Tourist Trophy – TT 2016: Michael Dunlop shoots everything in Senior SBK! –

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TT 2016: Michael Dunlop shoots everything in Senior SBK !

Tourist Trophy - TT 2016: Michael Dunlop shoots everything in Senior SBK! -

Winner of the first Superbike race of the Tourist Trophy 2016, Michael Dunlop lacked luck and pace in the Supersport and Superstock categories. He made up for it on Friday, during the last Superbike Senior race… Report and videos.

Declassified after the then betrayed by his BMW last Monday, Michael had to settle for second place on Wednesday, finishing about fifteen seconds behind his great rival Ian Hutchinson.

Dominated three victories to one by this phenomenal "Hutchy", the BMW Hawk Racing driver n ° 6 made it a point of honor to win the last race of this 79th edition of the Tourist Trophy: the Pockerstars Senior TT, which was contested on Friday afternoon on the Isle of Man.

A short week after having erased the lap and race records of John McGuiness himself, Michael Dunlop once again flew over the Superbike event and set new benchmarks: Robert’s son approached the bar of 134 mph on average, from never seen (see the) !

Hanging on by Hutchison – also at the controls of an S1000RR – despite a first lap under 17 minutes, Michael completed a second anthology loop, covering the 60 km of the road circuit at an astounding average of 133.962 mph (215.6 km / h)…

Even Hutchinson, who was only three seconds behind at the end of the first lap, couldn’t compete. At the end of the first third of the race, the Northern Irishman’s lead over the Englishman thus reached around ten seconds while Peter Hickman occupied third place..

Unfortunately forced to retire, the n ° 5 Kawasaki rider gave way on the podium to Bruce Anstey. Riding his RC213V-S, the New Zealander was certainly not in a position to aim for a better place, but he was turning faster than John McGuinness on his official CBR1000RR !

A suspicion longer on the trigger than its young opponents – Dunlop and Hutchinson in the lead – the "Morecambe missile" was classified in ninth position at the end of the first lap, but finished the second lap in fourth place, 4 seconds behind Anstey.

Taking advantage of the excellent work of his team during the first pit stop – and his legendary handlebars too! -, McGuinness climbed the podium during the third loop. During the same lap, David Johnson fell from his Norton, fortunately not serious, but had to give up his 9th place and his race.

Still in the lead with corrected times, Michael Dunlop could see Hutchinson in the distance opening the road track with his friend McGuinness! After a second perfectly orchestrated stop, Michael then found himself in the wake of his two rivals…

Rather than quietly controlling the last third of the race, Mister Dunlop then decided to continue to put – very big – gas, going up irresistibly on the BMW n ° 4 and the Honda n ° 1 … Passed in front of Ian and John in the last lap, Michael was thus the first to pass under the checkered flag, after 1h 43min 56 seconds of racing.

Michael Dunlop thus won the double in Superbike this year and totaled 13 victories in the "Titi". Second at 31 seconds, Ian Huchinson will not be off the podium all week and easily wins the "Joey Dunlop" championship with a total of 115 points out of 125 max (two SBK races, two SSP and one STK).

As in the first Superbike race, John McGuinness completes the "Top Three" of this Senior race and adds a 46th podium to his collection! New Zealand’s Anstey ultimately loses fourth place on the final lap, to the young and talented Dean Harrison.

Let us congratulate as it should be the 32nd place of our compatriot Fabrice Miguet and the 42nd of Xavier Denis. Hats off also to Julien Toniutti, author of a fourth lap in "18’37, just one second off the lap record set two years ago by Fabrice Miguet, the fastest French driver on the Isle of Man"…

Finally, let us underline the respectable 34th place of Ian Lougher at the handlebars of the only 2-stroke on the grid: the "running in" on the occasion of his very first Tourist Trophy !

Videos: chases at the Tourist Trophy…

Unlike circuit races (MotoGP or WorldSBK for example) or the North West 200 (!), Tourist Trophy riders do not all start at the same time from a starting grid. Released one by one at intervals of ten seconds, they fight as a priority against the clock.

This does not prevent the Aces of the handlebars from battling on the road: in the following two videos posted on the, we witness two duels: Michael Dunlop on his S1000RR who chases Bruce Anstey on his RC213V-S on the one hand, and John McGuinness on Fireblade following Ian Huctchinson on S1000RR on the other…

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