Isle of Man TT 2025: Davey Todd beats Michael Dunlop to win opening Superbike race

Davey Todd won a thrilling opening Superbike race at the 2025 Isle of Man TT on Monday afternoon after managing to hold off the challenge of Michael Dunlop.

The race was reduced from six to four laps due to oil spills on the course earlier in the day, whilst Todd was the sole representative for the Monster Energy by 8TEN Racing BMW Motorrad team following Peter Hickman’s TT-ending crash during the third qualifying session.

Todd claimed his third TT victory by just 1.296s as he and Dunlop left the rest of the field behind them to engage in their own enthralling battle. Todd posted the fastest lap of the race on the final lap at 135.327mph.

The reigning British National Superstock champion led by just under eight seconds at the end of the opening lap, dropping slightly to 7.1 seconds by the end of lap two. It was the pit stop that almost cost Todd victory, with the Yorkshireman losing six seconds to Dunlop.

It meant that as the pair went through Glen Helen on the fourth and final lap the gap was just 0.2 seconds. However, Todd remained calm to take victory onboard the BMW M1000RR.

“I’m over the moon with the victory and the whole team has done a fantastic job,” Todd said. “Given the team has existed for less than three months, it feels a bit surreal to be sitting here now as TT winners but that’s testament to everyone’s hard work and to all the sponsors for making it happen.

“It’s been a crazy week weather-wise, and I was more nervous than normal on the start line for some reason, but I knew we had good pace. I hadn’t shown my hand too much in practice and although we lost a bit of time at the pits, I got my head down on the last lap and pushed on with 135.3mph being a decent lap to end on to get the job done.”

Dunlop would go on to secure his 30^th TT victory later in the day with victory in the opening Supersport race of the 2025 event. That victory was also Ducati’s first success on the Mountain Course in 30 years.

Dean Harrison completed the podium but was over 40 seconds behind the race winner, whilst Nathan Harrison claimed his best-ever TT result in fourth. David Johnson completed the top five ahead of James Hillier and John McGuinness, whilst Josh Brookes, Michael Evans and Paul Jordan completed the top 10.