MICHAEL DUNLOP WINS ENTIRE COVER SUPERTWIN TT RACE 2
Michael Dunlop took his second win of the day at the Isle of Man TT Races on Saturday when he won the Entire Cover Supertwin TT Race 2, victory on the MD Racing Paton giving him his 29th TT win.
Peter Hickman (Swan Racing Yamaha) took second with Mike Browne (Scott Racing Aprilia) completing the podium in third.
Getting underway at 3.45pm, Dunlop again seized control early and led Hickman through Glen Helen by 3.5 seconds with Jamie Coward (KTS racing powered by Steadplan Kawasaki) a further 1.2 seconds adrift. Browne was just four tenths of a second behind with Dominic Herbertson (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing Paton) only 0.005 seconds down on Browne as Barry Furber (DC Autos Newtown Yamaha) slotted into an excellent sixth.
Stefano Bonetti (VAS Engine Paton), Davey Todd (Dafabet Racing Kawasaki), Adam McLean (Flitwick Motorcycles/SMV Yamaha) and Bonetti’s team-mate Pierre-Yves Bian rounded out the early leaderboard.
Dunlop added a further 3 seconds to his lead over Hickman on the run to Ballaugh, but Coward had cut the gap to Hickman to less than a second whilst Herbertson was right in the mix for the final podium position as he lay just 0.3 seconds further back from Browne.
Aided by the best ever sector time from Ballaugh, Dunlop extended his lead to 8.9 seconds round Ramsey Hairpin for the first time as Hickman edged away slightly from Coward but the latter soon began to slow over the Mountain and eventually pulled in to retire at the Creg Ny Baa.
With another new best sector time, from the Bungalow to Cronk ny Mona, a superb opening lap of 122.451mph gave Dunlop the lead but Hickman got up and over the Mountain quicker, bringing his deficit down to 6.4 seconds ahead of the second and final 37.73 miles. Coward’s demise meant it was now Browne in third ahead of Herbertson, Jordan and Todd.
Further back, Brookes, McLean, Furber and Bonetti completed the top ten but having been forced to start from the back of the field when his SMT Racing Paton refused to fire, Rob Hodson was charging and was up to sixth through Ramsey.
With clear road ahead of him, Dunlop added some three seconds to his lead over Hickman on the second and final run to Glen Helen and although Browne was a further ten seconds behind, he was holding a slender advantage of 1.7 seconds over Herbertson in the battle for third.
Dunlop was increasing his lead through every timing point with another four seconds on the high-speed run to Ballaugh and the famous landmark saw a change in the race for third, Herbertson nosing four tenths of a second ahead of Browne.
At Ramsey, Dunlop was more than seven seconds inside his 2018 lap record having now set the quickest ever time in three of the six sectors but as he descended the Mountain for the final time, the race was stopped due to a red flag.
The race was declared a result at the end of lap one and so Dunlop got the win from Hickman and Browne, Herbertson unluckily missing out in fourth. Jordan finished fifth ahead of Hodson, Todd, Brookes, McClean and Furber.
