Sweet 16: Hutchy smashes Superstock TT record

After the podium, Hutchy told us. “I’ve never gone into a TT race having only done one lap practice on a bike before; so it was the strangest thing to start that race in that way. It’s a bike I ride in the British championship, I won on it here last year too – so I know it inside out. The only change were the softer tyres, so I had to get my head around that at the start of the race. The big surprise was just before the start actually – where the entire dash went blank as I was on the line! I turned it off and then back on – which seemed to work, but then it went blank again.

“I panicked a bit and waved at my mechanic; and he ran up and switched it on-and-off just like I did, which didn’t seem to do anything either. Luckily as I left the line and clicked into second gear; everything came back on and was working after that. Not exactly what you need 10 seconds before you are about the let the clutch out at the start of a race!

“The grip has been so different at the beginning of each race. It’s been raining every night before we’ve gone racing and the road is so dusty after it’s dried out. I think I need to forget last year’s conditions. It was so hot and consistent in 2016, so when you compare things to the last week and a half; the track is so green. We are all learning together; we’ve won two races so we just need to keep pushing now.”

“It was an ok run out, but we have only had one lap on the bike, so making any changes would have been near impossible,” explained Dunlop. “There isn’t a huge amount to say – I was looking for my boards and I was up to fourth at one point, but then I slipped back to sixth.”

Subject to official schedules being released the 2017 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy continues over Thursday the 8th and Friday 9th June, with the second Monster Energy Supersport TT, the TT Zero, TT Sidecar and event ending Senior Superbike TT races. Full results from the RL360 Quantum Superstock TT are available, here.