Dean Harrison was declared the winner of the abandoned Senior Isle of Man TT on Saturday after heavy rain stopped the rescheduled four-lap race before it could reach the finish. The result was taken from the first-lap order, putting Harrison ahead of Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes even though the race had not been completed.
That made the title search feel immediate for anyone following the TT on Saturday. The senior event had already been pushed back once, moved forward to Friday before rain kept it off the road, and then finally began only to be halted after Erno Kostamo crashed at 11th Milestone on the second lap. Kostamo was reported conscious, stable and talking while receiving treatment for leg and hip injuries.
The abandoned race was only part of a weekend wrecked by the weather. The second Sportbike race was cancelled, the opening day of racing on 30 May was postponed, and several other planned sessions were either called off or cut short as conditions kept changing across the Mountain Course. Clerk of the course Gary Thompson called it one of the most challenging TTs in recent years from a weather perspective, saying rain affected seven of the event's nine potential racing days.
That count explains why organisers had little room left to manoeuvre. The TT runs over a 37.73-mile public-road course, and low cloud, rain and standing water repeatedly narrowed the safe windows needed to race. Last year's Senior race was also scrapped because of weather concerns, and this year's disruption went further as the schedule was battered before the final day arrived.
The unresolved part is not who was named winner. It is what the result means in a race that ended before the field had finished a full distance. Harrison was quickest from the first lap, but the abandonment froze the classification in place and left the rest of the field with no chance to change it. With the remaining TT action cancelled on Saturday, there was nothing left on the calendar to answer the question the weather had already raised.
