Birchalls break sidecar lap record pace during fourth qualifying

Hickman tops solo classes pushing 134mph pace

Ben & Tom Birchall set an unofficial sidecar lap record during tonight's latest TT qualifying session (1 June).

It came after the leading TT solo riders were knocking on the door of superbike lap record pace as Peter Hickman went back to the top of the standings in another blistering schedule.

Thursday saw a longer session for the superbike, superstock and supersport machines with the sidecars penned in to round-off the evening schedule once more.

After the leading competitors broke the 133mph milestone the previous day, the standards kept on growing as Peter Hickman went back to the top of the superbike charts at 133.797mph, less than a second outside of the current official superbike lap record pace set by Dean Harrison in 2018.

Hickman's pace was very nearly matched by the ever-present Michael Dunlop who finished just 0.162 seconds off Hickman's top pace (133.775) with both riders' best lap times under the 17-minute mark.

Meanwhile Harrison, who went quickest on Wednesday, slotted into third on his DAO Racing machine in the class at 132.921mph.

Elsewhere, the superstock leaderboards were dominated yet again by Dunlop who clocked a best speed of 132.728mph, but close on his tail once more was Harrison who was just 0.215 seconds off Dunlop's marker (132.7mph) with Hickman's best pace of 131.952mph seeing him slot in at third-fastest.

The other solo class getting an extended outing was the supersports and, as he did in the superstock, Dunlop took control on his MD Racing Yamaha with a commanding 127.557mph - elsewhere in the class Jamie Coward went second-quickest at 124.675mph and an impressive outing from James Hind saw him go third in the standings for the session at 124.553mph.

Arguably the highlight of the evening then came in the form of the sidecar session as Ben & Tom Birchall pushed their dominance in over the last two days to a new level with an unofficial lap record time of 119.414mph, the current official lap record, held by the Birchalls since 2018, stands at 119.250mph.

Their nearest competitors so far, Pete Founds and Jevan Walmsley, kept themselves towards the top of the standings to go second-fastest at 117.587mph, whilst in third were the Ryan and Callum Crowe who improved again following their return to the course yesterday at 116.142mph.

The next and final qualifying session is due to take place tomorrow (2 June) with roads around the course currently due to close at 12.30pm and reopen no later than 4.30pm.