Todd takes honours in Superbike thriller

DT and MD went head-to-head as TT’25 comes alive

The 2025 Isle of Man TT races might have been delayed due to a rain affected practice week, but when the racing started we were treated to a real classic in the race week opening four-lap RST x D30 Superbike TT.

With Peter Hickman out through injury (he crashed in practice) the battle was expected to be between last year’s Senior TT winner Davey Todd, 29-time winner Michael Dunlop and Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison, the 2019 Senior champion.

From the start it was Todd and Harrison who set the pace, Todd holding an advantage of just 0.044 seconds as they went through the timing point at Glen Helen for the first time, with Dunlop 2.8 seconds behind in third.

Harrison struggled to maintain the pace of his BMW-mounted rivals, struggling with some stability issues on his Fireblade, setting up a thrilling battle between Todd and Dunlop – the pair never separated by more than eight seconds in their high speed battle.

That was the lead 8TEN BMW rider Todd held when they went in for their pitstops at the end of lap two, but a disappointing stop for Todd (who spent 61.976 seconds in pitlane) combined with some sharp work from Dunlop’s crew (55.8 seconds) saw the second half of the race get underway with Todd’s advantage cut to just 1.586 seconds as they triggered the Glen Helen timing point for the third time.

One lap later and Dunlop brought the gap down to a meagre 0.269 seconds as he looked to take a 30^th TT win, however he would lose a few seconds as he caught Harrison to take the lead on the road – eventually forcing a pass on the approach to the Rhencullen section. Despite suffering rear tyre wear, Dunlop blitzed to a 135.416mph final lap – but Toddy had just enough in hand and, at the end of 150 miles of racing, he took a hard fought third career TT win by just 1.296 seconds. 

Speaking after his win, Todd said: “That was the most nervous I have ever felt on the start line. With the week we’ve had, the track has always been different (in every session).

We didn’t have a warm up lap but with these guys you’ve got to push right from the start, not really knowing what the track is like. I had a bit of a nightmare at the pitstop and lost a chunk of time at a time when I had a comfortable gap I was looking to manage.

I had to really get my head down, which I didn’t really want to do but which I had to do. I’m basically running a superstock bike with a faster engine and I love it. The team did a fantastic job, it’s been a lot of hard work to put this team together over the past few months and I am delighted for them.”

Dunlop lamented catching Harrison at a section where overtaking was difficult, saying:

“I just caught Dean at the wrong place and lost momentum when I passed him, and then the tyre was destroyed and I lost all grip, which was disappointing as I knew I could have a second wind on the last lap. It’s just the way it is. I knew it was going to be tough. We struggled in practice but made a big step here, so we’ll see how it goes (for the Senior TT) next Saturday.”

Dunlop should have an opportunity to try some new set-ups on his BMW M 1000 RR superbike in various practice sessions planned during race week – ahead of the Milwaukee Senior TT which is scheduled to take place on Saturday afternoon.

Behind the podium trio was a stunning performance from local rider Nathan Harrison. The Manxman hadn’t set a 130mph lap before this TT, but set three of them in the race to take a comfortable fourth. Aussie Dave Johnson was a very creditable fifth on his Kawasaki, ahead of fellow veterans James Hillier and John McGuinness. Honda riders Josh Brookes, Michael Evans and Paul Jordan closed out the top 10.