First Isle of Man TT Sportbike top 20 start list revealed

The Isle of Man TT’s newly renamed Sportbike class has had its top 20 start list confirmed for the 2026 event.

Formerly the Supertwin class, the ‘lightweight’ solo category at the Isle of Man TT road races has been renamed for this year to Sportbike in order for the Tt to align itself with international motorcycle racing nomenclature that has settled on Sportbike as the designation for the production racing class that sits below Supersport and is largely made up of twin-cylinder mid-capacity motorcycles.

Renaming from Supertwin to Sportbike also means the class has space for bikes like the Triumph Daytona 660 which has been campaigned in the British Sportbike Championship in BSB as well as in this year’s inaugural World Sportbike Championship in the WorldSBK paddock.

Indeed, there are two Triumphs confirmed in the top 20 start list for this year’s years Sportbike TT races, one for the factory-backed KTS Racing bike of Dominic Herbertson and another for Pierre-Yves Bian of PHR Performance. They’ll set off 20 seconds apart with numbers 13 and 15, respectively.

The two main PHR Performance bikes, the Swan Racing Yamahas of Davey Todd and Peter Hickman, are down as eighth and 10th, respectively. Todd, of course, remains in recovery at the moment after breaking his femur at the Daytona 200 in February.

A couple of spots in front of Todd on the start list is the Paton of Michael Dunlop, a combination that has proven to be especially formidable in recent seasons.

At the very front is Mike Browne, also on a Paton, as is Padgett’s rider Jamie Coward in fourth. Paul Jordan will start second on the Jackson Racing Aprilia, and Michael Evans will take the third position on the start aboard his Flitwick Motorcycles Yamaha R7.

There is no rider listed to start at number five at present.

The full top 20 start list for the 2026 Sportbike TT races is below. The start list was published shortly after the Supersport start list, which also has Mike Browne opening the road, was confirmed.