Footage has emerged from the Isle of Man TT Superbike race on Sunday, showing Michael Dunlop fixing his helmet.
Dunlop was leading the race by over 20 seconds ahead of Milwaukee BMW rider Davey Todd before the second pit stops at the end of lap four. In the pit stop, Dunlop had his visor changed, which is pretty ordinary for a TT stop, although the new visor was incorrectly fitted.
It meant Dunlop was slow exiting the pits as he tried to fix the issue without losing too much time, but eventually he had to pull over to fix it.
A video has emerged on social media, filmed trackside at the point Dunlop stopped to fix his helmet. It shows Dunlop understandably cursing as he sits powerless to stop what looked certain to be his second Superbike TT win in two years escape him.
Despite his obvious and understandable anger, there’s also a remarkable calmness about the way Dunlop removes his helmet and gloves, fixes the visor, kits back up and sets off again.
He rejoined just in front of Todd, who started the race 20 seconds behind him on the road. Todd passed Dunlop for road position on lap five as he tried to catch both Hickman and Harrison, who jumped both Todd and Dunlop in the pits, Todd having his own pit lane issues.
Dunlop used Todd’s tow on lap six to set the fastest ever Superbike lap of the TT course at 135.970mph, but the visor issues cost him too much time to get back to the podium.
Hickman eventually won, his 14th win at the TT equalling Mike Hailwood, despite suffering visor misting issues which cost him pace in the first four laps. Todd was faster, but like Dunlop he lost too much time in the pits.
Harrison had used Dunlop’s tow on lap four to promote himself from fourth to third, past Hickman, and so he led after the pits. But Dunlop’s issues meant Harrison rode alone in the final two laps, and was repassed by Todd and Hickman, but took his 28th podium in any case.
The second Superbike-class race at the 2024 Isle of Man TT is the Senior TT on Saturday 8 June. Today (Monday 3 June) is a day off, before action resumes tomorrow (Tuesday 4 June) with the first Supertwin TT and first Superstock TT of 2024.
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