TT 2018: Harrison dominates Supersport race for second win

Dean Harrison dominated the second Supersport race at the Isle of Man TT to claim his second win around the Mountain Course.

The Silicone Engineering Kawasaki rider won by 18.6s over Peter Hickman, setting a new race record by 8.749s.

Harrison led from the start and continued to pull away from Michael Dunlop with the latter picking up a 30-second penalty for exceeding the pit lane speed limit at his pit stop. That gave Harrison the breathing space he needed and he followed up his 2014 Lightweight victory with a second TT win as Hickman (Trooper Triumph by Smiths Racing) and James Hillier (Quattro Plant JG Speedfit Kawasaki) joined him on the rostrum.

As he has done for most of this week, Harrison led through Glen Helen on the opening lap - his lead over Dunlop was 1.8s but Hillier was certainly in touch, only 0.4s behind Dunlop. Hickman was a further 1.8s back with Conor Cummins and Gary Johnson holding on to fifth and sixth.

By Ramsey Hairpin, Harrison had increased his lead over Dunlop to 2.7s and whilst Hillier was still in third, he was now 4.3s adrift of Dunlop. Hickman had closed to within 0.1s of Hillier as Cummins and Johnson held station.

An opening lap of 128.188mph gave Harrison a 3.6s lead over Dunlop and Hickman had now moved to third albeit by the tiny margin of 0.197s. Cummins was still in fifth but team-mate Lee Johnston had moved up to sixth with Josh Brookes in seventh, relegating Johnson to eighth. Ireland’s Derek McGee was again going great guns in ninth with James Cowton tenth.

As they swept through Glen Helen on the second lap, Harrison’s advantage had stretched to 4.5s over Dunlop and Hickman had edged away from Hillier too, the gap between the riders now one second. The two Padgetts Honda’s of Cummins and Johnston continued to occupy fifth and sixth.

Harrison continued to pull away from Dunlop through lap two and with a lap speed of 129.099mph, just outside Dunlop’s lap record from Monday’s race, he extended his lead to 8.3s as he came into the pits. The battle for third was still raging with Hickman still only two seconds ahead of Hillier, who was now leading on the road having overtaken Cummins who was now enjoying a healthy 20s advantage over Johnston. Brookes, Johnson, McGee and Cowton was now the order for seventh to tenth.

Dunlop changed his rear tyre but there was drama as he was given a 30s penalty for exceeding the speed limit in pit lane at 60.2km/h and that meant Harrison’s lead had shot up to 18.3s over Hickman as he rounded Glen Helen for the third time. Hillier was still well in touch, the deficit now 1.4s with Cummins up to fourth as Dunlop slipped back to fifth.

Through Ramsey, Harrison was continuing to pull away over Hickman and he was doing the same over Hillier. Dunlop was closing in on Cummins though and Brookes had now moved up to sixth.

Going into the fourth and final lap, Harrison had a comfortable lead of 19.5s over Hickman who was now looking more secure in second, Hillier now 7.9s in arrears and Cummins had edged away from Dunlop also.

There was little change in the running order and Harrison, who was now leading on the road, duly crossed the line for his second TT win with Hickman and Hillier back on the podium once more in second and third.

Cummins, Dunlop and Brookes completed the top six with Johnston, Johnson, Cowton and Ivan Lintin rounding out the top ten as McGee’s excellent run came to an unfortunate end on the final lap with a retirement at Sarah’s Cottage.