Isle of Man TT 2019 results: Dean Harrison wins dramatic Senior TT after Peter Hickman suffers reliability woe
Five-time TT winner Hickman saw a 19-second lead evaporating when his Smiths Racing BMW hit trouble to hand a first big bike victory to Harrison
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Your support makes all the difference.Peter Hickman saw his bid to become only the fourth rider in history to win four races in a single Isle of Man TT week cruelly snatched away from him as reliability issues handed Dean Harrison his maiden Senior TT victory in a dramatic finale.
Having dominated the week with victories in the opening superbike race and Thursday’s supersport and superstock double, Hickman was red-hot favourite to make it four in a week in Friday’s Senior TT, joining Phillip McCallen, Michael Dunlop and five-in-a-week winner Ian Hutchinson as the only men to do so.
But after dominating the opening four laps on Friday morning, Hickman saw a near-20 second advantage evaporate as quickly as the water in his Smiths Racing BMW, with apparent overheating issues returning to cost him certain victory.
Hickman had planned to run the hybrid superstock bike that took him to victory in the RST Superbike race, having endured two retirements in qualifying with the superbike. But after scrutineers stripped down his preferred machine following Thursday’s superstock win, Hickman had no option than to run the big bike.
All was going according to plan until the start of the fifth lap, when Harrison from nowhere took 12 seconds out of the lead, and any suggestions of a mistake from Hickman disappeared when he lost another six seconds to Ballaugh, with the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki taking the lead by Ramsey Hairpin.
Over the final lap-and-a-half there was no stopping Harrison as he powered to his third Isle of Man TT win by 53.062 seconds, adding to his supersport victory last year and 2014 Lightweight TT breakthrough.
From the moment that Hickman was forced to ride the superbike, Harrison knew that his best chance of victory was pushing the BMW hard enough that it goes beyond breaking point.
"Hector Neill hit the nail on the head, to finish first, first you must finish,” said a jubilant Harrison after the race. “Peter was just chipping away at me and I thought if I can just hold on, about 19 or 20 seconds, I was still in it. I can't believe it.
"I got the first P1 board at Ballaugh, and then the next board said +30 and I thought someone must have dropped out."
Miraculously, organisers managed to complete all nine races this week despite losing seven days over the fortnight to bad weather, which saw no racing take place on Tuesday or Wednesday and result in five races being staged on a thrilling Thursday.
But the best was saved for last as Hickman and Harrison went toe-to-toe again in a full six-lap Senior, which was brought forward by more than four hours in order to avoid Storm Miguel that was due to batter the island later in the day, and this time the BMW broke first as Harrison’s Kawasaki carried him to victory.
"I lost my way a bit with the big gap in the middle (of the week) because of the weather and that's down to me really, but we're back,” Harrison added.
"The thing I'm happy about too is it's a win over six laps, two pit stops, done the hard way. The conditions were perfect, no damp patches, and can I say a big thank you to the crowd, they were all hanging over the hedges and waving programmes, big foam fingers.
Hickman revealed afterwards that the engine issues that had forced his retirements earlier in the week had returned, with the big BMW spitting out its water whenever he went over 11,000rpm.
But despite the last-lap woes, Hickman managed to hold on to second place, the least he deserved, with Conor Cummins coming home in third for his second podium of the week, and after taking his tally from two to five TT wins, Hickman was far from distraught.
"It is what it is,” he reflected. “We've had a cracking week. The bike was working awesome over the first four laps, built a 19-second lead and I was doing what I did in the superstock race and was cruising.
“But then the temperature went really high when I came in for the second pit stop and it's been doing it all week, and we don't know why. We've got some really smart people who have no idea why it's chucking water out. I couldn't go over 11,000rpm otherwise it wouldn't get hot but it would chuck all the water out.
"Obviously we're gutted but it's just the way it goes."
Cummins powered away from Thursday’s Lightweight TT winner Dunlop to secure third place, with the wounded Tyco BMW rider coming home fourth in what was the best he could have hoped for due to his injured wrist. A recovering James Hillier managed to overhaul Davey Todd for fifth at the end of the fifth lap, but in what was just his second time at the TT, Todd arguably finished as rider of the day with an impressive sixth-place finish. The top 10 was rounded out by Michael Rutter, Jamie Coward, Brian McCormack and Dominic Herbertson in what was a strong showing from the next generation of TT riders.
Dunlop Senior TT results
1. Dean Harrison
2. Peter Hickman +53.062s
3. Conor Cummins +58.879s
4. Michael Dunlop +1:26.709s
5. James Hillier +2:30.352s
6. Davey Todd +2:32.920s
7. Michael Rutter +3:03.571s
8. Jamie Coward +3:13.561s
9. Brian McCormack +3:49.971s
10. Dominic Herbertson +4:09.262s
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