2024 Manx Grand Prix: Rain claims another session as Friday evening practice scrapped

Friday evening’s practice sessions for the 2024 Manx Grand Prix has been cancelled due to rainfall just moments before running was due to get under way.

The organisers for the 2024 event have been battling unseasonably bad weather all week on the Isle of Man, with all of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday’s practice sessions canned as a result.

An afternoon session was able to run on Thursday, before that evening’s running had to be cancelled due to the weather, while the same thing happened on Friday.

Friday evening’s sessions were due to get under way at 6:30pm, before a 10-minute delay was put in place as travelling marshals were dispatched to check conditions around the Mountain Course following reports of rain.

But at 6:30pm, the Clerk of the Course announced that the evening session has been cancelled.

Friday was meant to feature two sessions for each class in a bid to make up for lost track time, but the 10:15 start time was pushed back to 1:45pm to allow the course to dry.

All classes got a full practice in this afternoon, with Dominic Herbertson setting the pace on his Kawasaki in the Classic Superbike category.

He clocked a 122.6mph lap, though this was slower than the benchmark set by Mike Browne on Thursday afternoon at 123.225mph.

Top honours in the remaining classes went to Paul Jordan (Classic Junior), Stuart Hall (Lightweight), Shaun Anderson (Classic Senior), Chris Cook (Senior Manx GP) and Andrea Majola (Junior Manx GP).

Due to a poor forecast for Sunday, it was announced earlier on Friday that three races would be staged on Saturday and three on Monday.

The schedule for the remainder of the event is now:

Saturday 24 August

9:30am - Roads Close
10:15am - Classic Senior / Classic Junior / Lightweight qualifying
11am - Classic Superbike / Senior / Junior qualifying 
1pm - Classic Senior Manx Grand Prix - 3 laps
3pm - Junior Manx Grand Prix - 3 laps
5pm - Manx Grand Prix - 3 laps

Monday 26 August

10:15am - Warm-Up Lap
11:30am - Classic Junior Manx Grand Prix - 2 laps
1:15pm - Senior Manx Grand Prix - 4 laps
3:30pm - Classic Superbike Manx Grand Prix - 4 laps