2016 Isle of Man TT Supersport 1 Results
It’s only the second day of racing at the 2016 Isle of Man TT, and previous records continue to pummel.
During Saturday’s opening race – the RST Superbike TT – Hawk Racing BMW’s Michael Dunlop earned a record-breaking victory. En route to the win – his 12th career TT – the Northern Irishman broke the outright lap record (133.393mph) and also became the first rider to finish a six-lap Superbike TT under 17 minutes.
Two factors surely contributed Michael Dunlop’s performance – the no BS power/handling of the S1000RR, and absolutely clear and gorgeous conditions around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course.
These perfect weather conditions continued during Monday’s race action, which began with another record breaking race – the Monster Energy Supersport 1 race. This time it wasn’t Dunlop on top, but rather his rival throughout practice in qualifying across all classes – Ian “Hutchy” Hutchinson.
The CAME EPT Yamaha YZF-R6 pilot dominated the race from start to finish, earning his 12th TT by 14.3 seconds ahead of MD Racing Yamaha’s Michael Dunlop. But following the race, Dunlop was disqualified due to a technical infringement found during post-race examination. The Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) reports that it does “not believe that there was a deliberate attempt to gain an unfair advantage and no significant performance advantage was gained.”
The IOMTT reports that PRF Suzuki’s Rob Hodson, who had finished 14th in the Supersport 1 race, was also disqualified from the race having been found to have been running a significantly oversized engine.
It was an honest mistake; the engine supplier, Mar Train, explains: “Mar-Train Racing can confirm that they supplied Michael Dunlop and MD Racing with a Yamaha R6 engine for today’s Monster Energy Supersport TT. Unfortunately this engine has been found to be illegal and Michael has subsequently been disqualified from the result.
“The illegal element within this engine was a set of coated cam buckets which had been legal two years ago when the engine was originally built. This has been a spare engine and as such was fully refreshed to again be our spare engine for the 2016 TT.
“An oversight due in part to personnel changes in the team as well as a change in engine builder has meant that this obvious irregularity was missed. Our crew-chief, mistakenly assumed that this engine had seen use in 2015 and that it would be in compliance with the rules. Our engine builder, subsequently, and in good faith, refreshed and prepared the engine as he received it.”
Read more news at the Ultimate MotorCycling Isle of Man TT page.
Dunlop’s disqualification moved the grid up one position; earning runner up was Silicone Engineering Kawasaki’s Dean Harrison, who finished nearly 37 seconds behind Huthcinson. Third went to Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s James Hillier.
As for Hutchinson, he finished the race in record time – 1:11:36.808 – continuing the trend of record setting in the 2016 Isle of Man TT.
Hutchinson wasted no time getting up to speed, and by Glen Helen on the opening first of four laps, he had a three-second lead over Harrison and Dunlop, with Quattro Plant Kawasaki’s James Hillier, East Coast Construction Triumph’s Lee Johnston and Jackson Racing Honda’s John McGuinness – a 23-time TT winner – in tow.
Misfortune struck for two riders on the opening lap – Michael Rutter was reported out at Ballacraine, as was Peter Hickman, who stopped at Greeba.
From there Hutchinson continued to increase his lead, piloting his Yamaha YZF-R6 to an average of 128.72mph in lap two, moving 12.8 seconds of the then-second place rider Michael Dunlop.
After a nearly identical pit with Dunlop, Hutchinson continued his tear, and went on to earn his 12th TT, which places him equal with Michael Dunlop.
The battle for the final podium position went down to the wire, Hillier earning it by a mere 0.7 of a second ahead of Valvoline Racing by Padgett’s Motorcycles’s Conor Cummins and McGuinness.
Rounding out the top 10 were Johnston, IC Racing Yamaha’s William Dunlop, Jackson Racing Honda’s Steve Mercer, Team T3’s Gary Johnson and Wilson Craig Racing Honda’s Cameron Donald.
The IOMTT reports that Dan Hegarty had been running in an excellent tenth and looked like he’d again take the maximum points in the TT Privateer’s Championship but he unluckily retired at Glen Helen on the final lap and that allowed 12th placed James Cowton to take the 25 points followed by Jamie Coward (13th) and Rob Hodson (14th).
Photos by Wayne Freestone
2016 Isle of Man TT Supersport 1 Results – Photo Gallery
