Michael Dunlop moved on to a career total of 36 TT wins with utterly dominant wins in today’s Carole Nash Sportbike TT and Monster Energy Supersport TT. With weather playing havoc with the schedule, the two smaller capacity races were reduced by a lap to facilitate a packed Friday of racing, with a four-lap Senior TT penned in for the evening.
The 37-year-old twice obliterated his old supertwin lap record, lapping at 124.53mph as he took the inaugural Sportbike TT win by almost 29 seconds from Mike Browne and Paul Jordan. Both his fellow riders from the island of Ireland were also under the old lap record as they pushed each other to the very end of the two lap dash. At the flag they were separated by less than a second, with Browne taking the retro-liveried Eddie Laycock tribute Paton to second from the Jackson Racing Aprilia of Jordan.
In a transitional year for the class, the results were dominated by machines running under the old supertwin regulations. Peter Hickman finished fourth on his Swan-backed PHR Performance Yamaha R7, posting a personal best 121.9mph lap despite having a problem with a fuel cap seal on the opening lap. The 14 time TT winner was pragmatic about the result, admitting he didn’t have the pace to challenge for the podium in what is arguably his weakest category. Jamie Coward (Milenco by Padgett’s Motorcycles Paton) and Joe Yeardsley (Flitwick Motorcycles Yamaha) completed the top six.
Top sportbike runner was seventh placed Dominic Herbertson, who has improved throughout the week on his factory backed KTS Racing Triumph. The Daytona 660 is built to the new regulations, which should reduce costs and open up the field to more teams and riders. All bikes are expected to run under the new rules next year, giving the popular Geordie lumberjack a useful headstart for TT 2027. “We’ve come with a knife to a gunfight this year,” he joked after the race, “but the mid-corner speed is phenomenal on this little Triumph and it was being able to catch pass some supertwins in the race. I’m over the moon with the progress and to have won the sportbike race for Triumph.”
But Dunlop was imperious in the two classes where he has excelled in recent years. The most successful TT racer of all time opened the day with a regulation win in the three lap Supersport outing, taking his 10th supersport win in a row in a race which largely followed the same pattern as Tuesday’s first Supersport TT. Dean Harrison once again got the hammer down on his Honda Racing CBR600RR, but Ducati-mounted Dunlop overhauled the Superbike TT winner at the pitstop and used the extra grunt of his big V-twin to pull away and win by 26 seconds, with Peter Hickman replicating Tuesday’s podium in third, a further 13 seconds back.
Speaking after the Carole Nash Sportbike TT, Dunlop said: “The bike was mint and I feel good. When the bikes are good and working, I’m working real well. It was good to do 124mph, which is a full mile an hour more than the lap record from last year. I didn’t think it was that fast, but obviously it was! I didn’t feel I was overly pushing on that last lap and felt I had a bit left in the tank. I’m pleased to get this result for Paton. It’s a small company and it’s good to win it for them. There are a lot of them out there now though, so it’s obviously a popular bike!”
The good news for us, but the bad news for the competition, is that there’s a second Carole Nash Sportbike TT planned for the weekend. With some extra left in his tank, it’s hard to see anyone stop the Dunlop juggernaut in a class where he’s been unbeaten for three years, but with the highly tuned supertwins known for their unpredictability and a third lap to contend with, we’re definitely expecting the unexpected.
