Watch where you're going! A low-flying sea gull collides with John Hutchinson's Swan Yamaha Superbike as he hurtles down a straight at the Isle of Man TT motorcycle meetThis Isle of Man TT racer was sent ducking for cover when one of the island's ever present sea gulls strayed in front of his Superbike, just as he was picking up speed.
Swan Yamaha rider Ian Hutchinson was tearing 170mph down a straight on the world famous motorcycle meet when this low flying bird collided with his bike.
The impact shattered the screen of his 1000cc Superbike, sending Hutchinson ducking for cover as the spinning scavenger hurtled towards his helmet surrounded by a corona of shards of glass.
Luckily both rider and, incredibly, bird survived the incident. The bird suffered a severely damaged wing and, according to bikesportnews.com, was taken to the RSPCA.
Hutchinson had been on his opening practice session for the long-running motorcycle event on Monday evening, for many years the highlight of the world's bike racing calendar.
He completed his practice with a top lap of 123mph average speed, putting him in 17th position at the end of the day's qualifying.
High speeds: John McGuinness on his TT Legends Honda at Creg Ny Baa during the third Superbike qualifying session for the 2012 Monster Energy Isle of Man TT
Race: Guy Martin on his Tyco Suzuki at Creg Ny Baa during the third Superstock qualifying session for the Isle of Man TTSuperbike racing is a class of motorcycle racing that employs modified production motorcycles.
The restriction to production models distinguishes Superbike racing from MotoGP racing, which where racers ride prototype machines bearing little resemblance to production machines.
This is somewhat similar to the distinction in car racing between touring cars and Formula One cars, though the performance gap between Superbike and MotoGP racing is much smaller.
source: dailymail
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