Peter Hickman clinched his 11th victory at the Isle of Man TT Races when he won today’s second RL360 Superstock race in sensational style, the Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW rider smashing his own outright lap record with a stunning final lap speed of 136.358mph.
Just like the previous Superstock race, Hickman quickly grabbed the lead from the outset and never looked back as he won by more than 17 seconds from Michael Dunlop (MD Racing Honda) with Dean Harrison (DAO Racing Kawasaki) once more taking third.
After an hour’s delay allowing a tree to be repaired at Greeba Castle, the race got underway at 12.45pm under sunny skies but with a blustery wind, especially over the Mountain and Hickman grabbed the lead and never looked back.
All eyes were on Hickman as he circulated at outright lap record pace and the lead was over eight seconds at Ballaugh on the final lap, which had jumped out to 13.2 seconds at the Bungalow and as he crossed the line at the end of the three laps, his winning margin over Dunlop was 17.1 seconds.
The lap speed stood out more though at a sensational 136.358mph which obliterated the class lap record and added almost a full mph on to the outright lap record!
Harrison and Cummins took comfortable third and fourth place finishes and the battle for fifth went the way of Brookes by just 0.49 seconds after setting a new personal best lap of 131.759mph. Hillier grabbed seventh from McGuinness with Herbertson taking ninth from Rutter on the final lap.
Meanwhile, Cringle went quicker again on his final lap with an excellent speed of 126.096mph seeing him rewarded with 19th position.
Hickman then secured his second victory of the day when Michael Dunlop and Mike Browne both retired from the lead.
Riding his own PHR Performance Yamaha, Hickman came home 47.7 seconds ahead of Pierre-Yves Bian (VAS Racing Paton) and Josh Brookes (Dafabet Racing Kawasaki), both TT podium debutantes, to move alongside Kiwi Bruce Anstey on 12 TT wins.
On the first lap, Dunlop left the Bungalow, he begun to slow down eventually retiring. That promoted Browne into the lead and with an opening lap of 121.069mph he led Hickman by 11.6 seconds as the riders made their mandatory pit stop.
More drama followed as he retired almost immediately after crossing the line with clutch problems and that meant Hickman was now in the lead of a TT once more.
Hickman duly came home for the victory, his eventual winning margin 47.7 seconds, and it was Bian who claimed second as he held off Brookes by two seconds. Bian’s podium was the first TT rostrum finish by a rider from mainland Europe since German Helmut Dahne in 1986.
