With practice week blighted by poor weather – and few of the solo classes able to complete a meaningful practice sessions – the calendar for the week long road racing extravaganza was altered with the three wheelers first to race down Bray Hill.

Racing against one of the strongest fields of late, Molyneux and passenger, Patrick Farrance, brought a new specification of DMR Kawasaki to the line sporting new body work and, significantly, a new diameter sidecar wheel at 10 inches.

Claimed to improve early and mid-corner speed, Molyneux was a softly spoken and quietly confident in the moments leading up to the race start as he always is.

The 16 time sidecar TT winner achieved a 112.62 average opening lap on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R powered machine and settled into the top end of the timing sheets in what were near ideal racing conditions.

By the second lap of the three lap 113 mile race, Molyneux was in a podium position holding a strong third which he jealously guarded for the remainder of the race only losing out on second by 0.538 of a second!

Having stood on the podium yet again the 50 year old Manxman professed himself to be happy with the race performance of his self-engineered sidecar outfit and delighted with the change to the handling brought about with the adoption of the new sidecar wheel.

After joining winners Tim Reeves and Dan Sayle, plus second place men Conrad Harrison and Mike Aylott on the podium, Molyneux enthused about his new set up.

“I was making up so much ground on the people I was following it was amazing. One minute I was three hundred yards behind coming up to a corner and then, suddenly, I was right with them.”

Asked if he was disappointed not to have won, Molyneux claimed he had no qualms saying:

“I am on the podium in an Isle of Man TT race against the best in the world, how can you be disappointed with that?”

The second sidecar race takes place on Wednesday 5 June when Molyneux and Farrance will be out to move one or even two places up the podium.