4 days ago
- Automotive
- Belfast Telegraph
Davey Todd fends off Michael Dunlop to win delayed Isle of Man TT Superbike race: ‘It was pretty special'
Todd was pushed hard by Dunlop (ROKiT BMW) but held on to win by just under 1.3s after four laps in the first race of the 2025 Isle of Man TT, which was delayed from a planned 10:45am start until 12 noon due to oils spills on the Mountain section and from Bray Hill to Quarterbridge.
The 29-year-old was seven seconds up after two laps but a slower pitstop than Dunlop cost him around six seconds.
Dunlop began to slash the deficit and was only 0.269s behind at Glen Helen on the final lap, but the Northern Ireland rider lost some ground when he caught Honda Racing's Dean Harrison on the road and also struggled with rear tyre problems.
Dunlop still recorded the fastest lap of the race at 135.416mph on the last lap, marginally quicker than Todd's 135.327mph effort.
It wasn't enough, though, as Todd held on for his third career victory at the TT, with Harrison taking third, 43.5s further back on Dunlop.
'It's pretty special,' Todd said.
'I don't think there's many guys who can say they've done that.
'I can't take the credit, though, for being team owner. It's the rest of the team who had done the hard miles, and Pete [Peter Hickman] included.
'Pete's worked his butt off to make this happen and I'm gutted for him and I can't wait till he's healed up and back battling with me.'
Hickman was ruled out of the TT after crashing in qualifying at Kerrowmoar on Friday evening.
Runner-up Dunlop said: 'It was hard. I was really down on the first lap and then started to claw my way back again.
'Then on the last lap I felt good, but I caught Dean at the wrong place and just started dropping seconds.
'Then we blew a hole in the tyre, the tyre's destroyed, so we lost all grip, which is highly disappointing because I knew on the last lap we could have a bit of a second breath and have another go.
'But it's just the way it is. I'm not sure what we can do to cure the issue we've now got.
'We now need to get to change that balance again for Saturday, but the lack of track time hasn't helped.'
Manxman Nathan Harrison finished fourth on the H&H Motorcycles Honda ahead of David Johnson (Platinum Club Kawasaki) and James Hillier (Muc-Off Honda), with 23-time winner John McGuinness (Honda Racing) in seventh.
Josh Brookes (Jackson Racing Honda) was eighth, with team-mate Paul Jordan 10th behind Michael Evans.
Conor Cummins retired on the Burrows/RK Racing BMW and Banbridge man Shaun Anderson crashed out at Joey's on the Mountain, escaping serious injury.
