This year's Classic Racer Magazine Classic TT Lap of Honour is set to be one of the highlights of the Classic TT presented by Bennetts with the entry packed with both legendary riders and iconic, and exotic, machinery.

This year's 'lap of honour', which takes place on Bank Holiday Monday 31st August, is a celebration of some of the UK's finest ever road racers, as well as the career of TT legend Geoff Duke, and the line-up includes riders with a combined total of no less than 95 TT victories and 209 TT podiums.

Fifteen former TT winners will be on the grid out of a total field of over 150 riders who will take to the Mountain Course. Twenty-three time TT Race winner John McGuinness leads the way with the 'Morecambe Missile' fresh from his win and new outright lap record in this year's PokerStars Senior TT. McGuinness will ride his own 600cc Triumph Daytona, the same machine he rode at the 2003 TT Race meeting.

Bruce Anstey, another 2015 TT winner who will be appearing in the parade is now third on the all-time list of podium finishers. Anstey has 10 TT wins and 35 rostrums to his name following this year's races, which saw him win his first Superbike race and take three runners-up spots. The Kiwi will ride a 500cc Manx Norton in the parade as part of the tributes to Geoff Duke.

The evergreen Jim Redman MBE, a six time World Champion, returns to the Isle of Man where he achieved a unique hat-trick of double Junior and Lightweight wins in 1963, 1964 and 1965. He will be riding a 500cc Honda in the parade, similar to the bike he rode during the 1966 season.

Four past and present Northern Ireland TT legends - Brian Reid, Phil McCallen, Con Law and current star Michael Dunlop will appear. Reid's memorable TT career included being the first rider to lap the Mountain Course at more than 112mph on a 250cc machine, in 1985, and he took his first of five TT wins in the 1986 Formula Two race. McCallen's highlight was undoubtedly his four wins in 1996 and he'll take part in the parade on board one of his race winning RC45 Hondas while Law's short five year career included consecutive Junior TT race wins in 1982 and 1983.

Dunlop has already matched McCallen's 11 wins and while 2015 wasn't as successful as previous years, he still stood on the podium in the RL360 Superstock race and became the second fastest rider of all time with a lap of 132.515mph.

Three great Scottish riders, Ian Simpson, his father Bill and Alex George - all TT race winner's - will grace the Mountain Course again. Five time British Champion Ian Simpson took TT three victories including a superb F1-Senior double in 1998 and eight podiums in his 21 race TT career, following father Bill's 750cc production race win in 1976. Alex George is best remembered for his double victory in 1979 when, deputising for the injured Mick Grant at Honda Britain, he took both the F1 and Classic races, the latter coming after a titanic battle with Mike Hailwood which saw him come out on top by just 3.4s.

Close friends Steve Plater and Mick Grant, who worked together in Norton development, will parade Norton's SG3 and SG2 respectively. Plater's three-year career included victory in the 2009 Senior TT while multiple British Champion Grant has seven TT victories to his name.

Charlie Williams, one of Mick Grant's contemporaries in the 1970's and 80's will parade on his own 350cc Yamaha. Williams, who finished a superb ninth in last year's 500cc Classic TT, has an impressive nine TT wins to his name including two TT race wins in a day - the Junior and F2 races in 1980.

Matt Oxley and Malcolm Wheeler, two riders who have swapped their leathers for journalism, will be temporarily putting their pens down. Oxley's undoubted highlight was victory in the 1985 250cc Production race, becoming the first rider to lap the Mountain Course at more than 100mph on a 250cc Production machine while Wheeler, who will ride his own Ducati TT2, achieved three podiums in the 1980's.

Dave Roper will add a transatlantic flavour to the lap. Roper became the first American to win a TT with victory in the 1984 500cc Historic race. He returns to the Island riding an AJS Porcupine, one of the more exotic machines that will be appearing during the Classic TT Festival.

Other star riders taking part in the Lap of Honour include Ian Richards, who unluckily broke down on the last lap of the 1980 Senior while leading, Glen English, Ian Mackman, Tony Duncan, Rex Butcher, James McBride, Mike Seward (the first rider to lap at more than 110mph at the Manx Grand Prix), the Isle of Man's Nigel Beattie. David Cretney MLC and Derek Crutchlow, father of current MotoGP rider Cal are also participating in the parade while Peter Duke will ride a 500cc Gilera in memory of his late father and six times TT winner and World Champion Geoff Duke.

Upon saying our toodaloos to Leanne and Calvin in El Tule, we tootled off with the mountains and volcanoes flirting in our periphery onto Puebla—70 miles southeast of the capital. As well as the city, Puebla is also a Mexican state and the Spanish word for ‘seed that a gardener sows’. Might as well kill three birds…Meeting overlanders Chloe and Toby (from Carpe Viam), with whom we’d become acquainted at Overlander Oasis at an Air B&B apartment there was both a respite and a splurge for the month. Jason’s eye had just been all but taken out by a firework, unlucky lad.

