Racing action at this year’s Isle of Man TT looks set to continue into Sunday as the event faces ongoing weather disruption to the schedule.
The opening day of racing on Saturday was scrapped due to heavy fog on the course, before Tuesday’s schedule was forced to be altered due to rain.
Three races had been planned for what became the second day of racing on Tuesday (June 2), but that was reduced to one as rainfall hit the island.
The Sportbike and Superstock races will be rescheduled and the Supersport race is now due to get underway at 1500 on Tuesday, after a further delay.
There had initially been no running planned on Tuesday evening, but organisers said the outlook for the evening is improving better than had been originally forecast, and the 3-lap Carole Nash Sportbike Race 1 will now take place at 18:30.
Speaking after the latest announcement, TT Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson said racing is now likely to continue into Sunday - beyond the event’s planned final day of Saturday - due to the disruption yet to come.
He emphasised the importance of rider safety when making decisions about racing and pointed to forecast poor weather across the next few days as the reason for the likely contingency.
In a video on Tuesday morning, he said: “Obviously we've had some inclement weather over yesterday, we've got more disruption today and the likelihood is we're going to have more disruption, weather disruption over the next couple of days.
“So firstly I want to thank everybody for the patience, whether that's competitor, team, marshal, officials, spectators. Obviously it's frustrating for all of us, we're all frustrated but obviously we can't help the weather. The primary thing for me is rider safety and obviously we'll only put the riders out in the best possible conditions.
“So looking towards the end of the week, we've got this inclement period of weather now and the use of Sunday afternoon, the contingency on Sunday afternoon is becoming more likely.
"So although it's not confirmed yet, I think we all have to be realistic and have that in the back of our minds that we're likely to be racing on Sunday afternoon.
“Obviously it's down to me to get all the race programme in and we're going to do that the best we can, but that's only if the conditions are suitable to put the riders out [on track].
"Safety is absolutely paramount.”
Last year’s Senior TT was scrapped due to poor weather conditions, with previous events also having been heavily affected.
