Dean Harrison, who lives in Ballaugh, finished the Southern 100 with four wins out of four races. His victories came with the Honda Racing UK Fireblade, which also secured him a Senior TT victory. With this achievement, Harrison added his fourth Southern 100 championship trophy to his collection.<\/p>\n
Harrison, who won the opening 1,000cc race on Wednesday morning, climbed to the top of the podium for the second time that evening. However, he faced some difficult moments in the Steam Packet Senior race held on Thursday morning. After a poor start, Harrison couldn't overtake Peter Hickman and Irishman Mike Browne, who held the lead for a long time. But on the final lap, he passed Browne at the Ballabeg corner and then Hickman at Cross Four Ways, securing the victory with a 0.942 second lead.<\/p>\n
Harrison said after the race: 'I needed to find where their weaknesses were and wait for them to make a mistake; but they didn't, so I had to try my luck on the last lap.'\u2018<\/p>\n
Harrison had no problems in the nine-lap championship race held on Thursday afternoon. Maintaining his early lead, he quickly overtook TT lap record holder Hickman and set a new absolute lap record on the 4.25-mile Billown track. His time of 2 minutes 10.032 seconds on the second lap corresponds to an average speed of 117.663 mph (189.4 km\/h) and beat the previous record set by the retiring Davey Todd by 0.135 seconds.<\/p>\n
Harrison finished the nine-lap race in 19 minutes 42.132 seconds, 6.9 seconds ahead of Hickman. Browne finished third, while Nathan Harrison, who took fourth place, overtook Michael Dunlop to become the top-scoring rider from Manx. Hickman, who was racing at Billown for the first time on Thursday, improved his pace with each session and became the third fastest driver in track history in the overall weekly standings.<\/p>\n
Returning to the event after more than a decade, Conor Cummins finished seventh and Marcus Simpson ninth, both recording their best laps at Billown. Joe Yeardsley from Laxey was the star of the meeting from Manx. Yeardsley won his first Lightweight\/Sportbike race on Wednesday evening on Steve Linsdell's 700cc Yamaha twin, and then finished the Supersport Challenge race on Thursday afternoon in his own 750cc Suzuki, narrowly ahead of Paul Jordan, Browne and Hickman. Dan Sayle from Sulby achieved a double victory in the Supersport B category and also finished on the podium twice in the Classic sidecar races alongside Dave Molyneux: third on Wednesday evening and second in the final race on Thursday afternoon behind double winners Kieran Clarke and Rob Coppock.<\/p>\n