Indulging in the apartment’s amenities such as: the swallow-me-whole-and-leave-me-here-forever sofa, coffee machine and double bed with en suite, set the mood to be a comfortable and convenient one. Just as well because a mind-bogglingly abstract tour around a museum in the afternoon left me uninspired and my brain aching—post a couple of hours of failing to fathom what the heck I was looking at—much to Chloe’s amusement and Toby’s surprise. Thank Karma it was free entry that day.

Clearly far more cultured city folk than we were, Toby arched his perplexed brow and asked inquisitively “Well if you’re not museum people, what kind of people are you?” ‘Oh that’s easy!’ I mused. “We’re outdoorsy types, anywhere there are big open spaces preferably with wildlife,” I conveyed in a smiling tone. “Oh.”

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The Honda Endurance Racing team will start tomorrow’s German Speedweek Oschersleben 8 Hours race from fifth position aboard the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP.

Honda’s trio of endurance specialists Julien Da Costa, Freddy Foray and Sébastien Gimbert completed the final qualifying sessions today and their combined times gave the Honda squad an average lap time of 1’27.644, placing them fifth.

Throughout the day all three Honda riders built on their lap times from yesterday’s sessions with Da Costa obtaining the seventh best time with 1’27.740 lap. Team-mate Gimbert finished his session top of the sheet with a best time of 1’27.306, and Foray’s 1’27.887 lap time saw him finish his stint in fifth position.

The Oschersleben 8 Hours race will start tomorrow (Saturday 22 August) at 12:00 (GMT+1).

Born: August 22, (Luton) currently the Team Manager for endurance racing specialists Prime Factors Racing and a former English motorcycle road racer. 

He, along with the team are preparing for the Isle of Man TT, Roads and Endurance World Championship. Steve, who recently signed as the team manager, debuts in his new role from the World renowned Bol d'or event in September at the EWC finale, ready for a full assault in 2016!

Steve Plater picks up the winners trophy in the PokerStars Senior TT, 2009

Team Molnar Manx will have one of the strongest line-ups on the grid at this month's Classic TT presented by Bennetts with a four-rider line up set to contest a combination of the Bennetts 500cc Classic TT and Okells Brewery 350cc Classic TT Races.

Spearheading the line-up is 11-times TT winner Michael Dunlop who will be riding one of Andy Molnar's special 4-valve 500cc Norton's. The Ballymoney rider won the inaugural Formula One Classic TT race in 2013 but has yet to enjoy the same success in the 500cc counterpart.

He took seventh in 2013 and was set to finish two places higher twelve months ago before being forced to retire at the end of lap three. His fastest lap on the Manx Norton currently stands at 106.773mph though and he'll be confident of going quicker on the 4-valve version.

Joining him in the team for a third consecutive year is this year's TT Privateer's Champion Dan Cooper and he'll contest the 350cc Race in addition to the 500cc. The Stroud rider led last year's Bennetts 500cc Classic TT Race until being overhauled by Ian Lougher but second place and a lap of 108.042mph shows he'll be amongst the race favourites again this year.

The 27-year old will also be in action on Molnar's 350cc Manx Norton and although he retired from last year's race when lying fifth, he took third place for the team in the inaugural 2013 race. Having lapped in excess of 101mph, he'll also be a potential race winner here.

Cameron Donald had been due to ride for the team as well, giving them three excellent chances of victory but, unfortunately, the Australian ace injured his hand in a recent spill whilst racing in Malaysia. However, the team has acted quickly to find a replacement and former 125cc and Moto 3 Grand Prix rider and current British Supersport Championship contender Danny Webb will now take part in the 500cc and 350cc Races.

The Tunbridge Wells rider made his TT debut in 2013, immediately lapping at more than 120mph and winning four replicas in the process. He returned this year and posted his first top ten finish with an excellent tenth in the Lightweight Race.

Completing the line-up for Team Molnar is veteran Scottish rider Wattie Brown who'll ride a traditional two-valve Manx Norton in the Bennett's 500cc Classic TT. The Stirling rider has taken no less than seven podiums in the Classic Manx Grand Prix and is sure to acquit himself around the Mountain Course once more.

Speaking about his team's chances, Team Owner Andy Molnar commented:

"We are particularly pleased to be able to give young Danny Webb a ride on our bikes, as I see it as being critically important to the future of the Classic TT to bring in new blood both for riders and entrants. I watched Danny's exploits on the world stage with interest and always said that as soon as he had finished messing about there we would get him on our bikes! I believe that riding the Classics will give him a good chance to improve his circuit knowledge and develop as a TT rider."