Mat Oxley: 'This year Dunlop has new tyres for the TT, so the lap record should go'

The Isle of Man TT lap record hasn’t been broken since 2018, which is a long time in racing. There are a few reasons for this. Unlike Formula 1 and MotoGP, the TT didn’t happen in the Covid years, 2020 and 2021. And although the TT is the world’s longest race circuit, featuring around 250 corners, it needs to be in just the right condition for riders to reach lap-record pace.

Current king of the Mountain course is Peter Hickman, who in June 2018 circulated the island’s twisting country roads at a mind-boggling 135.452mph. That year’s event was blessed with good weather throughout the two weeks of practice and racing, so there had been plenty of rubber laid down before the final Senior TT, when Hickman set the new lap record and averaged 131.7mph over six laps, including two pitstops to refuel and change tyres.

One reason so much rubber gets laid down now is the horsepower that’s made by the current 1000cc superbikes, around 210bhp, so they spin the rear tyre, even in fifth and sixth gears.

“The big thing now is that the bikes make so much power that we have to use hard compound tyres, which makes the rear spin a lot,” says seven-times TT winner Michael Rutter. “Our data shows that through some sections we lose between 10mph and 15mph due to wheelspin.”

The 2019 TT was cursed with bad weather, so riders couldn’t get into the groove and there was never enough rubber down to trouble the lap record.

Last year Hickman and his main rivals Dean Harrison, Michael Dunlop and Conor Cummins would have been faster but for tyre problems. Dunlop withdrew its slicks and cut slicks from the TT because they were delaminating, so the company restricted its riders to treaded road tyres. Nevertheless Hickman rode the fastest lap of race week at 133.461mph.

This year Dunlop has a new generation of slick tyres for the TT, so the outright lap record should go, weather permitting.

The ever-higher speeds attained at the TT have been a big part of the story of the world’s oldest major motor sport event, which started in 1907. During the 1921 Senior the fastest 500cc machines lapped close to 60mph, which so worried the organisers that they considered restricting the feature race to 350s, making around 20hp.

The first rider to lap the course at 100mph was Bob McIntyre in 1957, riding a Gilera 500 four. Thirty-two years later Steve Hislop added another 20mph and 18 years after that John McGuinness broke the 130mph barrier.

Obviously improvements to engines, chassis and tyres have played a huge part in this escalation, but so too have upgrades to the course, which wends its way through towns and villages, over rivers, past fields of uninterested sheep and over Snaefell mountain.

“All around the course they’ve put down smoother asphalt”

“If I think back to my first years at the TT you couldn’t even see down Sulby Straight [which passes through Sulby village, where riders nudge 200mph], because it was that bumpy,” adds Rutter, who made his TT debut way back in 1994. “Now it’s like a motorway in comparison. All around the course they’ve put down sections of smoother, grippier asphalt, so it’s more like a racetrack than a road.”

Although the TT is anachronistic in so many ways, bikes now feature technology originally conceived in Formula 1, such as downforce aerodynamics. OK, so it took around 50 years for the tech to make it to the island last year, but still…

Hickman’s BMW M1000RR fairing is fitted with winglets, like those first seen on MotoGP bikes a few years ago. The idea is to keep the front end down, reducing wheelies, which allows riders to use more throttle. Obviously the higher the speed the more effective the aerodynamics, so the wings make a real difference at the TT, where riders spend most of the lap at over 160mph.

“The front tyre feels more planted because the aero sucks the front into the ground, so the bike is more stable, with less wheelie and it definitely helps corner speed too,” says Hickman’s crew chief Darren Jones. “When we first tried the BMW with wings at Cadwell Park last year I told Peter to go out and do four good laps with the standard fairing, then we swapped to the fairing with wings. He came back in after another few laps and said, ‘Oh my God, the difference is immense.’ The aero gives you more front contact and grip, so the bike turns well and holds its line fantastically well for the same reason.

“The biggest thing at the TT is cornering on-gas. Normally, when you grab a decent amount of throttle exiting a corner the front lifts a bit and the bike runs wide because you lose front contact. With the wings the bike carries on turning because the front tyre isn’t losing contact with the ground, so you’ve got more grip. Peter also says the amount of feel he gets from the front end now is unbelievable.”

This year’s TT race week starts on Saturday June 3, after five days of practice. Hickman will go into the event as favourite, but Harrison, Dunlop, Cummins and others will be after his crown. For only the second year, the entire fortnight’s action will be broadcast live, via the TT’s streaming service.

Mat Oxley has covered motorcycle racing for many years – and also has the distinction of being an Isle of Man TT winner
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