Strong showing from Aussie duo Brookes and Johnson.
Isle of Man TT hard-charger Michael Dunlop raced his Bennetts Suzuki to victory in Friday’s Senior TT, taking the win in the most prestigious race of the event with a best lap of 132.903mph.
The Senior TT, which was restarted after a red flag, saw Dunlop lead from the off after making some set-up changes to his new GSX-R1000. He had pulled-out a lead of two seconds by Ramsey, and extended it to three seconds at the Bungalow.
After the pit-stop, the Northern Irishman managed his lead at the front, controlling the gap to Peter Hickman (Smiths Racing BMW) in second place, eventually taking a 15th TT win by over 13 seconds, while Dean Harrison (Silicone Engineering Kawasaki) completed the podium. Norton teammates Josh Brookes – with a 130.883mph lap on the fourth – finished sixth and seventh respectively.
“The bike never missed a beat,” Dunlop said. “We had the problem in the Superbike race and if it wasn’t for that, we could have had two wins with the big girl, but we’re here with a brand new motorbike and the boys have worked hard to get us to this point. In that race, she never missed a beat – we’ve made the impossible possible. I could have gone faster, but it was important to get to the finish.”
The race was restarted over four laps after the original race was red-flagged on the second lap due to an incident involving 16-time TT winner Ian Hutchinson at the 27th Milestone. The Tyco BMW rider was conscious, but was taken to hospital by air-med, where it was later confirmed that he had suffered a fractured femur.
Hutchinson had earlier topped the Superbike TT from Hickman and Harrison, as Johnson was seventh and Brookes was eighth. The Superstock 1000 TT was also topped by Hutchinson, with Johnson (Fleetwood Grab Services BMW) P8. In the Supersport race won by Dunlop, Brookes rode a Jackson Racing Honda to 11th, plus he was sixth in the Lightweight TT.