ISLE OF MAN TT 2022
Strong first qualifying for Honda Racing UK at the Isle of Man TT Races
Wednesday 1st June 2022
The Honda Racing UK team started the Isle of Man TT Races fortnight with a strong first outing for John McGuinness MBE and Glenn Irwin on the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP.
Under blue skies and blazing sunshine, albeit coolish temperatures, John finished fourth fastest in both the Superbike and Superstock classes, while Glenn was an impressive ninth fastest in the Superstock class as he made his TT Races debut.
Making his road racing debut with the Honda squad at the 8.9-mile Triangle circuit, Glenn and the Fireblade dominated today's Superbike session lapping at 124.102mph, 1.8 seconds faster than the current Superbike race lap record, with an incredible 4'20.205 lap time. The four-time NW200 Superbike winner also led the way in the Superstock session, claiming the top spot for the race later in the day, with a lap time of 4:24.671.
After a first lap behind TT Rider Liaison Officer Richard 'Milky' Quayle (also riding a Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP), Glenn then put in an astounding five quick-fire laps on his Superstock bike, building up his lap speed from a first lap of 111mph through to his best 121.535mph on lap five. He then took advantage of an option for newcomers to ride a second session to put in two laps on his Superbike and posted an even faster lap, clocking an impressive 122.616mph, despite being slowed on track by other riders.
After three years the fans were back in force, enjoying the first night of Qualifying packing the paddock and the course alike, and with such great late-spring weather it all made for a highly enjoyable, atmospheric return to road racing for the island.
The Honda Racing UK team will be back in action for Qualifying next week, with the first race of the TT fortnight taking place on Saturday 4 June - the six-lap RST Superbike TT Race.
#1 John McGuinness MBE
That definitely got my attention, that first lap down Bray Hill! Wow! I haven’t been on a Superbike for a while, 2016 I think was last time I was on something that was competitive and I felt confident with. And after four laps I feel like I’ve been run over! This places pulls muscles you forgot you ever had. But look at the weather, feel the atmosphere in the paddock, it’s a cool place to be, and out there on the track I’ve never seen so many people trackside for the first day of practice! It’s cool to see, great to be back.
The new Fireblade is feeling good, it’s faster, sharper, and the Superbike certainly gets your attention, it’s that fast and of course demanding. I'm also learning some new stuff, there's a lot of nice new tech that's come with this bike. So I'm happy to be inside the top five in both classes today, that’s probably down to experience, and for sure the pace will get faster and faster as the week goes on, but it’s good to be at the sharp end and to have four good safe laps under our belt. I’ll just need to digest what’s gone on today, what the bikes were doing – I’ll need to sleep on it, lie in bed and let it come back to me! But no question, the bikes are good and it's great to back here at the TT.
#22 Glenn Irwin
First impressions – it’s absolutely mental! For now, I’m just learning the course but I’m really happy with the homework I’ve done on this, it's really helped. I know where I'm going, but what I need to understand is how these guys take some of these big corners flat out. But all that will come with time, for now I’m concentrating on hitting my markers.
I'm not paying any attention to the lap times, but ninth, that’s alright isn’t it!? I came in after that first newcomers lap saying I didn’t like the sections under the trees, I still feel that way, it's easy to be drawn into the hedges, because the straights aren’t straight and then there's the strobe effect, I’ve never raced under so many trees. So I've put in the maximum laps I could and I've learned lots by following the guys as they've come past. I think my favourite corner so far would be Cronk ny Mona (the left after Hillberry) – they say never go over the white line or you might crash, so I don’t go over it, but I enjoy really sitting on it!
So I've had lots of fun today. The Superbike felt good and the Superstock I felt very comfortable on, so I think we can improve it a lot over the week.
Great progress for Honda Racing UK in qualifying at the Isle of Man TT Races
For John this is a much longed-for return to his favourite race circuit after years thwarted by injury and global pandemic. John has been reunited with the Fireblade, the bike on which he's secured 12 of his 23 TT victories. This new SP version is much updated on his previous racing Fireblades but clearly John feels very much at home and has been quietly, diligently refining his setup, improving his lap speed with every qualifying session so far.
