The 2026 Isle of Man TT will be remembered for two things: relentless Manx weather, and the near-total dominance of Dean Harrison and Michael Dunlop, who split the silverware between them across a heavily disrupted race week.
Harrison, riding for Honda Racing UK, delivered the performance of his career in the blue riband RST Superbike TT, leading every lap on his way to a first Superbike-class victory around the Mountain Course. The win was the Bradford rider’s sixth TT triumph overall, elevating him into rarefied company alongside legends such as Jimmy Guthrie, Geoff Duke, John Surtees and Jim Redman on the all-time winners list.
A Senior decided by the clouds
Harrison would add the biggest prize of all — the Milwaukee Senior TT — though in circumstances nobody would have scripted. With weather closing in and the schedule already battered by delays, the Senior was ultimately declared official based on positions at the end of the opening lap, bringing race week to an early and anticlimactic conclusion. A hollow way to win, perhaps, but the record books will show Harrison as a Senior TT champion regardless.
Dunlop’s relentless march continues
If Harrison owned the big bikes, Michael Dunlop owned everything else. The Ballymoney man extended his astonishing Supersport winning streak to nine consecutive races with a dominant victory in the opening middleweight encounter, then completed the double later in the week aboard his Scars Racing Ducati, beating Harrison by 26.1 seconds to claim career win number 35 — further extending his own all-time TT victory record.
Dunlop wasn’t finished. In the first Sportbike race he won by nearly half a minute while shattering the old Supertwin lap record, underlining that even at this stage of his career, the fastest road racer in history is still finding new pace.
The 2026 event once again highlighted the unique challenge of the world’s most famous road race, where the weather is as formidable an opponent as the 37.73-mile course itself. Organizers squeezed racing into whatever windows the Irish Sea skies allowed, but several races were shortened or reshuffled.
Still, the sporting narrative was crystal clear: Harrison has established himself as the premier big-bike rider on the Island, Dunlop remains untouchable in the middleweight classes, and their rivalry now looks set to define TT race weeks for years to come.
Source: Cycle News
