Michael Dunlop took his ninth TT victory when he comfortably won the RL 360 Superstock race giving BMW their second win in four days. Riding the MD Racing machine, Dunlop faced a serious challenge from Monster Energy Supersport 1 race winner Gary Johnson but the Lincolnshire man crashed out on the run up to the Waterworks on the opening lap.
From that point Dunlop was able to maintain his lead over second placed Dean Harrison and eventually came home 20.1s clear of the RC Express Racing by MSS Performance rider with Bruce Anstey taking third for Valvoline Racing/Padgetts Honda.
Dunlop was quickest to Glen Helen on lap one but it was close as only 0.5s covered the top four riders with Harrison, Johnson and James Hillier all in touch with the Ballymoney man. By Ramsey, Johnson had moved up to second but his challenge came to an abrupt end just a few hundred yards up from the hairpin. He was reported conscious but with fractures and taken by airmed to Nobles Hospital.
As the riders flashed through the grandstand for the first time, Dunlop’s opening lap of 129.588mph gave him a 6.7s lead over Harrison with Anstey now up to third and Hillier still holding onto fourth. Conor Cummins and Guy Martin rounded out the top six.
On lap two, Dunlop continued to increase his advantage but Harrison was keeping him honest although the margin had more than doubled as they came into refuel, the gap now just under 13 seconds as Dunlop set the fastest lap of the race at 129.778mph. Anstey continued to hold onto third but Cummins, Martin and Michael Rutter had all overhauled Hillier though who had slipped back to seventh.
Harrison appeared to lose time at the pit stop but that was clearly not the case as he’d brought Dunlop’s lead down to nine seconds at Glen Helen on the third lap although hopes of reducing it further soon evaporated as the Northern Irishman had moved it back up to 18s by the end of the lap. One rider out of luck though was Guy Martin who retired at Parliament Square.
Using his pit boards to control the race in the closing stages, Dunlop duly came home for his third win in the Superstock race and, uniquely, on a third different bike manufacturer while it also extended his lead at the top of the Joey Dunlop Championship table. Harrison equalled his best ever result in second, repeating the runner-up spot in last year’s Lightweight race, with Anstey comfortable in third for the entire race.
Dean Harrison: “I’m over the moon with second place and just want to say a big thank you to everyone involved with the team. Conditions were great but the quickshifter stopped working on the opening lap and I had to completely change my way of riding, rolling the throttle to change gear when normally you can just change without even thinking. It compromised my race a bit but once I got used to it and settled into a rhythm I was still able to lap at almost 129mph and I can’t ask for much more than second place. I had good pit boards all the way round the course and was surprised by how many people I caught on the roads but I passed them all in clean, safe places and couldn’t have finished second to a better man.”
The battle for fourth was close throughout though and going into the final lap, just 2.7s separated fourth to seventh and in the end it went to Australian David Johnson, comfortably his best ever TT result after a brilliant ride although it was tight – just 0.8s ahead of Cummins, who lost time at his pit stop when the bike refused to fire up. Hours after the race Conor Cummins was awarded a 2 minute time penalty due to having an ineligible suspension component fitted to his RAF Honda Superstock machine which pushed him all the way back to 18th place on the results sheet.
Lee Johnston had his best ever result as well as he finished sixth only 0.2s clear of Michael Rutter whose solid week continued.
Dan Kneen had another good ride, finishing in eighth place while Peter Hickman took a brilliant ninth place to be both the first newcomer and first privateer home with John McGuinness completing the top ten. Hickman increased his personal best lap to 126.545mph.
Horst Saiger was the second privateer home in 13th just ahead of Russ Mountford, James Cowton and Ivan Lintin. Lintin’s 15th place maintaining his lead in the TT Privateer’s Championship with 56 points, six ahead of Hickman.
Joe Faragher was taken by Airmed to Nobles hospital following an incident at Joey’s and reported to have sustained fractures.
Karl Harris, 34, from Sheffield was killed during the Superstock Race following an incident at Joey’s on the 2nd lap of the race. Harris, a professional Motorbike racer, made his TT Races debut in 2012. He was a triple British Supersport Champion and British Superbike podium finisher.
Harris appeared on the racing scene as a teenager in the 1990s, when he rode for Team Great Britain in the Superteen Championship. From there, Harris went on to win the 1999 European Superstock 1000cc Championship before spending a season in the World Supersport Championship.
He was best known for his British Championship career. He was the dominant force in the British Supersport Championship in the early 2000s before becoming a prominent front-runner in the Superbike class for the factory Suzuki, Honda and Yamaha teams.
Harris won three British Supersport Championships between 2001 and 2004, the first for Crescent Suzuki and the remaining two for Honda Racing, before progressing full time to the premier Superbike category in 2005. His best season came in 2006 when he finished in 5th place overall recording 6 podiums. In total, Harris notched up 12 BSB podiums. Deepest sympathy to Karl’s family and friends.
Gary Thompson, TT Clerk of the Course, ACU Events, said: “Karl was one of the great characters in the race paddock. His infectious enthusiasm and sense of humour lit up many race meetings. He was a hugely talented racer and will be sorely missed.”
