After Friday’s final practice session, we made a small alteration to the bike and we knew where we were in terms of lap times and pace ahead of the Superbike race. I knew the team had given me a bike that would be comfortable to ride and when I set off down Bray Hill, the bike felt stable and I was able to push on.

It was a bit hard changing direction through the fast stuff, which meant we were working the rear tyre much, but good through the slow stuff and whilst I know we can go faster when things are right, we were holding onto a good sixth place, no mean feat given the competition.

I backed off a bit on the second lap and on laps three and four I was in full drift mode through Greeba Castle and although we’ve had no data from previous races to work with, the race was going well.

I was holding onto a good sixth place but on lap three the bike didn’t quite feel right and through Glen Helen on the fourth lap it was getting slower and making more noise, so I rolled off the throttle and pulled up at Sarah’s.

It’s a real shame as we could have ended up in fifth with Dean (Harrison) retiring from the lead and although there’s work to be done to get into the 131mph bracket, which I feel we’re capable of, it’s a good starting point.

We only got four laps in practice compared to some riders who got in as many as nine so to be in sixth place in a Superbike race shows the potential we’ve got. We’ve learned a lot and will be in a better position come the Senior next Friday whilst I had no fitness issues at all during the race. I haven’t had a lot of bike time in the last couple of years so that was pleasing.

After pulling in to retire at Sarah’s, I met Bex McLoughlin and her mum, a local family, and they gave me a lift back to the pits although they failed to tell me we had to make a steep, muddy trek through two cow fields and loads of manure where we had a crowd of 50 cows to welcome us!

Retiring from a TT race is never good and tramping through a herd of cows wasn’t how I wanted to finish the race but it was a pleasant journey back to the pits and I’ve made two new friends!