Dean Harrison delivered exactly the performance everyone on the Isle of Man had been expecting, romping to victory in the opening Superbike TT of 2026 on his factory-backed Honda after six gruelling laps of the Mountain Course.
It was the first six-lap Superbike TT held at the event since 2024, with weather delays and cancellations having denied the headline class its full-distance opener in the seasons since. Harrison, who had been the man to beat throughout practice week and arrived on the Island fresh from a strong showing at the North West 200, never looked troubled. He cleared off at the front and, if anything, eased his pace in the closing stages once the win was secure.
"I hit the ground running from the start," Harrison said afterwards. "I wanted to be fast out of the blocks and build from there. If you build up slowly, sometimes I feel like you can be on the back foot a little bit."
The 2026 win was the product of months of development with Honda, after Harrison pushed for a machine better suited to the unique demands of the TT than the British Superbike-derived package he had been offered.
"I said to Honda, the only thing that's available to us is a BSB-spec bike, and the BSB spec is quite restricted on what you can do," he explained. "For coming here I don't think it works as well, so I said we needed to go a little bit back to the drawing board. I said what I wanted and they went away and built what I asked for. To get the win I'm absolutely over the moon. It's a big tick in the box and a big thank you to them."
Behind him came one of the surprises of the day. Peter Hickman, still managing the lingering shoulder problems from his crash at last year's TT, dragged his A10 Racing BMW onto the podium in second, edging out Michael Dunlop after a race-long fight conducted almost entirely on the timing screens rather than wheel-to-wheel.
"The fact we even finished the race and then to finish on the podium is unbelievable, to be honest," Hickman said. "Second place is more than I ever expected. I'm really happy after everything that I've been through." Of the winner, he added: "Dean's on another level for sure. I'm convinced he's got more in the tank if he needs it."
"We haven't got a package at the minute to play games. It's just the way it is, but there's a long week yet, a lot more races to come," Dunlop said. "You go from the Supersport bike breaking the lap record to being about 50 seconds off on the Superbike. I haven't lost it just yet, but we know it's not good enough where we're at at the minute, that's for sure."
Josh Brooks finished a strong fourth, holding off the evergreen John McGuinness, who completed the top five and looks capable of more across the seven races still to come. The TT fortnight now builds towards its traditional showpiece, the Senior TT, next Saturday.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/dean-harrison-wins-superbike-tt-2026-isle-of-man). Visit for full coverage.*
