Dean Harrison’s habit of finishing on the podium at the Southern 100 continued this week as he claimed two third places on his YZF-R1M superstock machine plus a superb win in the S&S Motors Supersport race on his YZF-R6 Yamaha.

The Bradford man was lucky to walk away from a big crash in Tuesday evening’s wet practice session although it did rule out any chance of using his superbike for the rest of the week. The Mar-Train team worked throughout Wednesday to prepare their superstock machine for the Senior race and the twenty six year old duly rewarded them with a hard fought podium, finishing in third place.

Harrison followed that up on Thursday with another third place in the Corlett’s Trophies Solo race although this time the Yamaha UK man was able to compete with the leading BMW duo of Martin and Dunlop finishing less than two seconds off the win and lapping just outside the lap record. Hopes were high for a Solo Championship win to round the week off but a stretched chain forced a retirement whilst holding third place.

In the supersport class Harrison was in the same form that brought him a double for Mar-Train in 2014. In race one the Yorkshire man had built up a seemingly unsurmountable lead of six seconds only for the generator to fail on his R6 Yamaha on the last lap. He made no mistake in race two however taking the lead on lap two and gradually pulling away from Ivan Linton to win by just over two and a half seconds again lapping just one second off the lap record.

Team Principal – Tim Martin

“It was unfortunate that we had to revert to the superstock machine after Dean’s practice crash but he walked away from it and that’s the main thing. Progress was again the key, we finished 3rd in both races but with a deficit of twelve seconds in race one and less than two seconds in race two. Dean was in a class of his own on the 600 and should have had a double, it was great to get back to winning ways though after a challenging few months and it gives all the boys a confidence boost ahead of what will be a busy period for us.”

Rider – Dean Harrison

“Nice to get another win at the Southern, pity about the first 600 race but it was just another one of those things you can’t legislate for. Really happy with the progress on the big bike, the boys have done a great job since the TT and the R1M is getting better and better every time I ride it. I made a mess of the superbike on Tuesday night but we’ve come away with a couple of podiums and a win but more importantly a really competitive superbike package.”

Harrison will next be in action at the Cock O’ the North Races at Oliver’s Mount on July 18th/19th .




Photo courtesy of Stephen Davison, Pacemaker Press International