After five practice and qualifying sessions, 29-year-old Teessider Davey Todd tops the timesheets for the headline Superbike category on his TAS Racing prepared Milwaukee BMW, although last year’s Senior TT winner Peter Hickman fired a stark warning to all his rivals by setting the fastest time outright on his lower powered Superstock specification BMW M 1000 RR. The 27-year-old Lincolnshire based star clocked a 134.638mph lap in Friday’s penultimate qualifying, with a final session being laid on for Saturday morning to make up for the time lost due to bad weather and a road traffic accident earlier in the week.
Ahead of TT’24 much of the talk have been around Hickman and Michael Dunlop, who shared the solo wins between the last year, and of Dean Harrison, who joined Honda to lead their charge in 2024 – but for much of practice week it has been Todd who has outshone the big three.
Racing starts today (Saturday 1 June) with the first four-lap Monster Energy Supersport TT. As of Friday night, Michael Dunlop set the fastest time for the middleweight race on the privately entered Yamaha with which he won both of last year’s races. He posted a 127.649mph lap after switching from the Triumph he was originally slated to ride, in favour of the R6 from day two of practice.
Despite Dunlop’s apparent lack of faith in the British machine, the Triumph Street Triple 765 is definitely in contention for honours. Jamie Coward set the second fastest lap of qualifying on his triple, at 127.210mph, and although Hickman has yet to show too much in the Supersport class this year, he recorded a 130mph lap on his way to second in 2023 and can never be ruled out.
Todd remains a strong contender to take his first TT podium in the Supersport class. He’s debuting the Ducati Panigale V2 and was fast straight out of the box, while youngster Jim Hind has been a revelation on the Suzuki GSX-R750 which is making its TT supersport debut under the new next generation rules.
Race week starts on Saturday afternoon with the first four-lap Supersport race and a three-lap sidecar outing. Sunday sees the big bikes out for the first time, with a six-lap Superbike TT.
After a day off on Monday, the racing is scheduled to come in thick and fast. Tuesday sees the Superstock and Supertwin machines get their first outings, before the Supersports and Sidecars are reprised on Wednesday. Friday sees the final races for Superstock and Supertwins, before Saturday’s showcase Senior TT takes place over six-laps.
The big story around this year’s Isle of Man TT Races centres on Dunlop, and whether or not he can enter the history books as the most successful TT racer of all time. With 25 wins, he stands just one place behind his uncle, the great Joey Dunlop, as the winningest rider on the island. As a real Supersport specialist he will be favourite to equal that today.
