Harrison takes Superstock 2

Dean Harrison followed up his thrilling win in Tuesday’s opening Superstock TT with an even more dominant victory in today’s Opul Superstock TT 2, winning by over 16 seconds from Davey Todd, with a similar gap back to Michael Dunlop in third.

Harrison, who grabbed his first Superstock TT win on Thursday (ending a 10 year BMW domination in the process), set the pace through the opening sector to lead from Todd, while a mistake from Dunlop saw his challenge all but over after two corners. He ran on at Braddan Bridge, losing over 20 seconds in the process.

Todd took over the lead as they approached the Mountain section for the first time (albeit with just hundreds of a second between them) and the scene was set for an epic TT as they came in for the compulsory pitstop at the end of lap one, separated by a mere 0.584 seconds.

Alas, the pitstop would see an end to Todd’s challenge for the win. His BMW M 1000 RR failed to fire up first time and saw him lose around 12 seconds in the pits. With Harrison riding impeccably, it was in the Honda rider’s hands. A 130mph lap out of the pits saw him extend his lead to 20 seconds by the end of lap two, allowing him to ride to his pit boards and manage his advantage on the third and final lap – setting a 132.540mph last lap to take the win from 16 seconds over a dejected Todd.

“I am over the moon to get the two wins,” Harrison said after the race. “I went hard at the start and saw my pit boards. P1, P2, P1 over the mountain again, and then I saw P1 +13 (seconds) at Glen Helen on the second lap. I rode hard to maintain that gap and when I saw P1 + 20 I knocked it off a little bit and just managed it.”

Todd was clearly frustrated after the race, saying: “I am disappointed as I felt we could challenge for that one. We made some improvements to the bike but then it didn’t start in the pitstop. I felt like I had a really steady start and that I was right in the mix, but I half gave up after that because you’re not going to get that time back on someone like Dean when he’s riding the way he is, so I brought it home for second. I’m gutted for the team because they’ve worked so hard. We’ve still got a few issues with the electronics but I think we can overcome that if I ride like I know I can. I am just disappointed because we don’t deserve this bad luck.”

Dunlop fought through to third by the end of the race, taking his 50^th career TT podium and ensuring another lock out for the ‘Big Three’. Despite his domination of the smaller capacity classes, Dunlop has been beset with niggly issues during his first TT with the new BMW. “We’ve had problems with the bike all week, which seems like an electronic issue,” he said. “I ran on two corners in and once I’d done that it was game over and I just had to battle away for the podium. When I got through to third I went a bit steady. I saw Davey had a problem in the pits and I knew that Dean would be gone, so I wasn’t even going to fight for that one. It’s been a hard week on the big bikes with the lack of track time, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.”

James Hillier continued his great TT with fourth, ahead of Manxman Conor Cummins, with the Hondas of Josh Brookes, Nathan Harrison, John McGuinness and Dominic Herbertson, with David Johnson rounding out the top 10 on his Kawasaki.

The big bikes will have one final outing in tomorrow’s Senior TT. Todd will be hoping to repeat his Superbike TT success from Monday, while Harrison admits he is contemplating riding his Superstock spec machine in the gruelling six-lapper.

It’s been a fascinating TT so far and we can’t wait to see how it all plays out in the big one tomorrow!