Birchall brothers, Ben and Tom, powered in their fourth Sure Sidecar TT victory as they avenged their bitter disappointment of the opening race in which they were sidelined by a blown engine, moments after they had raised the lap record to 116.798mph.

This time, there were no worries as they took the lead over the opening nine miles of the second lap, pegging back a deficit of 0.953secs on Dave Molyneux/Dan Sayle and then turning it into a lead of 0.689secs as they reached Glen Helen.

Once ahead, the Birchalls dictated terms, pulling their lead by the mile, as they averaged 116.615mph on their second lap to go six seconds ahead of Molyneux who retired early on in the third lap with the Birchalls 21.745secs ahead of Saturday’s race winners, John Holden/Andy Winkle as they charged through Glen Helen for the third and final time

They were well in control, and with a final lap at 115.695mph, they took the victory by 38.764secs, with Ben enthusing: “Brilliant, this time the engine was absolutely singing – the first lap was hard, I was a bit nervous, a bit jittery. I was worried about what had happened in the first race. It was a long race, but we held fort and to win like this is incredible – roll on next year.”

Tom added: “We were so disappointed on Saturday and we just got our hands down and dug in and had an awesome last lap – the job was a dream.”