HICKMAN CHALLENGED BY TODD FOR TOP SPOT
Speeds continued to climb at the Isle of Man TT Races on Friday afternoon with Davey Todd and Peter Hickman separated by less than a second at the top of the Superbike leaderboard, the Milwaukee BMW Motorrad of Todd coming out on top with a lap of 133.942mph, his quickest ever lap around the Mountain Course.
Michael Dunlop was quickest in the Superstock class at 132.135mph on the MD Racing Honda and the Supersport where he lapped at 127.649mph on his MD Racing Yamaha. Peter Hickman (120.885mph) set the fastest lap of the week so far in the Supertwin class whilst the Sidecars saw Manx brothers Ryan and Callum Crowe up their speeds again to an impressive 119.191mph.
In a change to the normal procedure, the Sidecars were the first session out on course at 1.05pm with Reeves/Wilkes, Founds/Walmsley, Ryan/Callum Crowe and Molyneux/Roberts the first down Glencrutchery Road followed by Birchall/Rousseau, Crawford/Hardie and Blackstock/Rosney.
Both Reeves/Wilkes and Founds/Walmsley were bedding in new engines, so their speeds were down initially, and the Crowes also lost time to Glen Helen after overshooting Ballacraine. Birchall/Rousseau were quickest to Ramsey, but they had an incident shortly afterwards at the Mountain Box with both reported to be ok. This meant that Founds/Walmsley (112.952) were fastest on the opening lap from Founds/Gibbons (112.616), Blackstock/Rosney (112.490mph) and newcomers Ellis/Clement (111.249).
Second time around and with a trouble-free lap, the Crowes upped their pace to 119.191mph with Reeves/Wilkes (115.260mph), Blackstock/Rosney (113.806), Ellis/Clement (112.991), the Ramsdens (110.666) also improving. The lap by Clement made her, unofficially, the fastest female passenger ever around the Mountain Course.
At 2.15pm, it was the turn of the Superbike/Superstock session with Dean Harrison (Honda Racing UK), Jamie Coward (KTS Racing powered by Steadplan Group Honda), Shaun Anderson (Team Classic Suzuki), the Monster Energy BMW by FHO Racing pairing of Hickman and Josh Brookes, John McGuinness (Honda Racing UK) and Michael Dunlop (MD Racing Honda), amongst the first away, the last-named on his Superstock mount as were Coward and Craig Neve.
It was Todd (133.942mph) who topped the Superbike leaderboard though on his Milwaukee BMW on the first lap, but it was close as he was just 0.7 seconds quicker than Hickman (133.851mph) with the duo followed by Harrison (132.143mph), Brookes (131.311mph), McGuinness (130.152mph) and David Johnson (129.335mph). Dunlop was quickest in the Superstocks at 132.135mph and that put him ahead of Coward (129.388mph), Mike Browne (129.171mph), Neve (128.244mph) and Nathan Harrison (127.923mph).
Speeds were slightly lower for everyone on lap two with Dean Harrison the quickest at 131.926mph followed by Brookes (131.509mph), Hickman (130.763mph), Todd (130.253mph), McGuinness (130.127mph) and Dominic Herbertson (129.065mph). It was a similar story in the Superstock class too where Browne was quickest at 127.420mph on his IN Competition Aprilia whilst Frenchman Amalric Blanc (125.477mph) was again impressing in 11th place.
Dunlop slotted into fourth on the Superbike leaderboard after lapping at 131.592mph but that changed as he improved to132.728mph next time around to go third quickest behind Todd and Hickman. There were changes in the Superstock class too where Dean Harrison (131.293mph) and Neve (129.448mph) took over second and third place positions.
The final session of the afternoon, for the Supersport/Supertwin categories, got underway at 3.05pm with James Hind first away on the North Lincs Components Suzuki and he was first back to the Grandstand after lapping at 124.349mph. However, he was soon overhauled with Coward (127.210mph), Dunlop (126.652mph) and Todd (126.450mph) occupying first to third before Dunlop’s final lap saw him take the top spot as Hickman (125.250mph) took fourth.
Herbertson was quickest on the opening lap on the Supertwins (119.544mph) on the Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Paton followed Michael Rutter on the Bathams Ales Yamaha (116.607mph) and the similarly-mounted Josh Brookes (116.196mph), the Australian getting his first lap on the Rev2Race machine.
Herbertson improved to 120.036mph on his second lap with Rutter (118.097mph) and Adam McLean (117.336mph), back at the TT for the first time since 2018, also quickening their pace. But, Hickman knocked them all down a spot with his first lap on the Swan Yamaha that saw him go quickest with a lap of 120.885mph. A late lap for Davey Todd (119.259mph) saw him go third fastest on the Dafabet Kawasaki.
