Dean Harrison justified his pre-race favourite tag with a dominant Superbike TT win on his Honda Racing CBR1000RR-R Fireblade today.
With Saturday’s action cancelled due to poor visibility on the island, the six-lap RST Superbike TT would be the opening race of TT 2026, with Carole Nash ambassador Harrison on a different level as he romped to a sixth career TT win.
The 37-year-old, originally from Bradford but now an Isle of Man resident, got the hammer down straight away to record a 134.892mph opening lap to lead by 12 seconds from Michael Dunlop, who was less than a second ahead of the returning Peter Hickman.
While MD and Hicky would trade second and third for most of the race, Harrison rode hard and pulled away to open up a lead of around 30 seconds – eventually controlling the pace to take the flag by over 15 seconds from Hickman, who steadily built up his pace to post a 134mph lap of his own at the very end of the race.
But Harrison, who persuaded Honda to build a ‘hybrid’ machine somewhere between a superstock bike and a full-blown superbike for this year’s two six-lap races, was unstoppable. The bike runs a ‘softer’ superstock style chassis with a modified engine and Honda’s HRC ‘kit’ electronics, making for a powerful yet controllable motorcycle. The result was undeniable and, after the race, Dean explained: “I went hard from the start and tried to get a gap and build up a buffer. That gave me a decent lead coming in the pits and from there I just tried to manage it.
“It's so hard to keep concentration up for six laps around here, as it is so physical, so it’s been about making the bike easy to ride because this is an endurance race where we’re racing for almost two hours. The bikes are so powerful and you have to find a bit of a happy medium with them. You can’t wear yourself out in case you get involved in a dog fight on the last lap, so we built a special bike and I am delighted to win a six-lap TT for Honda, and to complete the set for me, as I have now won the Superbike, Senior, Superstock and Supersport TTs.” (as well as the Lightweight, now Sportbike – Ed).
Having missed last year’s TT after crashing during practice, there were plenty of unknowns about Hickman’s potential this year – and he was delighted to get faster as the race went on.
He said: “I'm just happy to be to be even here. It's been a long journey and I'm still not quite right yet. I'm not quite feeling me yet but I'm starting to get there and from lap four I started to chill out, relax a little bit and starting to get going and feel a bit more like me. I still need to hit some of my markers but I'm so thankful to everyone, including BMW and Monster Energy, for their belief in me. It takes a lot to be here and it’s just fantastic to be back on the podium. Dean truly deserved his win today. He’s riding the crest of a wave and he’s just in that perfect spot to knock those laps out.”
Dunlop was also magnanimous in defeat. The 33-time winner appeared to admit his late machine swap, from a planned Ducati debut to his old Honda, has hindered him in is attempt to win the big bike TTs, but took nothing away from the victor. He added: “Dean was always going to come out punching straight away and you’re going to have to bring your A game to beat him on the big bike right now. I didn’t think we had podium pace and I think the problems we’ve had with the bike are going to be with us all week. We know what the problems are, but there’s not a lot we can do to solve them.”
Behind the top three, two-time former British superbike champion Josh Brookes had an excellent ride to fourth, holding off the evergreen John McGuinness. The 54-year-old team-mate to Harrison made his TT debut 30 years ago and took his 115 race start on a Fireblade running a livery inspired by the Paul Bird Motorsport-entered Honda RS250 he rode in his first TT. Clearly emotional after the race, McGuinness described it as a ‘special race’ and an ‘honest result’. The 32-time race winner rolled back the years, posting a 132mph race lap, to finish 48 seconds ahead of another TT legend, Ian Hutchinson, riding his privately entered Team RST BMW top sixth. Jamie Coward, Nathan Harrison, Mike Browne and Paul Jordan, all riding Hondas, completed the top 10.
Tomorrow (Monday) is a rest day, with action set to resume on Tuesday (June 2) with a scheduled four-lap Monster Energy Supersport TT and a three-lap Carole Nash Sportbike TT, although an unsettled weather forecast means that could well change.
