Isle of Man TT: Market Rasen racer Phil Crowe posts best result

With practice week around the 37.73-mile Mountain road circuit all but washed out, Saturday’s scheduled racing was replaced by a day of practice to allow the riders to get their machines up to speed.

Crowe did well on Saturday qualifying his BMW in 21st position, and also qualified 43rd in Supersport and 20th in the Superstock classes.

The TT is a time trial with riders all setting off at 10-second intervals and Phil was the 25th rider to begin the race.

He set off down Bray Hill at a fast rate of knots and on time was up to 21st place at the first checkpoint of Glen Helen.

He maintained the position to the end of the lap and when he went through the beam at Glen Helen on lap two he had gained another place to 20th.

Building in confidence, Crowe pushed on and pulled into the pits at the end of the lap for refuelling to find he was up to 18th.

After refuelling Crowe was running in 17th place at the halfway stage of the race, and one lap later he was back in the pits for his second and final pit stop and holding 16th position.

As he reached Glen Helen on lap five he was registered in 14th place and he maintained that throughout the final two laps to record his best-ever result along with a personal best lap time of 126.6mph.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “Sometimes all you need is a bit of luck and a decent crew.

“I recorded my fastest-ever lap on the last lap and that was with a lot of yellow flags so I feel there is more to come.

“I am just settling in now!”