A one-lap warm-up on each Isle of Man TT race morning has been added to a schedule that has been revamped for 2020.

New The proposals mean the 2020 Isle of Man TT Races will begin a day later than previous years, starting on Sunday 31st May with an afternoon qualifying session.

Evening qualifying sessions will then run as before from Monday 1st June to Thursday 4th June with the final session moved from the evening to a new afternoon slot on Friday 5th June. Provisional sessions remain in the schedule on Thursday afternoon and Friday evening now becomes a provisional session.

The new TT race day format starts with a single lap warm-up for solo competitors before the opening race of the week - the RST Superbike Race - which gets underway at midday on Saturday 6th June followed by the first Sidecar TT Race at 3pm.

Monday’s and Wednesday’s race days – featuring the two Supersport Races, the RL360 Superstock and the Bennetts Lightweight Race – will also begin with a warm-up, with a single lap Sidecar Shakedown Session added to the running order on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s second Sidecar Race and the Senior TT Race.

"The proposed new schedule has been designed to optimise qualifying conditions and offer shorter race days, reducing the pressure placed on competitors, teams, volunteers and officials," said minister Rob Callister.

"This new format is also designed to minimise the impact that racing has on local residents and businesses with more clearly defined road closure schedules including the more definitive first weekend qualifying timetable and cutting the duration of road closures during race week which result in  clearer, easier to follow road closure timetables.

"This will bring benefits to rider, visitors and locals throughout the TT period."