Southern 100: Harrison crowned Solo champion

Dean Harrison won the Manx Gas Solo Championship race at the Southern 100 for the first time following an enthralling three-way battle for victory at Billown.

After Michael Dunlop hit the front at the beginning of the race, Manx rider Dan Kneen took over on his DTR BMW, with Harrison giving chase in third.

The top three quickly broke the tow of the chasing pack, headed by Yorkshireman Jamie Coward on the Radcliffe's Butchers BMW.

Harrison, fresh from a seven-timer at Oliver's Mount in June, was making his presence felt on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki and quickly swept through from third to first to take control.

The Bradford rider set a scorching pace at the front around the 4.25-mile course on his ZX-10R but was unable to put any meaningful daylight between himself and Kneen and Dunlop.

Bennetts Suzuki rider Dunlop blasted the lap record with a sensational 115mph lap on his GSX-R1000 but the 15-time Isle of Man TT winner had to settle for third as his quest for a second successive Superbike four-timer was thwarted.

Despite a determined challenge from Kneen, Harrison kept his nose in front to clinch victory in the headline race by a tenth of a second. It was heartbreak for Kneen, who finished as the runner-up in all four Superbike races on his S1000RR.

Dunlop was less than half a second behind Harrison as he completed the rostrum places, with the 28-year-old having the consolation of a new absolute lap record of 115.707mph.

Coward finished 21 seconds back in fourth, with James Cowton crossing the line in an isolated fifth place on the McAdoo Racing Kawasaki.

Dan Hegarty (Honda) only just held off newcomer Derek McGee (Kawasaki) to clinch sixth place.

Earlier, Dunlop made it three wins from three starts on the Suzuki as he once again denied Kneen to win the Island Aggregates Senior race.

The Northern Ireland rider set a then new lap record of 115.267mph as he closed out the win by 0.9s from Kneen, with Coward finishing a lonely third.

Solo Championship winner Harrison was celebrating a double on the final day of the popular Isle of Man meeting as he held off Dunlop to win the S&S Motors Supersport race.

After seven pulsating laps, the difference between them was only 0.264s, with Dunlop establishing a new lap record on his MD Racing Yamaha at 111.335mph, while Harrison set a new race record at an average speed of 109.460mph on his Kawasaki. Harrison also won the opening Supersport race on Wednesday.

James Cowton finished two seconds in arrears in third on the McAdoo Kawasaki.

In the Supertwins 650 class, Ivan Lintin sealed a double on the Dafabet RC Express Kawasaki as the Lincolnshire rider squeezed out Cowton once more by just 0.065s as they flashed across the line virtually together.

In another record-breaking race, Cowton raised the lap record for the class to 104.600mph while Lintin set a new race record with an average speed of 103.164mph.

In a dramatic Sidecar Championship race, John Holden and Lee Cain lifted the trophy after Ben and Tom Birchall and Tim Reeves/Mark Wilkes were disqualified from the result. The two sidecar crews were battling for the lead when an incident occurred at Cross Four Ways on the final lap.

The Birchalls had set a new lap record of 101.545mph prior to the incident.