The dust has settled on the fastest Isle of Man TT on record and for Dan Hegarty, TT 2015 ranks as his finest to date.

Hegarty arrived on the island this year physically fitter and armed with undeniably his best ever package.

At his disposal was a great Superbike from Downshift Motorsport, a quick 600 and an excellent Team ILR Superstock Ninja ZX-10R.

Overseeing the whole set-up was the expertise and experience of 10-times TT winner Ian Lougher.

From the opening salvo of race week the omens were good.

13th in the opening Superbike TT was a fantastic result with a fastest lap of 125.983mph and third highest privateer finisher.

That he was then slightly disappointed with a silver replica 20th place in the Superstock TT was no reflection on his performance, but rather a measure of how far Hegarty has come in his Isle of Man TT journey.

Nevertheless he still put in a fastest lap of 125.224mph, (his fastest Superstock lap last year was 122.434mph) and he was only 4.5 seconds away from joining a relatively small group of 20 or so riders who dipped under 18 minutes for a lap. 

Hegarty would go on to claim his third silver replica of the week thanks to another strong top-20 performance in the shortened 4-lap Blue Riband Senior TT, where he lapped at an impressive 126.482mph.

On reflection Dan can look back on TT 2015 with justifiable satisfaction and pride.

Fifth overall in the TT Privateer's Championship, he smashed all his previous fastest laps and went quicker on average than he has ever done.

The young rising star went about his business in a professional manner and is already setting his sights on a return next year.




Ian Lougher (Team ILR manager):

"Working with Dan at the TT this year and seeing him increase his lap times in every class by over 3mph, has been very pleasing. 

He has approached the Isle of Man races this year in a sensible way, learning the place properly and working with Dave, Tommo, Matt and Jacko to get the bikes set up properly and not rushing the learning curve that is needed to make a quick, yet safe TT racer.

After a difficult weather affected practice week, Dan started the week on the Downshift/Team ILR Kawasaki's, with an excellent 13th place finish in the Superbike race, and the first of his three silver replica finishes. 

He continued in extremely close Superstock and Senior TT races, with 20th and 18th respectively.

We now look forward to the Southern 100 next month, where Dan will start as a newcomer on the 4.25 mile Billown circuit in Castletown on the Isle of Man."

Dan Hegarty:

"This year's TT has been my best yet, being with Ian for 2 years has taught me so much and bought consistency to my racing.

Having Downshift Motorsport come together with Team ILR has given me everything I could possibly need and the improvements in my results have proven this.

I`m really grateful to Ian and his team and everybody at Downshift Motorsport."