Michael joins Joey as TT’s greatest

Supersport win takes MD to 26 wins

Michael Dunlop joined his uncle Joey as the Isle of Man TT’s greatest rider of all time today. The 35-year-old fired his Yamaha R6 to victory in the opening Monster Energy Supersport TT to move on to 26 career wins. With another seven TTs ahead of him this week, there’s every possibility he could become the outright greatest of all time by the time TT 2024 closes next Saturday.

Dean Harrison had proved a surprise early leader on his Honda Racing CBR600RR, posting a 128.037mph opening lap with Davey Todd and Dunlop in close pursuit. The top three were separated by just one-and-a-half seconds at the end of the first lap.

Dunlop wound up the pace on lap two and went into the pitstop at the end of lap two with a 4.5 second advantage over Todd. Todd’s Ducati team were able to claw back around a second-and-a-half during the pitstop but Dunlop was in superb form in one of his specialist classes. He ended the four-lap race 8.574 seconds ahead of Todd, with Harrison completing the podium, a further 14 seconds back.

Supersport has been a strong class for Dunlop in recent years and after originally being slated to ride a Triumph at this year’s event, he swapped back to the trusty Yamaha upon which he won both last year’s races after just one session.

After the race, an emotional Dunlop said:

“Fantastic! I knew it would be tight. We made a lot of changes (to the bike) and it took me a few laps to bed in. Davey has good pace and is riding really well this week, so I had to really bite the screen to win. Equalling Joey’s record has been playing on my mind all week but we’ve done it now. Whatever happens in life now, this is something special. Joey and I rode in different times, different eras, but to be the best is special.”

Second marked Todd’s best TT result, topping the third place he got in one of last year’s Superstock TTs.

He said:

“It’s a real honour to ride this bike, it’s something like 2003 since they won here. The bike has never been here before and it’s my first time riding anything other than a Honda CBR600RR, so we have lots of potential.”

Harrison was a surprise podium finisher, having struggled to make much of an impression during practice. He started third on the road and hunted down Triumph mounted Jamie Coward ahead of him, to be able to benefit from the slipstream of the more powerful 765cc triple down the island’s long straights.

He said:

“I’m over the moon with third.This bike handles so, so well but maybe lacks some of the punch of Jamie’s bike. I knew if I could catch him by Ramsey he could give me a tow over the mountain. We’ve got so much potential with this bike and this is a great result for us.”

Fourth went to Kawasaki-mounted James Hillier, ahead of James Hind, who took a career best result on his Suzuki GSX-R750, making it five manufacturers in the top five. Josh Brookes put in one of his best TT performances to take sixth on another Yamaha R6, but it was a tough day for Peter Hickman, who never really got going on his Triumph. The 13-time TT winner was never challenging for a podium place and ultimately retired on the last lap. Coward was another retirement, stopping with a mechanical issue just after his pit stop.

Dunlop gets his first chance to become the TT’s Greatest Of All Time tomorrow, when he lines up for the six-lap RST Superbike TT.