Five-time Isle of Man TT winner Peter Hickman will start Saturday’s opening race of the week as the favourite to make it two in a row, as he sets out to add another Superbike TT win to his record.
The Englishman set a speed of 132.874mph on the final night of practice, upping the pace over 19-time TT winner Michael Dunlop and 2019 Senior TT victor Dean Harrison by nearly 30 seconds.
Hickman has looked very much in control of the proceedings in the superbike class throughout practice week’s six sessions, and despite damp patches around the 37.73-mile course during the final night’s session on Friday, he’s confident that things very much look to be going his way so far.
“It’s been a good week of qualifying,” said the FHO Racing BMW rider, “and although we’ve had a few little issues here and there with the bikes to begin with, the boys have all worked hard to rectify them and I was more than happy with the 133mph+ lap.
“I was equally as happy with Friday evening’s lap as conditions were far from ideal and I was rolling off all the way through the damp patches so it bodes well for the opening Superbike race. You can never be too confident at the TT but it’s definitely been a case of so far, so good.”
Dunlop, who has impressively also managed to top overall times in the superstock, supersport and supertwin classes this week, was perhaps a surprise second despite having switched machinery at the eleventh hour, announcing a move from factory PBM Ducati machinery to Hawk Suzukis only days before last month’s North West 200 – his only time on the new bike so far.
Dean Harrison, who will be second away from the line when the flag drops for this afternoon’s race, was third on the final night, only six seconds behind Dunlop.
However, while the trio of former superbike class winners might start the race as the favourites, they could well be in for a surprise given the pace of some of those behind them, as names like 2019 supersport race winner Lee Johnston and Davey Todd (whose Padgetts Honda dramatically blew up on the Mountain Mile during Friday’s practice) also look to get stuck into the podium battle.
There could also be a surprise challenge from British Superbike race winner and TT newcomer Glenn Irwin, whose homework has been paying off as he ups his speed throughout the week of practice, ending up only 36 seconds from Hickman’s fastest lap of the weekend.
However, all eyes will be first of all focused not on Irwin but on team-mate John McGuinness when racing gets underway at 1200 UK time on Saturday. Making his 100th TT start, the 23-time winner hasn’t been at the sharp end just yet in practice week – but is nonetheless keen to make the most of the historic day by perhaps pulling out a surprise result.
“It’s been a really good start to the TT fortnight,” he said. “We’ve been chipping away at it, ticking the boxes, getting the mileage in, the bikes are probably better than me even now, I’ve been learning how to ride them again, and there’s lot of new technology with the bikes as well, plenty for me to learn, step by step, lap by lap.
“At the start it was a bit of a handful, so I was hurting after that first qualifying, Monday morning I felt like I’d been run over but now I’m gripping the bike less, and the more relaxed you are, the more flowing, the less tiring it is, and we’ve made a little tweak here, a little tweak there so I’m getting into a more comfortable position with the bike.
“But everyone’s in the same boat, we’ve not done this for a while, so we’re all a bit nervous, grabbing the bull by the horns, but now we’re settling in and enjoying it more.
|And we are figuring it out, and putting in 129mph laps we’re not a million miles away.”
The Superbike TT will be followed by the first of the two sidecar TTs, where practice has so far been completely dominated by Tom and Ben Birchall. Topping every session that they’ve completed by upwards of 20 seconds, the 10-time winners look all but set to continue to extend their reign when action gets underway at 1500 for three laps.
The pair’s pre-race preparation didn’t go exactly to plan on Friday night’s final session, however, when they were forced to pull off the circuit with a technical problem before a burst water main on the road course saw an early end to the night’s practice session.
