Isle of Man TT: Peter Hickman wins Supertwins as Michael Dunlop record bid thwarted
- Published
Peter Hickman took his second career win in the Supertwins class
Peter Hickman secured his 12th Isle of Man TT victory and completed a hat-trick of successes this year by winning Friday's three-lap Supertwins race.
The PHR Racing Yamaha rider assumed the lead after early pacesetter Michael Dunlop and Mike Browne, who took over at the front, both retired.
A mechanical problem thwarted Dunlop's attempt to equal his uncle Joey Dunlop's all-time record of 26 TT wins.
A clutch complaint for Browne robbed him of a potential maiden TT success.
Italian Paton machines had won every Supertwins race at the TT since 2017 and that sequence appeared likely to continue as Dunlop led similarly-mounted Browne by just a few seconds on the opening lap.
The Ballymoney rider's race came to an end on the mountain section as he toured to a halt, handing Browne a healthy advantage over Hickman at that point.
An opening lap of 121.069mph saw the Republic of Ireland rider enjoy an 11.6-second cushion over his nearest rival and the Cork-based Burrows/Engineering pilot built on that lead before being forced to park up in the closing stages of lap two.
Dunlop had comfortably won the first race in the class on Tuesday, with Browne clinching his first rostrum position by taking second place.
Hickman, 36, won the second Superstock race of the meeting on Friday morning, having also taken victory in the Stockers opener on Tuesday, thereby completing a treble with his Twins victory.
He recorded an astonishing new absolute course lap record of 136.358 in his second Superstock win.
The win sees him move above Steve Hislop and Phillip McCallen on 12 wins - the same as the tally accumulated by New Zealander Bruce Anstey and Welshman Ian Lougher.
Hickman's eventual winning margin was 47.78 seconds over runner-up Pierre Yves Bian and double British Superbike winner Josh Brookes, who were both standing on the rostrum for the first time in their TT careers.
"I'm super happy. I knew we didn't have the speed of the Patons and the bike is under-developed but the chassis is really superb," commented Hickman after the second Supertwins success of his TT career.
"After the practice week we had I thought a top 10 was the best we could hope for but the Twins is a bit of a war of attrition.
"I felt we didn't put enough fuel in so I was short shifting all the way but I managed to get a bit of a buffer. It's awesome."
Dunlop will have a further opportunity to draw level with his uncle's benchmark record - and Ian Hutchinson's 13-year-old tally of five individual race wins in a single week - when he competes in Saturday's Senior TT, the blue riband event of the meeting.
The 34-year-old has won four races already this week and Hickman has the chance to equal that tally were he to come out on top on Saturday.
For the Englishman that would be a second successive quadruple following his four-timer in 2022.
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