Following his Junior race win earlier in the day, Michael Dunlop was back in the winner’s enclosure following the Superbike race at the Classic TT.
At the end of the first lap Dunlop’s lead on his Suzuki was seven seconds over Dean Harrison in second with James Hillier third. The gap increased to 10 seconds by Glen Helen on the second lap, with Harrison sitting 4.8 seconds in front of Hillier on corrected time. Dunlop’s lead increased to 13 seconds by Ballaugh, 15 seconds at Ramsey, 17 seconds at the Bungalow and 18 seconds by Cronk ny Mona. By the end of the second lap Dunlop was 18 seconds clear with Harrison eight seconds ahead of Hillier.
Dunlop pitted at the end of the second lap and broke Bruce Anstey’s Classic TT lap record of 126.261mph with 126.808mph. By the start of the third lap Dunlop’s lead was down to 2.369 seconds but increased over the course of the third and fourth laps.
The Ballymoney man’s eventual gap over the line was 15.697 seconds with Hillier 16 seconds behind Harrison in third. Michael Rutter was fourth ahead of Jamie Coward, Horst Saiger, William Dunlop and Conor Cummins. Gary Johnson and Danny Webb rounded out the top ten finishers. In 11th was Alexander Pickett – the leading privateer – with Timothee Monot 12th, Kiaran Hankin 13th, Ryan Kneen 14th and David Hewson 15th.
Several hours after the conclusion of the race a statement was released stating that “four machines have been disqualified from the final result due to technical infringements”. The four Kawasaki riders disqualified from the race were Harrison, Hillier, Coward and Saiger. This meant Rutter and William Dunlop were promoted to the podium.