Southern 100: Davey Todd crowned solo champion

Davey Todd took victory five times at the 2022 event

Davey Todd has been crowned Solo Champion at the 2022 Southern 100 International Road Races after taking a thrilling win in the final solo race of the meeting.

The Yorkshireman crossed the line just 0.06 seconds ahead after a nine-lap battle with Bradford's Dean Harrison, with Michael Dunlop in third.

It took the 26-year-old's tally of wins at this year's meeting to five.

He secured his maiden win on the Isle of Man's Billown Course on Tuesday.

The gap between the pair remained below one second for the majority of the race, with Harrison smashing the outright lap record on the final lap, recording an average speed of 116.941mph on his DAO Racing Kawasaki 1,000cc machine.

But that was not enough to clinch victory as Milenco by Padgett's rider Todd crossed the line half a machine's-length in front with a time of 19 minutes 50.6 seconds.

Dunlop trailed the pair by 21 seconds on his Buildbase Suzuki to take the third spot on the podium with a time of 20:11.51, a clear 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.

Dean Harrison, Davey Todd and Michael Dunlop dominated the podium at the event

Speaking to Manx Radio, Todd said last year's Solo Championship race winner Harrison had "pushed me all the way".

"I just tried to keep my head down, keep consistent laps and not make any mistakes to give him a chance, and keep it in my markers, be strong on the breaks," he said.

"I was trying to work out throughout the week where he was strong and where I need to defend a little bit.

"I have no excuse, I think I've got the best bikes out there, the Milenco by Padgett's team have given me two unreal bikes to ride and absolutely no excuses at all, the team deserve this."

In the Sidecar Championship race, Pete Founds and Jevan Walmsley secured their second win of the week on their FHO Racing LCR Honda machine, 16.2 seconds ahead of Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau on their Rich Energy Bonovo Action Racing LCR Yamaha outfit.

Conrad Harrison and Andrew Winkle took third on their Bellas Honda machine a further 42 seconds back.

The race saw brothers Ryan and Callum Crowe set a new lap record in the class with a time of 2:29.417 at an average speed of 102.398mph on lap three, before retiring following a minor incident halfway through the eight-lap race.

Michael Dunlop secured his only win of the meeting in the the second Supersport 600cc A race

In the opening race of Thursday's morning session, Dunlop managed to secure his only win of the 2022 meeting when he edged out Harrison and Todd in the second Supersport 600cc A race.

All three of the riders finished within 0.6 seconds of each other in the seven-lap contest.

In the third Senior race of the meeting, Todd secured his second win on the big bikes ahead of Harrison and Dunlop, with the podium line-up replicated in the final Supersport 600cc Challenge race.

The second Lightweight race of the event saw Rob Hodson better his Wednesday evening performance with a 1.3-second victory over Jamie Coward, with Paul Jordan coming in 16 seconds behind to take third.

Newcomer Paul Turner took victory ahead of Geoffrey Lunn and Billy Cummins in the Solo Founders race, which was cut short by a red flag incident during lap six of the seven-lap race.

And Michael Russell repeated his success in the second consolation Supersport 600cc B race, finishing ahead of Jack Petrie and newcomer Yann Galli.