2026 RST SUPERBIKE TT RACE PREVIEW
With weather causing Saturday’s race action at the Isle of Man TT Races to be cancelled, all eyes are now looking towards Sunday and the six-lap RST Superbike race, which is scheduled to get underway at 1.30pm.
Up until recently, the Superbike race was the traditional curtain raiser to proceedings so 2026 will be a throwback to the past with Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison heading into the race as favourite having topped qualifying with a speed of 134.877mph set on Friday morning.
The 37-year old has been in scintillating form throughout qualifying week with no less than eight 133mph+ laps to his name, across the classes, and he ended the week 16.4s ahead of second placed Peter Hickman (Monster Energy BMW by 8TEN Racing) who lapped at 132.701mph, also set on Friday morning.
Harrison currently has five TT wins to his name, but none have come in the Superbike class so it’s clearly a race he will want to win. Hickman, on the other hand, already has three Superbike wins, the most recent of which came in 2024, and is edging ever closer to his best as he reacquaints himself with the Mountain Course after missing the majority of the 2025 event.
Dean Harrison leads the charge into Sunday’s RST Superbike TT after a commanding qualifying week
However, a six-lap race will undoubtedly be his toughest test so far, so although he’s clearly capable of going quicker than what he did in qualifying, getting close to Harrison may be a step too far at this stage of race week.
Time will tell if that’s the case, but Harrison will be all too aware of the threat he possesses as he will of the other two riders to break the 132mph barrier in qualifying, Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) and Michael Dunlop (MD Racing Honda).
It’s been a challenging week on the Superbike for Australian ace Brookes as he’s continually sought to find a good set-up with the Honda Fireblade, but it all clicked in the final qualifying session with a lap of 132.220mph. Dunlop, a five-time Superbike race winner, was another to suffer issues during the week but a lap of 132.149mph on the final day of qualifying showed he was back in contention.
Four other riders put in laps at more than 130mph and it was John McGuinness (Honda Racing) who was fifth quickest with a lap of 130.903mph. Adding to his record tally of six Superbike race victories may be out of reach but his form this year shows he’s riding as well as ever and he hasn’t give up hope of a 48th TT podium in his 30th year of TT racing.
Jamie Coward (Rapid Honda with DriveLife) was another to save the best until last with a lap of 130.122mph on Friday afternoon, the Hebden Bridge rider another to experience engine issues, with Ian Hutchinson (Team RST BMW) and Nathan Harrison (H&H Motorcycles Honda) also showing there’ll be in the podium mix having lapped at 130.052mph and 130.010mph respectively.
Jamie Coward found form when it mattered most
Several other riders were close to the 130mph mark in practice, most notably Mike Browne (Caffrey International by Russell Racing Honda), Paul Jordan (Jackson Racing powered by Prosper2 Honda), David Johnson (Platinum Club Kawasaki) and Dominic Herbertson (KTS Racing by Stanley Stewart) and all four will be confident of upping their pace during race conditions and putting themselves in with a chance of a rostrum position.
Several riders narrowly missed the 130mph mark in qualifying but remain a strong contenders.
Conor Cummins (Conrod Motorsport BMW) has had a low-key week but a lap of 129.104mph on Friday showed he was back on form whilst strong performances have come during the five qualifying sessions from Julian Trummer (Smith Racing BMW), Marcus Simpson (WH Racing powered by Dynobike Honda), Mitch Rees (Milenco by Padgetts Honda), Maurizio Bottalico (Handtrans/Nigel Appleyard/AgriWash BMW) and Erno Kostamo (RVS Motorsport BMW).
