Dean Harrison won a record-breaking Superbike Classic TT on Tuesday afternoon with the Silicone Engineering rider coming home over sixteen seconds clear of Bruce Anstey (Padgetts Yamaha) who had the consolation of a new lap record of 127.496mph.
Aided by his own lap of 127.212mph, Harrison gave Kawasaki their first victory in the class with similarly-mounted Austrian Horst Saiger (Greenall Racing) completing the podium in third.
“I got stuck in at the start but was cautious through a few of the damp patches and once I got ‘+30s’ on my board just after half race distance, I was able to ease off in the closing stages,” Harrison said afterwards. “I’m a but under the weather to be honest but the bike was flying and the boys did a mint job at the pit stop so I’m over the moon. This is the one everyone wants to win.”
It was Harrison who led Michael Dunlop (Team Classic Suzuki) by three and a half seconds at Glen Helen on the first lap with Anstey a further 0.9s adrift in third. Saiger slotted into fourth with Jamie Coward (Mistral Kawasaki) and Gary Johnson (Team York Suzuki) in fifth and sixth respectively as just 13 seconds covered the top ten.
Through Ballaugh, Harrison still led, his advantage up to 4.9s with Anstey, who was leading on the road having overhauled David Johnson on the second York Suzuki, now up to second and at Ramsey Hairpin, the Yorkshire rider had increased the gap further still to 6.1s. Dunlop was in trouble though and had dropped all the way back to 11th.
An opening lap of 126.367mph gave Harrison a lead of 7.8s with Anstey also over 125mph in second and 14.1s clear of Saiger who was going great in third. Coward was five seconds further back in fourth with the two Johnson’s, David and Gary, in fifth and sixth. Josh Brookes slotted into ninth on the Norton rotary after lapping at 121.601mph but Dunlop was out, retiring at the pits.
Glen Helen on lap two and Harrison pulled out a further second on Anstey but Coward was out just before Glen Helen with James Hillier also having retired at Ballacraine. The leader was having no such problems though and Harrison was adding more time to his lead through each of the course timing points.
Indeed, a second lap for Harrison of 127.212mph was a new lap record and it meant he came into the pit stop at half race distance with a lead of 9.6s over Anstey who also broke the old lap record at 126.995mph. Saiger’s excellent ride continued in third as David Johnson, Gary Johnson and Ivan Lintin (Kraus Kawasaki) now filled fourth to sixth. Brookes had moved up to seventh with a lap of 122.926mph, edging ever closer to Steve Hislop’s 1992 speed of 123.50mph.
A slow pit stop for Anstey though gave Harrison a more comfortable lead of 29.7s through Glen Helen on lap three and further back Dan Kneen was charging up the leaderboard, the Manxman now up to sixth after a slow first lap left him down in 17th. Gary Johnson was out of luck, retiring at the 27th milestone and Brookes’ fine effort on the Norton came to end though at Glentramman as he retired.
Going into the final lap, Harrison looked to have an untroubled lead, his gap over Anstey now 28.9s with Saiger a similar gap back in third but over twenty seconds clear of David Johnson. Kneen was now up to fifth with Conor Cummins up to sixth.
Harrison duly completed the final 37.73-miles without any issues, his final lap speed of 125.970mph seeing him claim his third Classic TT victory but first in the Superbike class. Anstey put in a flying final lap to claim the new lap record as a delighted Saiger claimed the final podium position.
David Johnson held onto fourth with Kneen the first of the Manxmen home in fifth, almost a minute ahead of Cummins. William Dunlop, Derek Sheils, Danny Webb and Andrew Dudgeon completed the top ten.
