until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Four modern legends of the Isle of Man TT extended their own win records on the second day of racing at the 2022 event, as Michael Dunlop and Peter Hickman took a win in the supersport and superstock classes respectively and the Birchall brothers extended their own domination of the Sidecar TT to 11 victories.
In the supersport race, shortened to three laps to accommodate the rescheduled sidecar race following an early red flag during Saturday’s first running, 19-time TT winner Dunlop – who came home on the podium in Saturday’s superbike race – took control at the start but did not have it all his own way, as Dean Harrison put up a fight all race long.
The lead dropped as low as one tenth of a second at one point, but Dunlop slowly eased away as the race went on – while a bad pitstop for third-place rider Lee Johnston dropped him off Harrison’s tail, with Hickman catching Jonhston to steal third.
In the end, Dunlop took victory by 5.6 seconds, becoming only the third person in TT history to win 20 races after his late uncle Joey on 26, and former team-mate John McGuinness, who has 23. Hickman came home in third, nearly 30 seconds back.
A red flag came out in the closing stages of the race for an incident on the mountain, delaying the start of the sidecar race. No further information has been issued yet about the incident.
When the sidecar race did get under way, it was no surprise that Tom and Ben Birchall immediately got down to business just as they did on Saturday before the red flags came out.
Lapping just outside their own lap record, the Birchalls eventually won by 13 seconds from Ryan and Callum Crowe, with Peter Founds and Jevan Walmsley rounding out the podium.
After a brief pause to reopen the roads and allow commuter traffic to return home, the final race of the day was the superstock class and, in a repeat of Saturday’s opening race, it was Hickman who immediately smashed out an early lead.
He was able to manage that until the chequered flag, saying afterwards that he even had time to follow TT legends McGuinness and Ian Hutchinson as he caught them.
The real battle was for second, as Padgetts Honda team-mates Conor Cummins and Davy Todd got stuck in to a battle. Somewhat making amends for a tough week for the squad, marred by tyre issues, it was local hero Cummins who snatched second at the flag.
Action resumes on Wednesday with the Lightweight TT and the second of the week’s two supersport races.
