TT 2023: Michael Dunlop has hand of history upon his shoulder with uncle Joey's all-time record within his grasp

Now only three wins behind his revered uncle Joey – still the most successful TT rider in history – there is a palpable sense that something special is unfolding on Mona’s Isle this week.

Dunlop’s triumph in Saturday’s Supersport race was almost expected.

He won both races on his MD Racing Yamaha in 2022 and shattered his old lap record for the class with a speed of 129.475mph, marking him out as the man to beat.

However, the 34-year-old had a point to prove in the Superbike class, with some questioning whether he could still cut it in the blue riband sphere against Peter Hickman and Dean Harrison.

The English duo had won every Superbike and Senior TT between them since Dunlop’s last big bike win in the Superbike TT in 2018, when he put the Tyco BMW onto the top step for an emotional success after his team-mate, Manx rider Dan Kneen, lost his life in a crash during qualifying.

On that occasion, Harrison was leading the race and looked the most likely winner on his Kawasaki until he was forced out with a clutch problem, gifting the Ulster rider a somewhat fortuitous victory.

And although Dunlop was still winning TT races on the smaller Supersport and Supertwin machines, there was a feeling in some quarters that his days of glory in the six-lap showpieces were over – at least while Hickman and Harrison were still around.

They had lifted the bar for the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, with Hickman setting a new outright lap record at 135.452mph on the Smiths Racing BMW S1000RR as he battled with Harrison in an epic Senior TT shootout in 2018.

Harrison also upped his pace to almost 135mph, clocking his fastest ever speed in that memorable duel with Hickman at 134.918mph.

It was a tempo that Dunlop had been unable to match, with the Ballymoney man’s best lap a still blisteringly quick 133.962mph effort on the last lap of the Senior TT in 2016, which he won on the Hawk Racing BMW.

However, any doubts over whether he could make that leap into 134mph or 135mph territory have been answered emphatically.

Armed with a new Hawk Racing Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade and injury-free for the first time in several years, Dunlop backed up his claims that he could still do it on the big bikes with the right package.

His performance at the North West 200 last month, where he was running at the front and mixing it with ‘Triangle’ specialists and British championship frontrunners Alastair Seeley and Glenn Irwin in the Superbike races, was a solid indicator that Dunlop had gelled with the Honda and would be an altogether different proposition when it came to the TT this year.

And so it proved.

From the outset in practice week, he looked back to his bullish best, maximising the glorious weather on the island to fine tune his Superbike machine.

He led the Superbike times with a lap of 131.782mph on the first day last Monday, went over the 133mph mark on Wednesday and saved his best until final qualifying on Friday, posting his first 134mph lap from a standing start at 134.270mph before setting the fastest ever TT lap at 135.531mph.

It was a huge statement of intent and one that perhaps even some of Dunlop’s chief rivals didn’t think he was capable of.

Point made, he wasted no time in getting down to business in the RST Superbike race on Sunday.

An opening salvo of 134.519mph was followed on lap two with a 135.046mph flier as he slowed for his first pit-stop.

Two laps in and Dunlop led Harrison by 14.6s. He continued to bring the heat and had increased his advantage to 22 seconds by the end of lap four, leaving Dunlop firmly in control and needing only to manage his pace over the final two laps to give his Honda some respite on a red-hot day and put the race safely to bed.

Hickman set a new Superbike TT lap record on the final lap at 135.445mph – fractions of a second outside his 2018 outright lap record – to snatch the runner-up spot from Harrison.

It will have given the Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW rider a mental boost before Saturday’s flagship Milwaukee Senior TT, but Dunlop is confident he has more in the tank if he needs it.

“I felt good and I had more,” he said.

“I didn’t need to use that last lap. I think the second lap was pretty good and I felt okay – I felt like I could have went faster again.

“But when you’ve got that bit of a gap you’re just worried, you really are; you’re not pushing for lap times after that, you’re just pushing to keep the job right.

“The bikes are taking so much torture over here and to beat Peter, to beat Dean, you’ve got to be revving them (so hard).

“It might not look it or seem it, but I’m just delighted and it’s been such a hard push to prove that I can win on wee bikes and big bikes still, and it just proves to ones who have pulled out on me because of it, and ones that have stuck with me to get me here – it’s just fantastic.”

It was his eighth win on Superbike machinery at the TT and his first on a Honda Superbike since his first big bike triumph on the official TT Legends Fireblade, achieved ten years ago in 2013.

Sunday’s victory was also his sixth in the Superbike class on machinery provided by Stuart and Steve Hicken of Hawk Racing, including Superbike and Senior doubles in 2014 and 2016 on a BMW S1000RR and a Senior win in 2017 on the Buildbase Suzuki.

With six more solo races to come this week, there is now a real chance that Dunlop could equal Joey’s record or even surpass it to become the most successful TT rider ever.

The hand of history is upon his shoulder.