How the IoM TT's greatest race was won

Over the last decade, the Isle of Man TT has featured numerous incredible feats.

It was during the 2010s that Ian Hutchinson became the first rider ever to win five races in a week, Michael Dunlop wrote new chapter after new chapter into the family dynasty, and John McGuinness defied age to edge closer to the all-time win record.

But most memorable for me was the warm Friday that was June 8 2018, when the TT became the world's fastest road race at the culmination of one of its best duels for victory.

All week, the clash between Smiths Racing's Peter Hickman - still the fastest newcomer at the TT, a record he set when he made his debut in 2014 - and Silicone Engineering's Dean Harrison had been building towards the Senior finale. The pair, plus Tyco BMW's Michael Dunlop, had looked the strongest throughout practice and were the main protagonists throughout race week.

Dunlop benefitted from mechanical woes for both Hickman and Harrison to ease to victory in the opening Superbike race, which came just a week after the death of his team-mate Dan Kneen in a practice crash.

The trio battled for supremacy in the first Supersport encounter, with Dunlop coming off best again, before Hickman grabbed a breakthrough victory in sensational circumstances in the Superstock race.

After running off track at Braddan Bridge on the opening lap, Hickman pushed his stock S1000RR hard to overturn the resulting deficit to take his first win on the Island. Harrison claimed his second in the second SSP race.

Autosport was covering the TT for the first time, and leading that coverage was my first major responsibility with the publication.

As the week wore on, the opportunity to stay on the Island for Senior day emerged. To be at the TT was something I'd dreamed about ever since I'd seen its spectacle on TV during the 2010 event. It just so happened that being there for the first time coincided with one of the TT's greatest days.

What still stands out was the eerie silence that enveloped the paddock as race time neared. The noise of bikes being readied and the odd announcement from clerk of the course Gary Thompson somehow seemed to be drowned out by the quiet apprehension. The tension in the air was overwhelming.

Hickman's 135.452mph record lap won arguably the TT's greatest race

For the riders, this was the big one, the one they all want to win. Mess up here, or suffer a mechanical issue, and the failure would weigh on the mind for another year. For those closest to them, it was one more 200mph dance with death; so close to getting out without a scratch, yet still so far away.

As a neutral party and fan of racing, you're caught in the middle, wanting to witness an awesome spectacle but also hoping it all goes well. It's easy to understand why people don't 'get' road racing.

The race started just after midday. Local hero Conor Cummins on his Padgetts Honda led off at number one. Harrison set off 50 seconds later on his Kawasaki, Dunlop went 10s after that, with Hickman 40s down the road.

A set-up change to Dunlop's BMW ruled him out of victory contention fairly early into the six-lap affair, with Harrison leading by just under two seconds from Hickman after the first lap.

As the pair roared around the 37.73-mile course, the pendulum was swinging towards Harrison. A quick stop at the end of lap two granted him a five-second advantage, which would be extended to eight over the third lap.

Hickman, showing the same determination that had led to him overturning a massive 12s deficit to win the STK race earlier in the week, produced a new outright lap record - 134.516mph - on the fourth lap to end up just 1.1s behind on corrected time as he headed to the pits for his second stop.

But when he lost yet more time in the pitlane, Harrison led by 1.9s going onto the final lap, extending that gap out to five by the Ballaugh Bridge section.

The early part of Hickman's final lap was plagued by backmarkers. He came up on a slower rider and lost a second at Braddan Bridge and was compromised at Ballig Bridge a few minutes later. More traffic cost him time as he ran through Kirk Michael, and he came close to tucking the front of his BMW passing Cummins into Parliament Square around 10 minutes into the lap.

But despite all of that, he had clawed three seconds out of Harrison by the Ramsey Hairpin and emerged from the run across the mountain to the Bungalow eight tenths in front. After more than 200 miles of racing, the margins were incredibly fine.

Hickman would find more time on the run down the mountain despite encountering more traffic right at the end of the lap. Harrison's final effort was a new lap record of 134.918mph, but Hickman obliterated that with a 135.452mph lap to win what was arguably the TT's greatest race.

This incredible achievement came just over four years after Hickman faced an uncertain future in racing.

His British Superbike results up to the end of 2013 didn't reflect the talent Hickman possesses, and no teams in the series would touch him. For 2014 he took on the challenge of the roads and, after ending that year's TT as the fastest newcomer with a lap of 129.104mph, his stock suddenly strengthened.

In the years since, Hickman (below, at Macau in 2019) stands as the world's fastest road racer with outright lap records at the TT and the Ulster Grand Prix. He's won twice at the North West 200, five times at the TT, 13 at the Ulster GP and has three Macau GP victories to his credit - all while maintaining frontrunner status in the British Superbike Championship.

Ties with British heavy metal icons Iron Maiden and the Gas Monkey Garage - as seen on TV's Fast 'n' Loud programme - have also elevated Hickman to global star satus and made him a poster boy for road racing.

But that warm Friday in June 2018, the day that ultimately paved the way for the utter devastation he wreaked on the roads in 2019, remains his crowning achievement. It was a day when only something special was going to win that race - and that's exactly what he produced.