Harrison reels in Hickman for Senior TT victory at Isle of Man TT
Dean Harrison has claimed his maiden Dunlop Senior TT victory in a dramatic Isle of Man TT finale which saw Peter Hickman lose a comfortable lead due to an engine issue to see the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki rider charge clear to win by 53 seconds.
Hickman, who has claimed a hat-trick of wins this week, started the blue riband race with his Smiths Racing BMW S1000RR in full Superbike-specification and charged into the lead from the start to gradually build a time cushion on Harrison.
Dean Harrison has claimed his maiden Dunlop Senior TT victory in a dramatic Isle of Man TT finale which saw Peter Hickman lose a comfortable lead due to an engine issue to see the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki rider charge clear to win by 53 seconds.
Hickman, who has claimed a hat-trick of wins this week, started the blue riband race with his Smiths Racing BMW S1000RR in full Superbike-specification and charged into the lead from the start to gradually build a time cushion on Harrison.
By the end of Lap 4 approaching the second and final pit stop Hickman led by over 17 seconds, but his race fell apart with a suspected engine overheating issue which left him bleeding time to Harrison over the final two laps.
Short-shifting and low on revs, Hickman’s efforts were unable to halt Harrison’s charge as he officially gained the lead at the Ramsey Hairpin on the penultimate lap.
At the start of the final lap Harrison led by over 18 seconds and duly continued to pull out his advantage on the final lap, reaching the finish with a winning margin of 53.062s.
Harrison takes his first-ever Senior TT and his third victory at the Isle of Man TT.
Hickman gallantly fought on with a weakened Smiths Racing BMW to keep hold of second place by just 5.8s ahead of Conor Cummins on the Milenco by Padgetts Honda.
Tyco BMW’s Michael Dunlop couldn’t add to his 19 TT wins tally as he had to settle for fourth place, 27.8 seconds behind Cummins at the finish.
James Hillier recovered from a poor start on the Quattro Plant Kawasaki having dropped out of the top 10 to secure fifth place by just 2.5s ahead of an impressive run by Davey Todd on the Penz13.com BMW in sixth.
Michael Rutter ended his Isle of Man TT with a solid seventh place on the Bathams Racing Honda ahead of Jamie Coward on the Prez Racing Yamaha.
Brain McCormack claimed a strong ninth place on the ON-1 Racing BMW as Dominic Herbertson caught the eye with 10th place for Davies Motorsport Kawasaki.
John McGuinness retired on the Norton on the opening lap at the Bungalow, while there was double disaster for Honda Racing with Ian Hutchinson stopping at the end of Lap 2 in the pits as team-mate David Johnson suffered a mechanical issue on the same lap at Bedstead.
Ashcourt Racing BMW’s Lee Johnston, winner of the Supersport TT opener on Monday, was a non-starter due to a mechanical problem.
