HARRISON ON LAP RECORD FORM BEFORE SENIOR TT STOPPED
Dean Harrison was on course for his second victory of the week at this year’s Isle of Man TT Races when he led the Milwaukee Senior TT halfway round the second lap only for a red flag to bring proceedings to a halt.
The Honda Racing UK rider was over 14 seconds clear of Peter Hickman (Monster Energy BMW Motorrad by 8TEN Racing) as he was making his second ascent of Snaefell and was two seconds inside the outright lap record, but the red flag came out shortly afterwards due to an incident at the 11th Milestone.
Getting underway at 6.25pm, Harrison led at Glen Helen on the first lap by 4.1s from Hickman and it was Ian Hutchinson (Team RST BMW) in third, 3.2s adrift. Josh Brookes (DAO Racing Honda) slotted into fourth, but Michael Dunlop MBE (MD Racing Honda) was only in fifth, albeit only three tenths of a second behind his fellow Honda rider as a good start by David Johnson (Platinum Club Racing Kawasaki) saw him in sixth. The gaps were tight as only two seconds covered sixth to 12th.
By Ballaugh, Harrison’s lead over Hickman had increased to 6.7s and Brookes was up to third although his advantage over Hutchinson was only 0.086s. Dunlop was a further 1.5s behind in fifth as Jamie Coward (Rapid Honda by DriveLife) moved up to sixth.
Through Ramsey for the first time Harrison had extended his advantage over Hickman to 7.8s with Brookes now 8.1s behind. He’d opened a small gap over Hutchinson though, the difference between the two riders standing at 1.5s. Dunlop remained in fifth, a second behind Hutchinson.
Harrison continued to build on his lead up and over the Mountain and an opening lap of 135.166mph saw him head into lap two with a 12.4s advantage over Hickman (133.510mph). Brookes continued to hold onto third after lapping at 132.775mph but that closed him to within 5.6s of Hickman as Hutchinson (131.789mph), Dunlop (131.356mph) and Coward (130.005mph) completed the top six.
Reaching Glen Helen for the second time, Harrison was continuing to press on with another strong sector, his lead over Hickman creeping up to 14.3s. Hickman had edged away from Brookes too, the gap now 9.4s as Brookes overhauled Dunlop on the road. Hutchinson, Dunlop and Coward were holding station in fourth to sixth.
Only three seconds covered the five riders battling for sixth – Coward, Johnson, Nathan Harrison (H&H Motorcycles Honda), John McGuinness (Honda Racing) and Conor Cummins (Conrod’s Motorsport BMW) but at the head of the field Harrison was showing no signs of letting up.
His lead had extended further at Ramsey to almost 15 seconds and he was on course to challenge Hickman’s three-year old outright lap record, but the race was stopped shortly afterwards and the race curtailed.
Due to less than 50% of the race being completed the race could not be declared a result, therefore the Milwaukee Senior TT has now been rescheduled for 12:00 on Saturday 6 June, followed by the running of the Carole Nash Sportbike TT Race 2.
Following an improvement in the forecast for Saturday, and with heavy showers and low cloud now expected on Sunday, the Clerk of the Course has confirmed that the contingency period previously identified for Sunday will not be utilised.
As a result, and due to the remaining weather windows available within the event schedule, the RL360 Superstock TT Race 2 has been cancelled and will not take place at the 2026 Isle of Man TT Races.
