With the weather continuing to cause havoc with the practice schedule at the Isle of Man TT Races, it’s been a trying time for both the organisers and the riders with it now looking highly likely, the opening race will be moved from Saturday to Sunday. Dafabet Devitt Racing’s Ivan Lintin, like others, has only managed a handful of laps around the Mountain Course so far and here he tells us how it’s been going.
“None of us have had the opportunity to get in many practice laps so far but what I have managed has all been positive. Riding around the Mountain Course is always a shock to the system, especially on the Superbikes, and whilst we thought we’d found a good set-up at the North West 200, we’ve got here and the bikes have been behaving like animals!”
“We lost the first two sessions and have only managed five full laps in the two that have been held, three on the Superbike, one on the 600 and one on the Twin. I was second quickest on the Twin which was pleasing as that was my first lap of the fortnight and although the 600 was nowhere near right, we’ll look to get things moving in the next session.”
“The Superbikes are the ones that require the most work and it takes longer to get them dialled in. You arrive here with the aim and expectation of doing better than what you did the previous year and for me, that’s defending my Lightweight title and going quicker on the 1000s and 600s.”
“I’m riding the same Kawasaki ZX-10R in the Superbike, Superstock and Supersport races which makes things slightly easier as it’s one less bike to worry about. My fastest lap so far is 127.948mph set in last year’s Senior so I want to improve upon that and get into the magical 130s if I can.”
“We’re nowhere near at present due to the weather but I’ve been circulating on my own quite a bit and chipping away. The bike’s tending to run wide at present and I’m not able to hold the line I want so we’ve got work to do with the set-up, both front and rear, but we obviously need laps to do that.”
“There are so many fast changes in direction around the TT Course and getting them right is crucial. I‘m having to force things at the moment though in order to get the bike where I want it to be rather than it happening automatically. You’ll never get a bike perfectly set-up but you can certainly get it as close as possible so that’s what we’ll be working on during the next practice sessions.”
“On the plus side, I’ve lapped at well over 123mph so far and that was with yellow flags over the Mountain, due to the weather, so we had to reduce speed so as things stand now, I know I can do 125mph laps. With further changes to the bike, I’ll be able to go quicker still – get close to last year’s times and then look to improve and go quicker still.”
“It’s looking highly likely that the first race, the Superbike, will be pushed back to Sunday so that we can get more practice in and it could be that the first race is more of a high speed test for a lot of the field. It is what it is and it’s the same for everyone so we’re used to dealing with the delays and spending time looking at weather forecasts and drinking tea!”
Did you enjoy our latest diary entry from Dafabet Devitt Racing? You can read all previous entries right here!
Having started watching motorcycle races all over the world form childhood, Phil Wain has been a freelance motorcycle journalist for 15 years and is features writer for a number of publications including BikeSport News and Classic Racer, having also been a regular contributor to MCN and MCN Sport. He is PR officer for a number of teams and riders at both the British Superbike Championship and International road races, including Smiths Triumph, Quattro Plant Kawasaki, John McGuinness, Ryan Farquhar and Keith Amor. He is also heavily involved with the Isle of Man TT Races, writing official press releases and race reports as well as providing ITV4 with statistical information.