TT 2024: Heartbreak for Michael Dunlop after visor issue thwarts chance of record 27th win

The Northern Ireland rider led Davey Todd by 25 seconds after four laps when the incident occurred after the second pit-stop, forcing Dunlop to stop at the top of Bray Hill to make adjustments.

He had to take his helmet off to fix his newly fitted visor, which hadn’t clipped in properly to his Arai lid.

Dunlop lost over 50 seconds before rejoining the race but with two laps remaining around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, his hopes of setting a new record of TT wins were effectively over.

The 35-year-old was in total control on his Hawk Racing Honda after establishing a lap record for the Superbike race at 135.543mph on his second lap.

It was hugely disappointing for Dunlop, who equalled his legendary uncle Joey’s tally of 26 wins in Saturday’s opening Supersport race to make history.

With the Ulsterman’s commanding lead wiped out, a thrilling battle developed on the timesheets between Peter Hickman on the FHO Racing BMW, Honda Racing’s Dean Harrison and Davey Todd on the Milwaukee BMW, who also dropped a lot of time after struggling to get his machine fired up after the second pit-stop.

In the end, it was Hickman who prevailed for a 14th TT win – drawing level with Mike Hailwood’s total – as the Louth man won by 5.84s from Todd, with Harrison five seconds further back in third.

Dunlop had to settle for fourth but had the consolation of setting the lap record for the Superbike race on the sixth and final lap at 135.970mph, smashing his earlier 135mph benchmark set on the second lap.

Runner-up Todd and Harrison both joined the exclusive 135mph club, lapping at 135.664mph and 135.185mph respectively.

Hickman – the outright lap record holder after setting a 136mph lap on his Superstock machine in 2023 – set his fastest lap of the race (135.534mph) on the sixth and last lap.

His FHO Racing team-mate Josh Brookes retired on the first lap when his chain came off at Handley’s.

Manx riders Conor Cummins (Padgett’s Honda) and Nathan Harrison (Honda Racing UK) also retired from the race.

Behind the top four, James Hillier finished fifth on the WTF Racing Honda – 1m 32.769s behind Dunlop – with John McGuinness in sixth for Honda, 2.8s behind Hillier.

Jamie Coward set his best TT lap at 132.696mph as he finished seventh on the KTS Racing Honda ahead of Irishman Mike Browne (In Competition Aprilia), who narrowly missed out on a 130mph lap after clocking 129.918mph.

Michael Rutter (Bathams BMW) and Brian McCormack (Roadhouse Macau by FHO Racing BMW) were the top ten.

Paul Jordan (Jackson Racing Honda) and Dominic Herbertson (Burrows Engineering/RK Racing BMW) were among the retirements.