Keith Amor's 2015 Isle of Man TT Races got off to a disappointing start on Sunday afternoon when he was forced to retire from the opening 6-lap Superbike race. The Rig Deluge® Road Racing rider had been looking for a strong finish on the BMW S1000RR but a loose nut and bolt on the footpeg meant he had to make a number of stops and he eventually pulled in to retire at the end of the second lap.
 
After a problematical week of practice for the riders, when weather conditions interrupted proceedings on more than one occasion, Keith found himself a little bit behind where he wanted to as he continued to search for a good set-up with the BMW, handling issues holding him back in the high speed areas.
 
Conditions were ideal come race day on Sunday afternoon but Keith's problems began straightaway and he had to stop at Ballacraine to try and tighten up the nut on the footpeg. He had to stop again at Parliament Square and with the time lost, his opening lap was a lowly 109.428mph. He immediately pitted to get the footpeg fixed and also to make some suspension changes, rejoining the race primarily to get some extra track time. However, he pulled in to retire for good at the end of the second lap.
 
Keith Amor: "It's massively frustrating but it is what it is and that's the TT for you. I knew the race was going to be a bit of a gamble after losing the practice session on Saturday and we tried a new suspension setting which we wouldn't know if it worked until we tried it. No sooner had the race started though, I was in trouble and when I looked down I could see a nut had sheared off a bolt in the footpeg and it kept working its way loose. I stopped twice to tighten it up so I pulled in to the pits after the first lap to fix it."
 
"We also made some more suspension changes so I went back out but the bike still wasn't working as I wanted it to. I pulled in at the end of second lap as I'd lost so much time and we didn't put any more miles on the engine. All the BMW riders are using different tyres and different suspension so there's no-one we can compare ourselves too so it's been hard going with the set-up. It's frustrating as we've all put so much effort into everything but the key to a good result here is having a good set up. We've three more days of racing though so plenty of time to get some good results."
 
Keith has two races on Monday, the Superstock and Supersport, both held over four laps.
 
Picture by Mark Walters