organisers changed the course to incorporate the Island’s mountain region, Snaefell, in 1911 and apart from one or two small modifications, teams and riders will be competing on that same 37 ¾ mile circuit in 2011.

The 2011 calendar will feature broadly the same race programme as the previous 7 years. This will include a Superbike Race, and the first Sidecar Race, on Saturday 4th June, Supersport Race 1 and the Superstock Race on Monday 6th June, the second Sidecar and second Supersport Race on Wednesday 8th June. The meeting will culminate with the Blue Riband Senior Race on Friday 10th June.

Following an extensive consultation with current TT teams and riders, the TT organisers have decided to drop the first, untimed, practice that was provisionally scheduled for Saturday 28th May. This means that the TT Races programme will now begin with a timed qualifying session on the evening of Monday 30th May. Qualifying for both Sidecar and Solo machines will take place every evening that week.

However, race fans will still be able to enjoy the excitement of road racing on the Isle of Man on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th May as the Southern 100 Club’s pre-TT Classic Race meeting, featuring a number of TT riders racing in a mass start event on the famous Billown Circuit in the south of the Island.

For the third consecutive year, electric bikes will also compete in the TT Races, with the TT Zero Race scheduled to take place on Wednesday 8th June. The Isle of Man Government have again offered a £10,000 prize to the first team to record a 100mph lap around the course. The prestigious mark was first recorded on a conventional machine in 1957 and has not yet been achieved by an electric bike, although the American team MotoCzysz from Portland, Oregon clocked an average lap speed of 96.82mph in the 2010 TT Zero Race.

The 2011 TT meeting will also feature some high profile celebrations for the 2011 Mountain Course centenary as well as a definitive programme of events to commemorate Yamaha’s 50th anniversary of competing on the Isle of Man. Further details of this activity will be released in due course.