Fresh from their victory in last month’s Dunlop Senior TT Race at the Isle of Man TT Races fuelled by Monster Energy, Dean Harrison and the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki team will make their return to the Mountain Course in August for the Classic TT presented by Bennetts.
The Bradford rider will again ride a Kawasaki ZXR750 in the four-lap RST Superbike Race, scheduled to take place on Monday 26th August, as both he and the team aim for their third successive victory in the class.
Having joined forces for the first time in 2016, the combination of Harrison and the Silicone Engineering team has yielded nothing but success at the International Road Racing events and the Classic TT has been no exception, with their first victory coming in record-breaking style in 2017.
The now 30-year old led the race from start to finish to defeat Kiwi ace Bruce Anstey by more than 16 seconds. With a fastest lap at an average speed of 127.212mph, Harrison set a new race record of 1hr12m32.923s, an average speed for the four laps of 124.815mph.
That record still stands as mixed weather conditions during practice week in 2018 kept speeds down in the race, but Harrison was again in imperious form. Serving up a repeat performance of the previous year, he dominated proceedings once more and eventually took the chequered flag by more than a minute from the similarly-mounted Horst Saiger.
Those two wins match the tally he’s taken in the green, white and blue colours of Silicone Engineering at June’s Isle of Man TT, where he’s also taken an additional 11 podiums for the team.
With a TT career now reading a total of three wins and 16 podiums, Harrison has established himself as one of the best road racers of his generation and also one of the most versatile, with other Classic TT wins coming in the 2013 Formula Classic and 2015 Senior Classic TT Races.
However, whilst both he and Silicone Engineering Kawasaki are firm favourites for honours in August, they’re well aware they won’t have it all their own way and with a star-studded field including the likes of Conor Cummins, Michael Rutter, Gary Johnson and Jamie Coward, it promises to be another mouth-watering encounter.
Tickets for the 2019 Classic TT are now on sale via the Official iomttraces.com website including Official Grandstand Tickets, VIP Hospitality Experiences, and Official Entertainment Events including the Counterfeit Stones Classic TT Party Performance. You can stay up to date with all the latest Classic TT news by subscribing to the Official Isle of Man TT Races Newsletter.
Images courtesy of Pacemaker Press.