Isle of Man TT 2023: Dunlop notches up 24th win in Supertwins race

The Ulsterman scored his 23rd TT victory on Sunday in the Superbike race to match John McGuinness’ tally and put him just three away from his late uncle Joey Dunlop’s record of 26.

Michael Dunlop is now second all-time on the winners list at the TT after cruising to his third win of the 2023 event in the Supertwins class.

Starting sixth on the road, Dunlop led the entire race on corrected time aboard his 650cc Paton to get to the chequered flag just under 30 seconds clear of the field.

The first of two Supertwins races at the 2023 TT was due to get underway at 2pm local time on Tuesday, but low cloud cover forced the contest to be moved back to 6:30pm.

Dunlop held a 4.5-second lead over the KTS Racing Kawasaki of Jamie Coward through the Glen Helen sector split, as Burrows Engineering’s Mike Brown slotted into third.

Coward could do nothing to reel in Dunlop across the opening tour, the latter’s lead swelling to 14.3s as he dived into pitlane for his mandatory fuel stop.

Through Glen Helen on lap two, Dunlop’s lead was 19.4s as he caught Coward on the road, with that gap opening to 21.1s through Ballaugh Bridge.

Jamie Coward Supertwins

Photo by: Isle of Man TT

Coward was under intense threat from Brown in the battle for second, with the Burrows Engineering rider edging ahead by 0.211s through the Bungalow sector split on the mountain.

Dunlop’s lead grew to 30.4s at Ballaugh on the final lap and stood at 26.7s as he took the chequered flag.

Second went to Brown for his first ever TT podium as Coward settle for third.

Tuesday’s Superstock race winner Peter Hickman managed to qualify his troubled Yamaha R7 in the solo warm-up lap earlier today and got it to the chequered flag in fourth.

Hickman, last year’s Supertwins TT winner, was 26s off the podium and 11.2s clear of FHO team-mate Josh Brookes, who was piloting the Dafabet Racing Kawasaki.

A podium finisher last year in the Supertwins class, Prez Racing’s Paul Jordan was a retirement on lap two.

Picture credit @ttracesofficial/Pacemaker Press