Opening race winner Peter Hickman will be looking to keep his momentum going on the second day of action at the 2022 Isle of Man TT on Monday.
But a slightly amended schedule may well mean that main rivals Dean Harrison, Michael Dunlop and Lee Johnston have less of an gap to close down to the six-time winner than they had during Saturday’s six-lap Superbike TT, which was won by Hickman by nearly 40 seconds.
Monday’s schedule features the first of two Supersport TT races going off at 1045 local time.
But timetable alterations following the Sidecar TT being red-flagged on Saturday, due to a crash in which passenger Olivier Lavorel died, the Supersport race distance has been cut from four laps to three.
That may well disadvantage the relatively slow-starting Hickman in a class where he’s traditionally not the strongest anyway. He’s only a one-time race winner in the class and more often pipped by some of the race’s more experienced 600cc riders.
It’s likely to be somewhat of a Northern Irish duel as British Supersport frontrunner Lee Johnston goes up against 19-time TT winner Michael Dunlop for middleweight honours.
It’s Dunlop who has so far pushed the times the most with a 126.662mph lap set on Thursday night, and while 2019 winner Johnston is still to really show his hand, his experience on the machine as he fights for the circuit title so far this year means he is unlikely to be too far away.
The shortened opening Sidecar TT will get underway after the supersport race, also shortened to two laps following Saturday’s tragedy.
It’s expected to be business as usual for brothers Tom and Ben Birchall as they pick up where they left off and extend their 10-win record even further after looking to be head and shoulders above their established competition throughout practice week.
Then, big bikes return to the TT course in the afternoon as the Superstock TT concludes the day with a similarly-shortened three-lap race where the leading contenders from Saturday’s superbike race will be expected to be back in contention.
Hickman won that outing by 37s from Dean Harrison and Michael Dunlop, a feat that he’ll be looking to repeat.
But fresh issues with the Dunlop tyres could have an impact. Tyre problems experienced at the North West 200 had already forced switches from slicks to superstock-spec treaded tyres, and there were more dramas with the Dunlop rubber during Saturday’s opening race at the TT.
Those problems have already convinced Michael Dunlop make the switch to Metzeler, but Hickman has yet to follow suit, adding something of an unknown factor into the mix.
