TT 2024: Peter Hickman admits he was 'gifted' Superbike win after Michael Dunlop visor drama

The Northern Ireland rider led Davey Todd by 25 seconds after four laps when the incident occurred following his second pit-stop, forcing Dunlop to pull over at the top of Bray Hill.

He had to take his helmet and gloves off to fix his newly fitted visor, which hadn’t been clipped in properly to the sidepod on his Arai lid.

Dunlop lost over 50 seconds before rejoining the race but with two laps remaining around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, his hopes of setting a new record of TT wins were effectively over.

The 35-year-old was in control on his Hawk Racing Honda after establishing a lap record for the Superbike race at 135.543mph on his second lap to open a nine-second lead over eventual winner Peter Hickman.

Dunlop continued to pull away and had built up a comfortable cushion over Milwaukee BMW’s Todd when the problem arose two laps later.

He dropped to fourth and finished the race in the same position, with another Superbike lap record of 135.970mph on the sixth and last lap offering scant consolation for the fuming Ulsterman.

Dunlop had equalled his uncle Joey’s record of 26 wins in Saturday’s opening Supersport race to make history but the chance of going one better was thwarted through no fault of his own.

Hickman came through to seal a 14th TT win – matching Mike Hailwood’s tally – after Todd also lost time during the second pit stop when his BMW machine failed to fire up.

The 28-year-old dropped to third behind new leader Dean Harrison (Honda Racing UK) and Hickman before fighting back to grab the runner-up spot from Harrison on the final lap, setting a new personal best of 135.664mph.

Hickman, who won by only 5.8s from Todd after 226 miles of racing, admitted he had been ‘gifted’ the victory.

“That’s just the way it goes sometimes and I’ve lost races after leading by 20 seconds and to finish first, first you’ve got to finish,” said Hickman.

“This time round it’s come around in my favour and it’s one of them things – we’ve been gifted it but we’ve also worked hard for it and I’m just really thankful to the FHO Racing BMW team.

“Although the bike wasn’t doing exactly what I wanted, it was still pretty faultless and mechanically it was all sound and just really thankful, so let’s see what the rest of the week brings.”

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Heartbreak for Michael Dunlop after visor issue thwarts chance of record 27th win