Manx Grand Prix: Organisers bring final day of racing forward

Riders at the Manx Grand Prix have endured repeated weather delays

Manx Grand Prix organisers have taken the decision to move a race day forward for the first time in the event's history.

Originally scheduled for Friday, the second Lightweight and Ultra Lightweight races and the Senior event will now be contested on Thursday.

Poor weather forced organisers to make the "historic" change.

Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson said it was "common sense" to bring the events forward.

Regulations have previously prevented organisers from making such a switch, but they were revised for this year.

While the Senior and the Ultra Lightweight races will remain at four and three laps respectively, the Lightweight event has been reduced from four to three.

Thompson said "all the eggs are in one basket" as organisers will not be able to move the events back to Friday, if Thursday's programme is unable to go ahead.

He added that logistical difficulties meant Saturday, which is also listed as a contingency, was a "non-starter".

The Senior event was last run on a Saturday in 2008.

Challenging weather conditions have played havoc with motorbike events on the Isle of Man this year.

In June, TT organisers had to run five events in one day after weather caused repeated postponements to practice and races.

Last week's Classic TT suffered similar problems with rain and fog limiting running time, and additional qualifying laps took place ahead of Saturday's first race.

At the Manx Grand Prix, the opening races were pushed from Monday to Tuesday because of weather delays, while fog and showers meant Wednesday's racing was unable to start on time.

Thompson, who is Clerk of the Course for all three events, said it had been "a challenging year" and that it was "a big team effort" to ensure it all went ahead.