Practice week for the 2015 Isle of Man TT races concluded yesterday evening with John McGuinness and Conor Cummins posting the second and seventh-quickest laps respectively around the 37.73-mile Mountain course on their Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP machines.

A change of schedule saw the RST Superbike race being moved to Sunday 7 June and, with the alteration, an additional practice session had been scheduled for today. This session has now been cancelled, however, due to high winds around the circuit.

A week of mixed weather conditions saw the first Superbike outing for the Honda Racing duo cancelled completely on Monday due to rain and high winds, but practice began in earnest on Tuesday.

Both Wednesday's and Thursday's sessions took place in near-perfect conditions with most of the riders recording their fast est times on Thursday night. McGuinness posted a 130.030mph lap, which places him second overall, while team-mate Cummins's 128.331mph lap, also on Thursday, gave him the seventh-fastest time.

Ian Hutchinson topped the overall Superbike timesheet ahead of McGuinness and Bruce Anstey. The six-lap RST Superbike race is scheduled for tomorrow at 2pm.

19th to the 21st June - Helmsley, North Yorkshire

It's TWO weeks until Farmyard Party! We look forward to seeing you for another epic year in Helmsley. We have brought together some great entertainment - details and links to the line-ups in the Main Stage, Riders' Rights Party and the Blues Bar below - that we hope everyone of you will enjoy.

The Smacked Arse Comedy and BSH Custom Bike Show will return to provide Saturday afternoon's entertainment. We have the usual range of top notch food vans providing quality grub, Crusty's Bar and slabs of beer for those wanting a memorable weekend. ABF "The Soldiers' Charity" will be back again to provide customer showers throughout the weekend. And, of course, there will be enormous piles of wood for you to burn on the evenings.

Saturday Only tickets are still available for Farmyard but only on a pre-book basis. So, if you know you can't escape work on Friday, why not book a ticket.

Tickets for Farmyard can be bought online until the 14th of June. You can obtain tickets from outlets and MAG reps in certain parts of the UK. And, of course, you can always buy on the gate. Links to these outlets and contacts as well as other methods of buying tickets are below.

As always, our events are held on behalf of Riders' Rights throughout UK and Europe.

No Cars, No Vans, No Pedestrians, No Excuses

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is urging the new government to increase its efforts in promoting road safety by giving targeted enforcement a higher priority.

With the yet-to-be-revealed figures for 2014 shaping up to show an increase in deaths and injuries on UK roads, the IAM believe the new government must make road traffic policing a core priority function for police forces and commissioners in England and Wales.

The call comes following a survey conducted by the IAM throughout April 2015, in which 2,703 people took part. Despite years of government cutbacks and police budgets continuing to be stretched, over 45 per cent of respondents voted for an increase in the number of police officers in marked vehicles to enforce traffic laws.

Top offences that road users would like to see police officers tackle include; mobile phone use at the wheel – voted by 72 per cent, drink and drug-driving – voted by 65 per cent, aggressive and angry drivers – voted by 50 per cent and tailgating drivers – voted by 42 per cent.

With over 3,064 motorists killed or seriously injured in 2013 as a result of speeding (2), tackling speed related offences also remains a major priority for drivers. According to 64 per cent of survey respondents, one of the best ways to confront the issue is by ensuring that there are more traffic police officers on all major urban roads.

With reference to drink-driving alone, existing research from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has found that young drivers aged between 20 and 25 are most likely to be caught driving under the influence of alcohol and are therefore at a higher risk of being involved in a road accident (3). Some 44 per cent of respondents agree that a new consultation is needed to reflect the growing support for a lower limit following Scotland’s new drink-drive legislation from 80mg to 50mg limit, which came into effect on 5 December 2014.

Besides seeing more traffic police officers on our roads, many road users believe that the police should be granted more extensive powers. For example, 45 per cent of respondents support having more discretion to breath test based on where drivers are likely to be driving after drinking (e.g. near pubs and clubs) which could l help combat this issue far more rigorously.

IAM’s chief executive officer, Sarah Sillars, said: “The government cannot afford to be complacent about road safety and a lot more needs to be done to address major road offences through the enforcement of existing legislation and full use of police powers. The IAM supports an increase in the number of high profile road policing officers and a zero tolerance approach to the enforcement of traffic laws.

“Where drivers are failing to live up to the required standards they must be given access to a wider range of targeted retraining courses that refresh their skills, these include the IAM drink-drive rehabilitation course (4), educational campaigns targeting young drivers, and the IAM Skill for Life course which help existing drivers to improve their skills and give them greater awareness of other road users (5).”

1. THINK! Speed campaign: http://think.direct.gov.uk/speed.html
2. National Police Chiefs’ Council release: http://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/younger-drivers-still-need-to-take-heed-of-drink-drive-dangers
3. IAM Driver Retraining Academy, further information here: http://iamdra.org.uk/
4. More information about IAM Skill for Life here: http://www.iam.org.uk/drivers/motorists-courses/advanced-driving/motorists-skill-for-life
5. The IAM is the UK’s largest independent road safety charity, dedicated to improving standards and safety in driving and motorcycling. The commercial division of the IAM operates through its occupational driver training company IAM Drive & Survive. The IAM has more than 200 local volunteer groups and over 100,000 members in the UK and Ireland. It is best known for the advanced driving test and the advanced driving and motorcycling courses. Its policy and research division offers advice and expertise on road safety.

