Dean Harrison’s Senior TT win closes bruising TT 2026

TT 2026

Milwaukee Senior TT

After yet another day of intermittent heavy rain showers, the 2026 Isle of Man TT is now officially over. Dean Harrison was declared the winner of a one-lap Senior TT the following afternoon, after the race had been stopped on Friday evening.

When One Lap Became Enough

Bank Holiday Friday on the island had ended with the Blue Riband race, the Senior TT, being red-flagged with the leaders on the second of four laps. Erno Kostamo had crashed heavily at the 11th Milestone, causing all competitors to be stopped for some time on the circuit while marshals and medical personnel tended to the stricken Finn.

Eventually, the field returned to the paddock under travelling marshal escort, but by then it was late in the evening, and a restart was out of the question. It was initially thought that a one-lap race was too short to declare a result, with a rerun pencilled in for Saturday alongside a second Sportbike race.

However, as dawn broke, it became clear that conditions were unlikely to allow racing. The forecast had always looked suspect, and the weather stuck to the script. A three-hour delay was followed by a further two-hour delay at midday, with the caveat that conditions would need to improve considerably if we were to see any action.

With summer rain running down the windows and damp bikers milling around the island, stuck in a state of limbo, the Clerk of the Course finally put the whole thing to bed and everyone out of their misery at 1400. The TT was over, and a Senior TT result was declared after all, from the positions held at the end of the previous day’s one-lap dash.

Harrison’s TT

But it was only fair that Dean Harrison should get the win. Harrison has been consistently fast throughout the fortnight and has thrashed his Fireblade around the island in a ferocious manner that saw him rack up fourteen sub-17-minute laps. When the red flag came out on Friday, he was on course to break Peter Hickman’s outright lap record, which had stood since 2023.

Honda Racing’s Senior TT celebrations after Dean Harrison was declared winner of the shortened 2026 Milwaukee Senior TT.

Unfortunately, he only got as far as Ramsey, and so we’ll never know if he would have been able to piece the whole thing together, but there’s no doubting that he had the pace.

Harrison had already won the previous Sunday’s Superbike TT, and each time he had taken to the circuit on the Fireblade before and since, the Honda Racing man appeared to be on rails, gliding his way around the Mountain Course.

He was in a class of his own and, if anything, he’ll be aggrieved that he has left the island with just two TT victories beside his name. Both Superstock races were cancelled, and those trophies surely had his name on them also, given how he was riding his Stocker.

Harrison has spent three years perfecting and honing the CBR1000RR to suit his style, and his style to suit the CBR1000RR. For this year’s Superbike-spec races, he instructed Honda that he needed a Superstock/Superbike hybrid Fireblade to get the job done. ‘They sort of looked at me’, said Harrison, but nevertheless they went and built what he wanted, and he repaid them with the two biggest wins of the fortnight; the races everyone wants to have and the ones the fans remember. Declaring him the winner of the Senior TT means that 2026 will be remembered as ‘his’ TT.

Dean Harrison

“I’m absolutely ecstatic, I’m over the moon for me and for the team effort. Winning not one but both big bike races is something else. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to have a proper go in the superstock race where we felt strong, but that’s racing, that’s the weather, and that’s what makes the Isle of Man TT races as unique as they are. It’s not easy to earn the label as the toughest race in the world but that’s what this is and that means sometimes the weather takes over. The anticipation builds around a mixed schedule, the anxiety to go creeps in and the whole tension of the event is part of what makes it so special to race here and to win here. To be sat here holding one of the oldest trophies in motorsport on behalf of the team is an incredible feeling after such a testing week.

Dean Harrison’s Senior TT win ensured the biggest prize of TT 2026 went to Honda Racing after a rain-hit final weekend.

“When I think back to the winter and how I was working with the team to turn the idea of a hybrid superbike into reality, I feel pride and relief that the idea worked and I was able to deliver. It’s a testament to the strength of the Honda Fireblade in standard trim and it gives us something really useful to build off going forward. I knew I was going to be fast, I was confident I could deliver and I did exactly that. We’ll keep the ball rolling and add to our successes.”

Dean Harrison with the Senior TT trophy after a weather-disrupted TT 2026 still produced a clear big-bike benchmark.

Brookes Back On The Senior Podium

Peter Hickman was classified second in the race; an achievement in itself, given the state of play 12 months ago, when he had been involved in a horrendous crash in practice and never got to compete in any races. The big Burton-upon-Trent man was lucky to get away with that one…

Third place went to Australia’s Josh Brookes. It will be particularly frustrating for Josh that he didn’t get to test himself over the course of a full race. Brookes was right on the pace and has rarely looked as capable at the TT.

When the race was stopped, he had caught Michael Dunlop and David ‘Davo’ Johnson on the road and was gunning for glory. The Senior was cancelled last year, and that means he has now finished on the podium in the last two Seniors to run.

However, back in 2024, Peter Hickman and Michael Dunlop failed to finish, so there’s a good argument to be made that this third place is more impressive than his runner-up in ’24, despite this one being just one lap. Brookes grabbed this one by the scruff of the neck, and taking the scalp of Dunlop in a head-to-head is quite an achievement.

Josh Brookes

“I think I speak for everyone that we aren’t pleased with the loss of races, the loss of laps and the lack of sunshine during race week, but we have to focus on what did go well for us as a team, we got away without any accidents, we had clean pit-stops, everyone in the team worked to the highest standard.

“We showed ourselves in the best way possible, we had the best looking bike on the grid, we had 100% success rate through technical checks, everything we have done has been to the highest of standards, and that is credit to the team. They have worked so hard during these last two weeks, I can’t thank them enough.

