Oil spill cuts practice short after delayed start

Thursday night's TT practice session was one blighted by problems, with a long delay for the sidecars and no action for the solos.

A serious road traffic accident delayed the start of the session by around 50 minutes.

The airmed was sent out to deal with the incident, which happened on a road next to the Ginger Hall pub in Sulby shortly before the sidecars were due to set off at 6.20pm.

It was later confirmed a motorcycle sidecar driver had suffered fatal injuries in a collision with a stationary car on the Claddaghs Road. The passenger of the outfit was detained in Noble's Hospital with a head injury.

There was then a false start, as two outfits were sent away down Glencrutchery Road without race control permission.

Things finally got properly under way just before 7.10pm.

Klaus Klaffenbock and Dan Sayle were again the pacesetters, lapping at over 113mph for the second night in a row, although they weren't quite as fast as Wednesday night's benchmark.

There was one minor incident.

Here's Manx Radio TT commentator Charlie Lambert (listen to audio file below): 

Meanwhile, the solo session was delayed and then abandoned after what was described as a massive oil spill between Kirk Michael and Alpine.

Race officials called a halt to practicing, after deciding it was going to take longer to clear up than the time they had left.