Wednesday June 8, 2011 at 10:16am
Despite battling his way back from a painful shoulder injury suffered in Practice Week, Keith Amor now lies second in the TT Championship at the 2011 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy.
With top four finishes in each of the first three races, Amor is now just 10 points behind Honda TT Legends teammate John McGuinness.
After some promising practice times, the Scot’s 2011 TT was thrown into doubt on Wednesday evening when he fell off at Quarterbridge and injured his right shoulder. He sat out the Thursday session, but, after conferring with medics and taking treatment, Amor returned to the saddle for the final practice on Friday.
He then decided he was fit enough to take the start of Saturday’s Dainese Superbike TT, the opening race.
Despite having to manhandle the big bike around the 37.7-mile circuit for six laps, Amor kept going and secured fourth place.
On Monday he switched to KBMG Racing Honda machinery for the Monster Energy Supersport 1 and Royal London 360 Superstock races.
The Supersport race had two starts after the first was stopped, and in the shortened 3-lap re-run, Amor found himself in sixth at the end of the opening lap, 16 seconds down on the pace-setting Michael Dunlop.
He opted to refuel at the end of the first lap like many other top contenders. Dunlop didn't, but he soon retired and the race was wide open, Amor moving up to fourth at the end of lap 2.
Circulating on the road with fellow Honda rider McGuinness, a final lap of 126.159mph saw Amor rewarded with second place, his best result to date around the Mountain course, only 8 seconds behind race winner Bruce Anstey.
At 6.30pm, it was the turn of the 4-lap Superstock race.
Amor was expecting this to be a harder race for him with the 1000cc bike more difficult to manage than the more nimble 600cc Supersport machine. Nevertheless, he was in the top six throughout and, with a best lap of 128.765mph, the second fastest of the race, he took a well deserved fourth place at the chequered flag.
Amor said:
“If you'd have given me second and fourth at the beginning of the day, I'd have snapped your hand off, so it's been a good day.”
“I struggled a bit on the last lap of the 600cc race with my shoulder and I could have done without the extra lap today, but up until then everything went well and dicing with John on the roads was a lot of fun, I think we passed each other 4 or 5 times on the final lap.”
“I was too aggressive on the first lap though and used a bit too much of my tyre, but, at the end of the day, a few days ago I was in hospital and now I'm on the podium so I can't complain. The doctors and physios have done a great job so full credit to them.”
“Second's my best result so I'm getting there, but I seem to be going down the Guy Martin route, racking up the podiums but not a win. We need to get rid of old man Anstey, but full credit to him, he rode a great race so we'll just have to give it another go in Wednesday's second 600cc race.2
Amor added:
“In the Superstock race, the clutch was slipping for half of the first lap, particularly when I was on the side of the tyre, so I think I might have given it too much off the line but it got a bit better and I managed to adjust it coming out of the Gooseneck.”
“It was a lot better after that, but by then Guy had caught me and I heard him coming so I let him past and tucked in behind him as I didn't think I was going to last the lap.”
“My shoulder was playing up a bit and the clutch still wasn't 100%, but Guy coming by was a blessing as it towed me round for a couple of laps. Towards the end of the race I started to feel stronger, but he was really hard on the brakes so it was difficult to get by whilst he also pulled a bit of time on me at the pit stop.”
“I caught back up to him at Ballagarey and got by him, but we ended up swapping places a bit and I just brought the bike home.”
“A big thanks to Brian, Adrian, John and Guy for preparing two awesome bikes today, Isla Scott for all the physio, the surgeon at Noble’s, Ross Barker, for patching me up and getting me back out there and also a massive thanks to Dunlop and Arai.”
Amor will be back in action when racing continues at the 2011 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy on Wednesday.