With morning rain having cleared, dry roads and clear skies greeted competitors for Friday evening's practice session at the 2015 Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy, but increasing winds would be problematical throughout the evening.

The paddock was already aware that Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson had announced a change to the proposed race schedule with Saturday's RST Superbike moving to Sunday due to a near gale forecast for the Isle of Man.

The F2 sidecars to go away first and, as with previous sessions, the outfits left the line in numerical order with Dave Molyneux/Ben Binns, Conrad Harrison/Mike Aylott, Ben and Tom Birchall, Tim Reeves/Patrick Farrance and John Holden/Dan Sayle the first five crews to head towards Bray Hill.

Molyneux led the lap all the way round and was first across the line at 113.12 with Harrison next quickest at 111.96. Holden went to the top of the leaderboard with a speed of 113.22 but pulled in immediately to make adjustments to his suspension. Reeves had a slow lap at 104.91 but the Birchalls fared even worse at 90.65 and clearly had problems.

Gary Bryan/Jamie Winn and Karl Bennett/Lee Cain posted almost identical times at 109.58 and 109.55 respectively, the former reporting blustery winds over the Mountain.

Molyneux continued straight through for a second lap and went quickest at 114.687, just a whisker outside Holden's fastest lap of the week set on Thursday. Reeves, who was running in an engine in on his first lap, posted a speed of 113.30 with Gary Knight/Jason Crowe (109.16) and Tony Baker/Fiona Baker-Milligan (108.57) also showing well.

Holden failed to go quicker on his second lap but Knight continued for a third lap and improved again to 109.67.

At 7.22pm, it was the turn of the Supersport and Lightweight machines with Lee Johnston, Ian Hutchinson, Keith Amor, Conor Cummins, Michael Rutter, Gary Johnon, William Dunlop and John McGuinness the first to leave the line. All were 600cc mounted with the exception of Rutter who was again out on the Paton.

Hutchinson was first back at 123.13 followed by Johnston on 119.85 and Johnson 117.49. McGuinness went quickest briefly with a speed of 123.99 but that fellow Honda rider Anstey bettered that with 124.36. Speeds fluctuated though with William and Michael Dunlop and Dan Kneen all in the 115-117mph bracket.

James Hillier was the quickest Lightweight at 113.74 as Rutter pulled in with a broken steering damper but Jamie Hamilton's second lap of 115.74 sent him top.

Second time around for the 600s and speeds were up too as Hutchinson improved to 124.92. It was close at the top of the leaderboard though with McGuinness, the two Dunlops and Dean Harrison all breaking the 124mph mark.

The 1000cc machines were let out on the Mountain Course shortly after 8pm with Martin Jessopp away first on the Riders BMW soon followed by Guy Martin (Tyco BMW), Hutchinson (PBM Kawasaki) and William Dunlop (Tyco BMW).

Martin was first back at 127.861 with Michael Dunlop's opening lap on the BMW Superbike only slightly slower at 127.755. However, Bruce Anstey again showed his race winning credentials with a speed of 129.394 to jump to the top of the leaderboard.

No one managed to get close to Anstey's lap second time around although Dan Kneen did improve to almost 126mph. One man who did get over the 126mph mark was Dean Harrison who's lap of 126.59 made him the quickest Superstock on the night. Gary Johnson was out of luck though pulling in on the exit of Ballaugh village.

At the end of the evening a few of the Zero machines also had their first outing ahead of Wednesday's SES TT Zero with lap record holder John McGuinness showing the form that saw him triumph in last year's race with a lap of 113mph although his Mugen Shinden teammate Bruce Anstey broke down. The Victory Racing pair of William Dunlop and Lee Johnston both posted hugely impressive debut laps of 105.185 and 104.185 respectively.

Michael Dunlop is switching back to the BMW bikes that he raced at last year's TT, on which he won three races including his historic Senior TT victory.

The Northern Ireland rider will now be riding for Stuart Hicken's Swadlincote based Buildbase BMW team in the RST Superbike Race, which is scheduled for Saturday 6th June, and the PokerStars Senior TT Race the following Friday 12th June.

He will also be riding his own MD Racing BMW in Monday's RL360 Superstock Race and will contest the two Monster Energy Supersport Races on his MD Racing Honda.

Commenting on the decision, Michael said:

"I would like to thank Milwaukee Yamaha for their support in bringing me into their team and I am genuinely sorry to be making this decision but unfortunately I don't think there is enough time left with the sessions we've already lost at the TT to be truly competitive and get the bike to the level we need to in order to win races here."

The 11-time TT race winner will be looking to get the most possible track time ahead of Saturday's races and will be appearing on the BMW's in this evening's qualifying session, which will be only the second timed Superbike qualifying session of the week.