For John this is a much longed-for return to his favourite race circuit after years thwarted by injury and global pandemic. John has been reunited with the Fireblade, the bike on which he's secured 12 of his 23 TT victories. This new SP version is much updated on his previous racing Fireblades but clearly John feels very much at home and has been quietly, diligently refining his setup, improving his lap speed with every qualifying session so far.
Starting on Sunday, John lapped at 124.995mph on his Superbike, by Tuesday night's Q3 he improved this to an impressive 128.644mph (sixth fastest). Thursday was the week's highpoint for John, and while sun strike made vision in certain sections of the course difficult John still set an impressive 129.278mph lap. On his Superstock bike John has ridden three sessions posting a fastest lap of 127.399mph.
Glenn, meanwhile, in his debut year, has been firing in as many laps as he can in every session in order to increase his circuit knowledge. In the opening qualifying session last Sunday, he managed to squeeze in an incredible seven laps. Glenn's lap times have been impressive right from the start, reflecting the 'homework' he's put in ahead of his first competitive laps at the TT Mountain Course.
Glenn started with an opening lap of 111mph, but by the end of Q1 had already lifted this substantially to a 122.616mph. Between Q2 and Q5 Glenn lifted his times to an excellent 125mph, but left it to Q6 to uncork a cracking lap despite the course being damp through the Ramsey sections – his speed: 128.268mph.
#1 John McGuinness MBE
It's been a really good start to the TT fortnight. We’ve been chipping away at it, ticking the boxes, getting the mileage in, the bikes are probably better than me even now, I’ve been learning how to ride them again, and there’s lot of new technology with the bikes as well, plenty for me to learn, step by step, lap by lap.
At the start it was a bit of a handful, so I was hurting after that first qualifying, Monday morning I felt like I’d been run over but now I’m gripping the bike less, and the more relaxed you are, the more flowing, the less tiring it is, and we've made a little tweak here, a little tweak there so I'm getting into a more comfortable position with the bike. But everyone’s in the same boat, we've not done this for a while, so we we're all a bit nervous, grabbing the bull by the horns, but now we’re settling in and enjoying it more. And we are figuring it out, and putting in 129mph laps we’re not a million miles away.
It's been good sharing the garage with Glenn. The TT is vibrant right now, it’s flying, but we need riders like Glenn to come through and take over the mantle, so if I can help in any way I will, just as I got help when I was younger from the guys with more experience. But the kid's got tons of talent, he wants it and he’s done his homework, and you can only commend him for that. And finishing the week on a 128mph lap – that's blown us away!
#22 Glenn Irwin
Every day it’s a big nerves-build here at the TT. It’s all new to me, quite a different pattern, normally I go to the gym in the morning, and if it’s a BSB weekend I’m on track by late morning or at latest one in the afternoon, but here it’s a day of emotion and adrenaline building, and nerves, understandably because of where we are, all the way to six in the evening.
On track, though, everything has been steady away. I’m building into it in the correct way, going a little bit quicker each time because you’ve got to take your time. I'm probably still riding certain places a gear too low, like fifth instead of sixth through Crosby – but I’m just not ready to go through Crosby in sixth, it’s scary! But I’m really enjoying it, and I was happy to be lapping at very nearly 125mph by the third night. You naturally improve your lap times because you go round that corner one more time than last time. I’ve been around each corner 14 times now. But it's funny here, if I was talking Knockhill I would have done turn one 14 times in 14 minutes, but this is the TT so it’s three days to do that many laps!
The bike and the team are all working perfectly, I was surprised that come midweek I'd even started making little setup changes, which I didn't think I would get around to this fortnight. I've been appreciating the support I'm getting from John, too, in giving me tips and helping my learning process. I'm very happy to have finished the week with the 128mph lap, it felt comfortable doing that, even on a partly damp track. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race, six laps, fuel stops and all – it's going to be an experience!
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