Honda is celebrating its first win at the Isle of Man TT for ten years after Dean Harrison powered to victory in the first Superstock TT race of the week.

Also Harrison’s first win on the Mountain since 2019, the Bradford racer went against the odds to defeat Davey Todd, who had come into the race boasting the fastest time of the week on his 8TEN Racing BMW.

Indeed, Todd had come into the race as a firm favourite based on his practice pace, not to mention his success in the Superbike TT aboard a SSTK chassis with a SBK engine.

However, while Harrison was some 45secs back in that race, on the Superstock bike he had the edge over his rival to claim victory by 11.6secs.

A winner in Superstock last year, Todd started well to lead initially, albeit by only a small margin over a feisty Harrison.

However, by the end of the second lap, Harrison had gotten the edge over on Todd to establish a margin he’d continue to grow over the remainder of the three-lap encounter.

Clocking his fastest ever lap of the Mountain Course with a 135.692mph lap in the process, the success sees Harrison taste TT success for the first time since his Senior TT win for Kawasaki in 2019.

More significantly, however, it is the first win on the TT for Honda. The Japanese manufacturer remains the most successful manufacturer at the TT, but while it has proven competitive in recent years with the new generation Fireblade, victory has continued to elude it.

However, Harrison’s success sees the victory drought stretching back to 2015 come to an end and strengthens the manufacturer’s hopes of pulling off a repeat performance in the second Superstock TT race and the event-closing Senior TT on Saturday.

A winner in the Supersport race, Michael Dunlop was made to settle for third place as he battled electronic issues on the MD Racing ROKiT BMW.

The Ulsterman had enough in hand to see off James Hillier, who continued his strong run of results in fourth, while Ian Hutchinson enjoyed one of his best TT results in years aboard the MLav Racing BMW in fifth. 

Conor Cummins was sixth, ahead of Nathan Harrison in seventh, while Dominic Herbertson, Josh Brookes and James Hind completed the top ten.