By Delayed by forty-five minutes, due to a non-racing incident, the inaugural Sportbike TT contest, albeit including quite a-few Super Twin machines, was not for the first time and most definitely not for the last time, the Michael Dunlop MBE show.
Twice beating his own existing Twins lap-record, the now thirty-six times TT winner, fifty-five times TT podium finisher, ended the second and final lap, with a 28.775 race winning gap, record-breaking lap speed/lap time of 124.53 mph/18 minutes 10.725 seconds.
First finisher on the road, Michael Browne piloting the Gene McDonnell, Millar Racing tribute liveried Paton, finished second by the narrowest of margins, beating to P2, good friend Paul Jordan by 0.664 of a second!
Outright Mountain Course lap-record holder Peter Hickman (Swan Racing/PHR Performance – Yamaha), despite fuel-cap problems took fourth, 14.037 seconds ahead of Milenco by Padgetts Jamie Coward.
Joe Yeardsley (Flitwick Motorcycles/SMV Engineering – Yamaha) was an excellent sixth.
Dominic Herbertson (KTS Macadam Triumph Factory Racing) finished top Sportbike pilot in seventh.
Barry Furber (P8), Michal ‘Indi’ Dokoupil (P9), Michael Sweeney (P10) rounded out the top ten with TH Racing’s AJ Venter, David Johnson, Stefano Bonetti, Andrea Majola, Joey Thompson eleventh to fifteenth.
Rocket Racing’s Rhys Stephenson competing in his first ever TT race, placed twenty fourth whilst Mark Parrett, making his 100th TT race start, finished thirty fifth.
Michael Evans crashed out during lap one, at Braddan Dip, Road Racing News wishes the Manx GP lap-record holder a swift and speedy recovery.
TT 2026 – Sportbike Race 1 Result:
1st – Michael Dunlop MBE
2nd – Michael Browne
3rd – Paul Jordan
4th – Peter Hickman
5th – Jamie Coward
6th – Joe Yeardsley
7th – Dominic Herbertson
8th – Barry Furber
9th – Michal Dokoupil
10th – Michael Sweeney
11th – AJ Venter
12th – David Johnson
13th – Stefano Bonetti
14th – Andrea Majola
15th – Joey Thompson
16th – Michael Russell
17th – Jonathan Perry
18th – Shaun Anderson
19th – Toby Shann
20th – Rhys Hardisty
21st – Rob Hodson
22nd – James Chawke
23rd – Francesco Curinga
24th – Rhys Stephenson
25th – Lewis Arrowsmith
26th – Barry Burrell
27th – Paul Cassidy
28th – Ryan Garside
29th – Wayne Bourgeais
30th – Pete Murray
31st – Paul Williams
32nd – Sam Johnson
33rd – Martin Morris
34th – Masayuki Yamanaka
35th – Mark Parrett
36th – Jorge Halliday
37th – Anthony Stephens
38th – Michael Gahan
Photo credit: Mark Corlett, Nick Wheeler
Words by Stevie Rial #dontletfearcontrolyou
