Personal best stock laps for Honda Racing UK riders in the RL360 Superstock TT Race
In an amended schedule due to the inclement weather conditions during race week, Honda Racing UK finally took to the Mountain Course to compete in the RL360 Superstock TT Race. In which both Dean Harrison and John McGuinness set personal best stock lap times on their way to fourth and seventh place finishes respectively. Nathan Harrison meanwhile was flying on his Fireblade before retiring from the race on the final lap with a technical problem.
As in all of the races that he is competing in this year, McGuinness set away at number one from the start line to begin the three lap dash with Dean Harrison not far behind at number three. Nathan Harrison once more set off from twenty first as the first of the non seeded riders.
By the time the leading trio on the road were making their mountain descent, Dean had passed Jamie Coward and his experienced teammate on the road to be the first rider into pitlane for the mandatory lap one stop. From a standing start he lapped at 132.517 mph and was sitting fourth on the leaderboard just six seconds away from the lead. John had a steadier opening lap to tenth on the times as he entered the pits. One speedy pitstop later though and he had emerged from the pits for his second lap seventh, making up a huge chunk of time as a result of the team’s slick stop.
Nathan too was rocketing up the leaderboard at this stage as a result of a strong opening lap of 128.872 mph. He entered the pits in twelfth, benefited from the team’s speedy work in the stop and by the Bungalow on lap two was up into tenth.
Back out front and leading on the road Dean was clearly pushing and using all of the road. By the end of lap two the gap to the leaders had opened to nearly fourteen seconds, but he was closing in on the podium position ahead. John ended the second lap in seventh whilst Nathan was running in eleventh.
Desperate to haul himself up and onto the podium once more, Dean dug deep on the final lap to produce personal best sectors and his quickest ever superstock lap of the TT, 133.835 mph. Although frighteningly fast, this was just not enough to overtake Dunlop on the timing screens. As such, Dean secured himself a solid fourth place finish and is certain that there is more to come tomorrow.
John McGuinness was too setting personal best superstock sectors all around the Mountain Course on his way to a final lap of 132.037 mph. A new quickest lap in this class for the Morecambe Missile at fifty two years of age undeniably enormously impressive, and another solid finish of seventh.
Nathan Harrison once more encountered rotten luck as he retired from the race half way through his final lap of the race. As such, a solid eleventh place finish went missing. Nonetheless, he takes all of the positives from a competitive showing and targets a solid finish in his next race tomorrow.
#5 Dean Harrison
That’s the fastest I have ever been on a Superstock bike which is good, and if I can keep improving that’ll put us in a stronger position for the next one. I just need to get up to those speeds from the start and keep building. We’ve got two or three ideas to make the bike a bit better for tomorrow’s race and I think we can make another step. I’m going faster than I’ve ever been in each category and we are heading in the right direction.P4
#1 John McGuinness MBE
I’m super happy to get another solid finish and I’ve just set a new personal best lap time on a stocker too so there is plenty to be happy about! These three lap races feel like a bit of a sprint! The first lap I wasn’t too keen to stick my neck out to be honest, there were a few damp bits and there was a lot of dust down in places too. Then when I came into the pits and the team absolutely nailed the stop, I couldn’t believe that I’d jumped Dean in the pits. I stuck my leg out and let him through and I just tried to stick on the back of him. To come home with a seventh and a personal best stocker lap, I’m chuffed to bits, job’s a dream. I’m also over the moon for Toddy to have got his first win.P7
#25 Nathan Harrison
I’m not sure what to say to tell the truth. I felt really good on the bike and everything was coming together for a good solid finish. My lap from a standing start was pretty much just as quick as I went in the opening lap in the race earlier in the week. Then I was on for an even quicker lap on the final lap of the race too. I’m not going to let it get me down though and I know what we can achieve. We just don’t seem to have any luck at the moment. I’ve got two more races to come and hopefully our bad luck is now out of the way. I am as determined as I ever have been to show my potential.DNF
