Isle of Man TT 2023: Hickman wins Superstock race with new lap record

Hickman became the fastest-ever TT rider officially in 2018 on his BMW Superbike when he posted a 135.452mph lap on his way to Senior TT victory.

Michael Dunlop set an unofficial record of 135.531mph in practice on his Hawk Racing Honda Superbike.

Leading every sector of the three-lap Superstock race on Friday, Hickman absolutely smashed his own outright lap record on a stock bike at 136.359mph.

Most of this 2023 TT has been about the battle between Dunlop and Hickman, with the latter only taking victory in the Superstock class thus far after a tough event on his Superbike-spec BMW.

Beating Dunlop by over 23s in the week’s first Superstock race, Hickman came into Friday’s race as the favourite in the class.

The pair were tight on corrected time through the Glen Helen sector split on the opening lap, with Hickman edging ahead by 0.159s as Dean Harrison on the DAO Racing Kawasaki slotted into third.

Hickman found 1.4s through Ballaugh on Dunlop but the MD Racing rider got the gap down to 0.8s through Ramsey.

Over the mountain both riders encountered traffic, with Dunlop having to navigate his way past John McGuinness on the road and Hickman on FHO team-mate Josh Brookes.

This didn’t impact Hickman much as his lead was back to a second through the Bungalow and up to 2.2s through the Cronk ny Mona split before diving into pitlane for his mandatory fuel stop.

Michael Dunlop, MD Racing

Photo by: ttracesofficial/Pacemaker Press

Dunlop’s stop was marginally quicker than Hickman’s, but it made little difference as the FHO rider’s lead grew to 2.2s again at Glen Helen on lap two.

Over the course of the second lap, Hickman edged his lead out over Dunlop sector-by-sector, ending the tour 5.1s clear.

Having posted a 134.068mph lap from a standing start on the opening tour, Hickman lit up the timing screens as he made his way through the final lap and threatened record pace.

Leading Dunlop by 8.6s through Ramsey, Hickman’s advantage jumped up to 13.2s at the Bungalow as he circulated still inside the lap record.

Hickman completed the lap at 136.358mph to beat Dunlop by 17.184s. Harrison completed the top three, 40.8s behind.

Padgetts Racing’s Connor Cummins was fourth ahead of FHO’s Josh Brookes, while Cummins’ team-mate Davey Todd pulled out on lap two due to illness.