Michael Dunlop took his ninth TT victory in today’s the Superstock race at the Isle of Man to give BMW their second win in four days. The Superstock win also marks Dunlop’s third win in the Superstock race and with a third different bike manufacturer.
At first Dunlop faced a serious challenge from yesterday’s Supersport 1 race winner, Gary Johnson, but Johnson crashed out on the run up to the Waterworks on the opening lap. With Johnson out Dunlop was able to maintain his lead and ultimately finish 20.1 seconds over RC Express Racing’s Dean Harrison. And rounding out the podium was Bruce Anstey on the Valvoline Racing/Padgetts Honda.
Dunlop was quickest to Glen Helen on lap one but it was close as only 0.5 seconds covered the top four riders – Harrison, Johnson and James Hillier – all in touch with Dunlop. By Ramsey, Johnson had moved up to second but his challenge came to an abrupt end, just a few hundred yards up from the hairpin. Johnson was reported conscious, but with fractures and airlifted to Nobles Hospital.
Dunlop’s opening lap of 129.588 mph gave him a 6.7 second lead over Harrison with Anstey now up to third and Hillier still holding onto fourth. Conor Cummins and Guy Martin rounded out the top six.
On lap two, Dunlop continued to increase his advantage but Harrison was keeping him honest. But the margin had more than doubled as they came into refuel, the gap now just under 13 seconds as Dunlop set the fastest lap of the race at 129.778 mph. Anstey continued to hold onto third but Cummins, Martin and Michael Rutter had all passed Hillier who slipped back to seventh.
Harrison appeared to lose time at the pit stop, but he ate away at Dunlop’s lead to nine seconds at Glen Helen on the third lap. Harrison’s hopes of reducing it further soon evaporated as Dunlop moved it back up to 18 seconds by the end of the lap.
Using his pit boards to control the race in the closing stages, Dunlop came home for the win further extending his lead at the top of the Joey Dunlop Championship table.
Harrison equaled his best ever result in second, repeating the runner-up spot in last year’s Lightweight race, with Anstey comfortable in third for the entire race.
On the other hand the battle for fourth was close throughout. Going into the final lap, just 2.7 seconds separated fourth to seventh and in the end it went to Australian David Johnson – just 0.8 seconds ahead of Cummins, who lost time at his pit stop when the bike refused to fire up. Lee Johnston had his best ever result in sixth, only 0.2 seconds clear of Michael Rutter whose solid week continued.
Dan Kneen had another good ride, finishing in eighth place while Peter Hickman took ninth place to earn both the best newcomer and privateer finish. And completing the top-10 was John McGuinness.
Guy Martin was unable to finish the race, having to retire at Parliament Square.
It was later released that Cummins had been awarded a two-minute time penalty due to an ineligible suspension component fitted to his RAF Honda Superstock machine. As a result Cummins was placed 18th instead of his original fifth place in the final results. It was added that Cummins final position still would qualify him for a silver replica.
REVISED 2014 Isle of Man TT Superstock Results
1. Michael Dunlop (BMW)
2. Dean Harrison (Kawasaki)
3. Bruce Antsey (Honda)
4. David Johnson (Kawasaki)
5. Lee Johnston (Honda)
6. Michael Rutter (BMW)
7. Dan Kneen (Suzuki)
8. Peter Hickman (BMW)
9. John McGuiness (Honda)
10. James Hillier (Kawasaki)
18. Conor Cummins (Honda)
