Friday’s race day was another tumultuous day at the Isle of Man TT Races for Peter Hickman as he took victory in both the second Superstock and Supertwin races – to move on to a career total of 12 – and shattered his own outright lap record with a lap of 136.358mph.

Hickman went into the final lap of the three-lap Superstock race with a 5.1s lead over Michael Dunlop but with four best ever sector times, out of a possible six, the Monster Energy by FHO Racing BMW rider surged clear to better his 2018 lap of 135.452mph by 6.664s. The fact it was achieved on a Superstock-spec bike rather than a full-blown Superbike made the feat even more astounding.

“136mph sounds pretty good,” he smiled afterwards. “There were so many people out on the course waving and cheering and the team have done such a good job – it was absolutely epic.”

“I started a bit slowly and felt a bit heady this morning, not ill but just not quite myself, so it was very much a case of steady away, but the Stocker’s been working so well and it’s so easy to ride. The win’s want you want and the outright lap record’s the cherry on top.”

After struggling all week with his Superbike, it begs the question of whether or not he sticks with it or goes with the Superstock bike instead for Saturday’s six-lap Senior.

“It’s something we’ll definitely have to consider and discuss,” he admitted. “The Superbike’s been turned inside out and upside down yet we’re still having the same issues with it being a bit of a handful.”

Hickman then made it two wins in a day with a surprise victory in the second Supertwin race after race leaders and Paton-mounted Michael Dunlop and Mike Browne both retired. The victory was even sweeter given he only managed to complete one lap on his own-prepared PHR Performance Yamaha prior to the first race.

“I’m super-happy and although we haven’t got the speed of the Paton’s, the chassis on the Yamaha is amazing. We just need a bit more time to get it going properly. When we went into the first race, top 10 was the realistic aim so fourth there made me sit up a bit.”

“The two Paton’s going out obviously helped but I was happy with the lap speeds and my only worry was running out of fuel. I was short-shifting everywhere on the last lap. Nick Morgan from MSS Performance has given us a lot of help and we’ve Michael Rutter’s bottom end so although we’re all against each other, we all help each other too.”