“For myself personally I have matched some my best sectors, in tricky conditions, and finished the week off in third place of the Senior TT. It was a strong third place as well, I wasn’t fading away, we were making progress during the race and I’m proud of our achievements. I just want to put on record my thanks to all the event staff, marshals and fans who have stuck by us this week, they make this event what it is and without them none of this would be possible.”

Josh Brookes

Relief After Kostamo Update

And what of Kostamo? The ex-Macau GP winner posted on social media this evening that he had successfully undergone operations on both legs in hospital in England and that his life was no longer in immediate danger, which is fantastic news. There was a real sense of impending doom in the aftermath of the red flag, and it was reassuring to see his social media account give the update.

A Trying Fortnight

It has been a trying TT for fans, competitors and officials. Held against the backdrop of a Hollywood movie production, it has also been a strange one, if the truth be told.

Regulatory changes introduced for the sidecars this year were designed to limit costs and make the class more competitive. But it seems as though the limitations imposed on engines have encouraged teams to look for gains in aerodynamics, with the Crowe brothers in particular making alterations to their outfit that ultimately made it unsafe.

The lap record holders flipped their outfit at Crosby Leap and, miraculously, managed to go straight down the track with spectators lining each side of the road. That might well have been a disaster in which many people were injured or worse. The result was that the organisers cancelled both sidecar races, with a review to take place ahead of TT 2027. To say it was a controversial decision would be an understatement.

A solo rider had already hit spectators in Ramsey on the opening night of practice as he exited Parliament Square. Eight people were hurt, including a young child.

Maria Costello MBE, like John McGuinness, was celebrating 30 years of competing on the island this year and had entered the Sportbike and Sidecar races. But things didn’t go as planned. Maria slid off her Sportbike at Governor’s Dip in practice, but was unhurt. She then headed out in the following Sidecar session. Before long, she and passenger Shaun Parker hit a hare on the exit of Brandish, which caused a horrific crash.

It was announced a few days later that Costello had suffered some awful injuries and is currently paralysed. A fundraiser was set up which, at the time of writing, had already raised close to £200,000. It seemed so unfair that after so many racing miles over three decades, her life should be so heavily impacted in such a way.

On the same evening, Daniel Ingham crashed at Doran’s Bend and sadly lost his life. It was a dark day for the races. Ingham was a popular figure within the paddock with many years of experience and will be a huge loss to the sport. He had taken a year out after winning the Senior Manx Grand Prix in 2024, but had returned to the island to follow his dream of racing the TT.

There has also been a GoFundMe page set up to raise funds for Daniel’s young family, and an email account created for people to send their memories of him to, so that his children, Joey and Phoebe, can read them when they’re older. The address is [email protected].

Rain Defines Race Week

After a practice week that saw five full days held in good conditions, the weather turned just in time for race week. A Superstock race that was scheduled to take place on the opening Saturday was cancelled due to low-lying cloud and rain. The following day, the six-lap Superbike TT opened the programme, the first six-lap race to run since 2024.

But from there, we were up against it, and the rain clouds kept rolling across the island. At times, fog engulfed Mona’s Isle for hours, and between Sunday and Friday, we managed only a single Supersport race, shortened to three laps. That was, of course, won by Michael Dunlop, who was in the middle of another ruthless run in the class.

Friday was the only real day that looked like it would provide a window of opportunity to see more action. There were three races pencilled in for the Bank Holiday, beginning with Supersport Race 2. Again, that was won by Dunlop, who took his tally to 35.

Later in the afternoon, he rode to victory number 36 in the Sportbike TT on the MD Racing Paton. Michael raised the lap record in the class to 124.530mph ahead of next year’s rule changes, which will see the little bikes nowhere near as racy or capable of such pace.

The Dunlop Show Rolls On

Since Michael overtook his Uncle Joey’s record of 26 TT wins in 2024, he has added a further ten victories; an incredible achievement. Michael’s successes are coming so fast and in such an inevitable fashion that it almost feels as though they are too easy for him; foregone conclusions.

Michael Dunlop and the Paton by MD Racing crew in parc fermé after taking victory in the Carole Nash Sportbike TT Race 1, continuing Dunlop’s remarkable Friday on the Mountain Course.

As fans, we’ve almost become desensitised to the MD show, like we’re watching reruns of an old film. You have to stop and pinch yourself and realise that this is history in the making, something out of the ordinary. Quite often, when a rider makes it look so easy, it is long after they retire that the sheer scale of their achievements are appreciated and marvelled at for what they really are.

Michael Dunlop and the MD Racing/Scars crew savour another Supersport TT victory with the Ducati Panigale V2. The result extended Dunlop’s unbeaten Supersport run at the TT to ten straight race wins.

But Dean Harrison’s big-bike success will surely bother Dunlop. Despite them being good friends, Michael is a winner and will be desperate to get back into contention, to at least take the fight to the Honda Racing man next year.

You can be sure that now it is all over, it will be the races Michael didn’t win that he’ll be mulling over rather than the ones he did. Last-minute bike changes left him on the back foot this year and he declared after the Superbike TT that he ‘won’t get caught like that again’. You can bet he won’t.

Dean Harrison with the Honda Racing Fireblade and Senior TT silverware after his declared victory in the weather-shortened Milwaukee Senior TT.

But the next TT is never further away than it is today, and we have 12 long months to find out who will be the star of TT 2027. No doubt Harrison and Dunlop will already be planning their attack; we look forward to doing it all again when it comes around.

2026 Milwaukee Senior TT Results