The 2019 Isle Of Man TT was another enthralling two weeks of Motorcycle action with British Superbike legend, Peter Hickman and road racing star, Dean Harrison continuing their battle around the Island.
12 months prior, we saw one of the greatest Isle Of Man TT races in a while, with Dean Harrison and Peter Hickman battling from start to finish for the win of the biggest race of the week, the Senior. Eventually, Hickman stole it from Harrison despite being held up in the final part of the course – setting a new lap record of 135.452mph.
Practice week didn’t go to plan, with rain disrupting the majority of the week, forcing schedule changes and cancellations.
TT action finally commenced on Monday 3rd June with the Superbike, Supersport and Sidecar races.
Tuesday and Wednesday was a washout meaning, for the first time in the 101 years of Isle Of Man TT history, five TT races were held on Thursday, with the Superstock, Supersport, Lightweight, TT Zero and the Sidecars all taking to the track. TT 2019 concluded Friday morning with a thrilling Dunlop Senior TT race.
Monday:
The RST Superbike race kicked off racing action for 2019, with Peter Hickman taking his first win of 2019, beating Dean Harrison by 1.7s despite riding a ‘hybrid’ with the frame of his Superstock and the suspension of his Superbike.
Dean Harrison took the early lead, opening up a 4.841s lead, Hickman closed that gap down to just 0.045s at the Bungalow. Hickman continued his fine form on the way to the mountain, opening the gap up to 1.782 seconds over Harrison as the riders completed the second lap, and entered the pit lane for their one and only pit stop.
Sadly, the race was red flagged on the second lap after Daley Mathison crashed. Unfortunately, Mathison was tragically killed in this accident.
The Supersport race kicked off Monday lunchtime, with Lee Johnston picking up his debut TT win onboard the Ashcourt Racing Yamaha R6. It was a race-long battle between Johnston and James Hillier, but Johnston overhauled the Quattro Plant Kawasaki by 3.641s. Superbike winner, Peter Hickman picked up a podium finish with a third-place finish.
The final race of the day was the Sidecars, with Ben and Tom Birchall dominating the race, winning by 48.116 seconds over John Holden and Lee Cain. Alan Founds and Jake Lowther completed the podium onboard their Cloud Vapers Yamaha.
Thursday:
Thursday was an action-packed day, with the Superstock race kicking the action off after two days of cancellations.
Peter Hickman dominated the Superstock race, winning by 26.045 seconds over Dean Harrison. David Johnson picked up his first podium onboard the Honda, beating Michael Dunlop by just 0.2 seconds. Hickman made it three wins in the second Supersport race, beating Dean Harrison’s Silicone Engineering Kawasaki by 3.302 seconds whilst James Hillier got his second podium of the week.
Despite a tough week for Dunlop, he left the Isle Of Man with a win, beating Jamie Coward and Lee Johnston on the Paton in the Bennetts Lightweight race. Dunlop took the win by 1.299 seconds ahead of Coward.
The electric TT Zero race was dominated once again by the Mugen with Michael Rutter beating his teammate John McGuinness by 8.566 seconds. Ian Lougher finished third onboard the Idaten X RE bike.
The final race of the day was the second Sidecar race, once again being dominated by the Birchall brothers. Ben and Tom dominated by 20.511 seconds over John Holden and Lee Cain. Peter Founds and Jevan Walmsley rounded off the podium.
Friday:
The Dunlop Senior TT race was a spectacular race to end the week on. Peter Hickman took the early lead, opening up a 17-second lead over Dean Harrison. However, things turned south for ‘Hicky’ after his Smiths BMW started to overheat, chucking water out. Hickman had to manage his technical issue, only using half throttle around the course. This gave Harrison the advantage, closing down the 17-second lead, passing and then opening up a massive 53.062 second lead, winning the blue-riband race.
Hickman finished second ahead of Conor Cummins, who added another podium to his 2019 campaign.
It wasn’t the record-breaking week many fans would’ve hoped for, but considering the weather over the course of the two weeks, we still had some great racing.
