Ian Hutchinson dominated today’s second Monster Energy Supersport TT to take victory over Michael Dunlop by 17.547s and pick up his third win of TT 2016 and the fourth middleweight class win in a row while equalling Mike Hailwood on 14 TT victories.
The Came BPT Yamaha rider was again untouchable on the 600s, leading from the opening sector at Glen Helen to the finish line four laps later as Dunlop had no answer to the Bingley man’s pace after having a engine flown in from the Appleyard team and installing it last night.
“It is astonishing to be near names like Mike Hailwood – touching really. I didn’t want to stay on 13 wins for too long. I was having so much fun in that race. The team has done me proud again – the bike was faultless again for me and has taken me to four wins in a row. It is so nice when it is going like this, though in the race the grip was a bit down on Monday, because of the rains though early on I was a bit unsure if the front tyre was going down because of the grip,” said Hutchinson in parc ferme.
Bradford youth Dean Harrison took a well-deserved third place on the Silicone Kawasaki for his podium hat-trick despite having a small oil leak from the start while James Hillier exploded into life on the fourth lap at Glen Helen to move ahead of a a ‘feeling better’ Bruce Anstey. The Kiwi scrapped it out on the timesheets with Valvoline by Padgett’s Honda team-mate Conor Cummins for fifth place but Lee Johnston stole a march on the Manxman at The Bungalow to take sixth and only 0.663s behind Anstey.
From the start, there was no stopping Hutchinson as he flashed through Glen Helen on lap one with a 0.639s lead over the Yamaha of Dunlop with Harrison 1.416s down, Anstey just behind and Hiller a further 0.778s in arrears. Dunlop, however, had something to say, cutting the gap to 0.111s at Ballaugh as Hutchinson went through the Sulby speed gun at 172.5mph, three quicker than the Ballymoney man.
Cummins had hopped into third at the big jump, pushing Hillier out of the top five and leapfrogging Anstey but the Kiwi closed back in at Ramsey, cutting the gap to 0.129s at the second-slowest point of the track. Hillier had a good run to the Bungalow, going back into fourth as Cummins was pushed back out of the top five.
At the grandstand, Hutchinson was a massive four seconds ahead of Dunlop with an opening lap of 127.451mph compared to Dunlop’s 126.974 as Cummins again got back into the top five, one place behind Anstey.
The positions remained stationary for lap two as Hutchinson increased his lead to 7.150s with a 127.736mph lap and the song remained the same on lap three as John McGuinness retired at Braddan Church. The lead was a massive 17.989s at the grandstand as Harrison cut his gap to Dunlop by two seconds up and down the mountain.
However, on lap four, it all got interesting for the minor placings as Hillier found some pace to Glen Helen and jumped back to fifth place, then snatching fourth from Anstey as they got to Ballaugh Bridge. At Ramsey, the Quattro Kawasaki man’s lead was 2.270 but Cummins was not done with as he drew up to Anstey and was under a second.
Johnston came into his own as the ran up the mountain, taking sixth place from Cummins at the Bungalow as he tried in vain to hunt down Anstey for fifth but it was not to be and he finished less than a second down.
Peter Hickman ended the race in eighth place, Gary Johnson ninth and BSN columnist Michael Rutter bagged another top-ten spot. Steve Mercer was 11th, Jamie Coward 12th, Ivan Lintin 13th, Martin Jessopp 14th and Michal Dokoupil completed the top 15.
