ADVANTAGE HARRISON AS QUALIFYING CONCLUDES
Qualifying for this year’s Isle of Man TT Races concluded on Friday afternoon and it did so in spectacular fashion as Dean Harrison lit up the Mountain Course, the Honda Racing UK rider lapping at 135.484mph on his Superstock machine.
Having topped every qualifying session, Harrison will head into Saturday’s three-lap Superstock race as the clear favourite, especially as his 135mph+ lap was a short lap as the session concluded, rather than a flying lap. His lap puts him almost half a minute quicker than the second fastest Superstock rider, Josh Brookes.
Unlike the morning session, most riders went with their Superstock bike first as they looked to make any last-minute changes to setup ahead of tomorrow’s race, one of the major exceptions being Peter Hickman, the 8TEN Racing rider clearly hoping to make further improvements after his earlier comments that the Superbike BMW M1000RR still needed to be refined.
John McGuinness (Honda Racing UK) was out on his Superstock bike, the team having changed engines on his Superbike in between sessions, but it was Michael Dunlop (MD Racing BMW) who led the field away ahead of Ian Hutchinson (Team RST BMW), Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) and Harrison.
The Honda Racing rider was six seconds quicker than anyone else on the nine-mile run to Glen Helen, with just over a second covering the riders in second to fifth, Dunlop, Hickman, Brookes and Hutchinson. Although Hickman was stringing together a strong lap, being quicker than Harrison from Glen Helen to Ballaugh, he was black flagged at Parliament Square in Ramsey to allow marshals to inspect his BMW.
Peter Hickman was black flagged at Parliament Square to remove a loose part
Harrison wasn’t having any such issues though and the Honda rider built on his advantage throughout the lap, a first lap speed of 133.549mph some 12.6s quicker than Dunlop (131.913mph) with Hutchinson (130.700mph) third quickest on the Superstock times. With Hickman having been forced to stop due to a loose part of the belly pan having to be removed, Brookes topped the early Superbike leaderboard with a lap of 131.834mph.
The second lap saw Harrison really fly around the Mountain Course and despite it being a short lap, as the session came to an end, his speed was a superb 135.484mph, just 1.6s outside his personal best lap set in last year’s first Superstock race. Brookes posted his best lap of the week at 132.220mph with Hutchinson (130.532mph) and Jamie Coward (130.122mph) also above the 130mph mark on their second laps.
Dunlop came in to make changes to his Superstock BMW, getting back on track to put in a second lap slightly quicker than his first at 131.946mph, but Hickman’s session went further awry as, having switched to his Superstock machine, he ran wide at Sulby Bridge and then pulled in immediately afterwards at Ginger Hall clearly not happy with something on the BMW.
Other noteworthy laps in the session came from Smith Racing’s Julian Trummer (127.630mph), WH Racing’s Marcus Simpson (127.334mph), the Milenco by Padgetts Honda of Mitch Rees (126.668mph) and Finland’s Erno Kostamo (125.768mph). Newcomer Gary McCoy’s good week continued as he lapped at 123.370mph.
At 3.15pm, the final qualifying session at TT 2026 got underway with the Supersport and Sportbike machines getting their final chance to refine set-up ahead of Tuesday’s races, Dunlop, Brookes, Hickman, Dominic Herbertson and Michael Evans all out early on their Supersport mounts. Dean Harrison was a notable absentee though, his work for the day done.
Dunlop was quickest on the Scars Racing Ducati to Glen Helen, 2.7s quicker than Hickman (Swan Racing by PHR Performance Triumph) with Coward on the Rapid Honda in third ahead of Brookes (Uggly & Co. Racing Suzuki), Hutchinson (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Ducati) and Evans (Dafabet Triumph).
Josh Brookes was pushing hard to go third on the Uggly&Co Suzuki
Dunlop stretched his advantage through every sector with an opening lap of 128.719mph further cementing his status as the hot favourite for Supersport honours. The 33-time winner immediately pulled in, and it was Hickman (127.301mph) who was second fastest, 11.7s down on Dunlop with Brookes (125.556mph), Coward (125.357mph), Hutchinson (124.217mph) and Joe Yeardsley (122.752mph) completing the top six.
Brookes (125.318mph) and Hutchinson (124.207mph) both completed another lap, speeds down as they were again short lapped as the session concluded, although it was Herbertson (KTS Macadam Factory Racing Triumph) in fifth overall after a lap of 124.499mph. Another impressive performance came in from former Macau Grand Prix winner Kostamo, the Finn lapping at 122.077mph on the Zerowaste Motorsport Ducati.
Browne topped the Sportbike leaderboard on the opening lap, despite overshooting Parliament Square, with a speed of 120.371mph putting him ahead of Michal Dokoupil (117.931mph), Barry Furber (117.320mph), Stefano Bonetti (116.747mph), Michael Sweeney (116.701mph) and Jonathan Perry (116.083mph).
Jamie Coward got a solitary lap on the Milenco by Padgetts Paton
Browne’s second lap on the Melbray/Laycock Racing Paton was a strong 121.348mph with Hickman (120.050mph) and Coward (119.385mph) slotting into second and third respectively on the leaderboard after getting a solitary lap each on the Swan Racing by PHR Performance and Milenco by Padgetts Paton respectively. Meanwhile, newcomer Rhys Stephenson (Rocket Racing Triumph) ended his qualifying week on a high with his best lap so far of 114.118mph.
