Michael Dunlop stretches TT Supersport streak to ten straight wins

TT 2026

Monster Energy Supersport TT Race Two

Michael Dunlop took TT win number 35 on Friday when he completed yet another middleweight double by taking the 2nd Monster Energy Supersport TT of the week. It was Michael’s 10th Supersport victory on the bounce; the Ballymoney man is now undefeated in the category since pre-COVID times.

Like in race 2 last year, his V2 Ducati was unveiled with a special livery for the occasion, this time featuring gold trimmings, which seemed fitting as he was expected by all to take home the 1st-place prize. Michael has been unshakeable on the Scars racing Ducati all week, dominating all challengers. It almost seems unfair just how ahead of the curve he is in the class. He goes about his business in Supersport in a robotic fashion- repeatedly executing a process he has perfected so that each time the outcome is inevitable.

Dean Harrison has been trying everything he knows on his CBR600RR to take the fight to Dunlop, and he is the only one who really looks like he can hold a candle to the number 6 bike. However, although the next-gen regulations, in theory, should make all things equal between the various eligible machines, it’s quite clear that while the 600cc bikes are capable of leaderboard pace, they can’t compete with a combination that includes Dunlop and Bologna support.

Today, just like Tuesday, Harrison rode the wheels of his little Honda over the course of the opening lap, and he led at every time split over that first 37 ¾ mile circuit, extending his lead by a second here and a second there.

The inexperienced onlooker may have believed that we had a race on our hands. But most of us had seen this movie before and knew that it would soon be time for Dunlop to flex his muscles and put the whole thing to bed.

And that’s pretty much what happened. Like Tuesday’s first supersport race, after the pitstops (the MD team have perfected a slick operation), Michael decided that he’d had enough of hanging around and that it was time to go to work. He took the lead from Harrison at Glen Helen on lap 1 and never looked back.

Dunlop simply just marched away from his rival, extending his lead at every single time check for the following two laps. By the end of the race, he was 26 seconds clear and well out of sight.

Behind Dean, Peter Hickman spent the entire race in 3rd place, never troubled by the chasing pack but likewise not going to cause Harrison any bother. Hicky also had a livery change for this race. On Tuesday, he had competed in the yellow of House of Swan (that his Yamaha R7 has traditionally run in), but for this one, he was back in the more familiar Iron Maiden-owned ‘Trooper’ beer colours. The outcome was the same; he picked up another TT rostrum.

The real interest was the battle for 4th, which involved Mike Browne, Paul Jordan and Josh Brookes. That was quite confusing at times, as the transponder on Browne’s Yamaha wasn’t signalling at the splits, and so we weren’t able to slot him in immediately at times.

Brookes had a much stronger start to this race than he had on Tuesday; conditions were much more favourable today. But nevertheless, the Australian sat in 6th pretty much all race long, shaving seconds off Jordan and Browne all the way. In the end, his quickening pace was too little, too late, and Josh ended up just 1.6s behind PJ (who was his teammate last year), who, in turn, completed the race a mere 0.9s behind Browne once the timings were slotted in.

Jordan reported that he was lucky to finish as he’d noticed the Ducati overheating on the final lap and had coaxed the V2 home. This would make sense as Brookes took over 3s out of him on the final run over the mountain.

Dominic Herbertson came home 7th (another strong performance from Dom) ahead of Jamie Coward, Shaun Anderson and Ian Hutchinson.

Kiwi Mitch Rees recorded yet another really strong performance, coming home in 11th.

Manx man Jamie Cringle crashed his Ducati at Union Mills during this race. He was taken by ambulance to Nobles Hospital on the island and was reported as conscious and talking at the time. But Jamie’s brother Ryan has posted on social media tonight that Jamie’s been transferred to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool for further assessment and treatment.

It was nice to get some racing underway at the TT after so much waiting around for the terrible weather conditions to improve. With the sun shining down while the podium presentations took place, it finally felt as though TT 2026 was up and running, and there was a real festival feel about the island with the Sportsbike race scheduled to get underway shortly afterwards.

Monster Energy Supersport TT Race Two Results

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