Two things making it “difficult” for Dean Harrison to win in Isle of Man TT Supersport

Dean Harrison is arguably the best 1,000cc rider at the Isle of Man TT over the past two years, but Supersport success has evaded him since the second race of 2018, a drought which continued in Race 1 of the 2026 TT races.

Harrison came into Supersport Race 1 having won the Superbike race on Sunday in comfortable style, but the middleweight class was always going to be Harrison’s most difficult, judging by the qualifying times in which he was over 20 seconds slower than Michael Dunlop.

Dunlop, in contrast to Harrison, had won eight races in succession in the Supersport class at the TT road races. In Race 1 today (2 June), he made it nine in a row, and three in succession with the Ducati Panigale V2, which he raced for the first time last year.

Harrison finished second, which he was content with, especially given the potency of the Dunlop-Ducati combination compared to Harrison and the Honda CBR600RR.

“Obviously, you’d like to win, but it’s difficult number one against Michael [Dunlop], and number two against the big Ducati,” Harrison told the TT+ broadcast after Supersport Race 1.

“So, I held my own sort of lap one, reading the conditions, the conditions were a little bit sketchy. 

“I can hold my own on the bottom part of the track, I feel, but then I lose a lot when we get to going up, the drag over the mountain, things like that. I feel like that was all I had for today.

“The little 600 has done really well. Fair play to everyone at Honda, the bike didn’t miss a beat the whole race.”

The Supersport race had been delayed by four hours on Tuesday, originally set to start at 11:00 but ultimately pushed back to 15:00 due to bad weather overnight and into the morning.

The track was still damp in places for the race, but Harrison didn’t seem concerned by the conditions.

“The conditions, yes there were a few damp patches, but everywhere that was damp we were told about before we set off,” he explained.

“So, any time I approached any place where it was damp, I read it on lap one and then I knew what to expect for lap two. 

“The conditions did improve a bit as the race went on, quicker than I actually thought they would’ve done. 

“The only place I feel like you have to be careful, if you were going to go back out again now, would be the entrance to the Waterworks. There are two tight rights after Ramsey Hairpin and you’ve got to really be careful over the double white line. 

“Apart from that, the track was in good condition.”