John McGuinness went quickest in the Superbike class on the first day's running at the 2011 Isle of Man TT Races Fuelled by Monster Energy.
McGuinness and Honda TT Legends teammate Keith Amor spent their first two laps circulating in close formation, and topped the early Superbike leaderboard with laps of 122.838mph and 122.637mph. Gary Johnson was quickest on the first runs with a 122.463mph lap before dropping to third, just ahead of Relentless Suzuki's Guy Martin.
In a break from the usual schedule, the sidecars were out first on the course to give the solo riders, who had been competing at the Thruxton BSB round, time to make it to the Island for the session.
Among those was Michael Rutter, who passed a medical which he took following an accident in the second BSB race earlier in the day. The 39-year-old didn't make it very far though as his Ducati Superstock bike only made it to the end of the pitlane before stopping.
At 6:29pm the 2011 TT started in damp conditions and Klaus Klaffenbock and Dan Sayle went quickest on their second run as the conditions improved. Their 110.911mph lap put them ahead of Tony Elmer and Darren Marshall (106.977mph) while Simon Neary was third despite losing passenger Jason Crowe on one of their runs.
Bruce Anstey set the second quickest lap of all on Monday to lead the Superstock class. His lap of 122.752mph put him narrowly ahead of Gary Johnson. William Dunlop was third but his brother Michael had problems and was forced to stop his Kawasaki at Crosby and return to the paddock via the back roads.
Luis Carreira led the 600cc Supersport class, taking his Yamaha round at 117.612mph. Dan Kneen was second ahead of Roy Richardson and Derek Brien who completed a Yamaha domination of the top four.
Practice and Qualifying continues all week before racing gets underway on Saturday with live timing of all sessions available at www.iomtt.com.
