MD Racing’s Dunlop made history on Monday when he became just the third rider to break into the 20 wins bracket with victory in the first Supersport encounter.
The second Supersport race was due to take place on Wednesday evening, but was shuffled back to Thursday originally due to uncertain weather, before eventually being delayed to Friday morning.
Shortened to two laps, John McGuinness led the field off down Bray Hill on his SMT Honda to behind potentially his final day as a TT rider.
But Supersport race one winner Dunlop led on corrected times on the run through Glen Helen by 0.158 seconds from Peter Hickman on his Trooper Beer Triumph.
Reigniting their battle from Wednesday’s Supertwin race, Dunlop stretched his lead to four tenths into the Ballaugh sector split and gained a further tenth into Ramsey.
Dunlop’s advantage on his MD Racing Yamaha swelled to close to a second through the first sector split on the mountain at the Bungalow, but Hickman had cut that back down to half a second as he started the final lap.
But traffic in the form of Padgetts Racing Honda’s Davey Todd, Ian Hutchinson on his Russell Racing Yamaha and McGuinness on the run to Glen Helen posed a major problem for Hickman.
Picking his way through that trio allowed Dunlop to open up a hefty advantage of 1.8s, while Dean Harrison on his DAO Racing Kawasaki ran comfortably in third.
Hickman rallied on the run to Ballaugh, Dunlop’s lead down to 1.3s, though the latter had gained three tenths by the Ramsey split.
Dunlop made the decisive break on the run to the Bungalow section of the mountain, his lead extending to 2.7s over Hickman.
Hickman could do nothing to close that deficit down over the rest of the mountain, with Dunlop taking the chequered flag 3.2s clear of Hickman.
Harrison completed the podium on his Kawasaki, some 21.3s behind Hickman on corrected time, with Todd fourth as Jamie Coward took his best result of the week in fifth on his KTS Yamaha ahead of Conor Cummins on the sister Padgetts Honda.
James Hillier finished seventh on his OMG Yamaha from Cowton Racing’s Dominic Herbertson, an injured Mike Brown (Burrows Engineering) and Prez Racing’s Paul Jordan.
Class favourite Lee Johnston was forced to pull out at the end of the first lap, though it is unclear if this was due to a technical issue with his Ashcourt Racing Yamaha or ongoing vision issues he’s been battling this week due to pollen levels.
