Dunlop touched on a race win that got away on Wednesday when, in the winners” enclosure he said: “I think it should have been my 14th win, but that’s what happens’.
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Kiwi Bruce Anstey won the TT Zero event for electric bikes at an average speed of 118.416mph to take his 11th victory on the Island and the Ivan Lintin provided an action replay of his success of last year’s Bennetts Lightweight race as he beat James Hillier with Martin Jessopp third.
Ulsterman Dunlop also set a new absolute race record of 1h 43m 56.129s for the six-lap finale, which was under McGuinness’s 2013 Senior record by a massive 1m 24.2s and 18 seconds faster than winning time from last Saturday’s RST Superbike race.
As for America’s Mark Miller, the Yamaha R6 pilot finished 29th. Dunlop had ridden increasingly fast laps on successive practices throughout the week, achieving 112.85 miles per hour in the first practice and 115.43 miles per hour in second practice.
Dunlop, fired up after Bingley Bullet Hutchinson bagged a hat-trick in the Supersport and Superstock races to grab the headlines throughout race week, threw down the gauntlet on the opening two laps and the English rider was simply unable to live his pace as he gradually extended his lead. Harrison was holding station in fifth with Conor Cummins moving up to sixth.
By lap three, Hutchinson’s lead was up to 12 seconds, and almost 18 seconds over Dunlop for the win at an average of 126.968mph. Unfortunately, McGuinness’ challenge would end on lap three when he retired at Braddan Church.
On the second lap, Hutchinson’s gap grew to 5.6 seconds, and he had passed Anstey and Jackson Racing Honda’s John McGuinness.
Rounding out the top 10 were Cummins, Trooper Beer Kawasaki’s Peter Hickman, Team T3 Racing Triumph’s Gary Johnson and SMT Bathams Racing Kawasaki’s Michael Rutter.
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Meanwhile, the battle for the TT Privateer’s Championship continues to rage on.
