Michael Dunlop rewrote the TT’s history books on Wednesday morning as he picked up his 27th victory in 17 years at the event.

The 35 year old from Ballymoney secured a comfortable victory in the three-lap Supertwin race, bringing the 650 Paton home 20.406 seconds in front of rival Peter Hickman.

Dominic Herbertson claimed a first ever TT podium in third on the Burrows Engineering Paton, fending off the fast-finishing Jamie Coward to come home 14.394 seconds down on the Yamaha-mounted Hickman.

After the dominant win saw him move clear of his Uncle Joey’s record of 26 wins, Dunlop said: ‘It’s an honour, but I’m no better than Joey.

‘We should have had this on Sunday [in the superbike race] as we were comfortable, but things out of our control denied us.’

Although conditions were a bit mixed on Course, with damp patches and a strong wind on the Mountain, Dunlop attacked from the off building a 10.7s lead by the compulsory pit stops at the end of the first lap.

There were no issues in ‘gasoline alley’ for Dunlop this time and he continued to pile on the coals narrowly missing out on the class’s lap record with a final lap of 122.434mph (18 minutes 29.394s).

Hickman said he was happy to put the Swan Yamaha back on the TT podium in such a historic race.

He said: ‘I’m a TT fan foremost, so to be even in the same race as Michael as he achieves that is something extra special.’

Herbertson, whose best previous TT finish was seventh in last year’s first Supertwin race, was equally delighted: ‘I keep expecting them to drag me out of here [the winner’s enclosure],’ the 32 year old from Hexham joked.

The fast-finishing Jamie Coward was a further 5.494s down in fourth ahead of Mike Browne in fifth who had to nurse his 660 Aprilia home after it developed a small oil leak on the final lap.

Davey Todd was sixth, Michael Rutter seventh with Manxman Joe Yeardsley an impressive eighth in his maiden TT having graduated from the Manx Grand Prix last year.

South African AJ Venter secured his best Mountain Course finish in ninth with Frenchman continuing the international feel in 10th.

Glen Auldyn’s Gareth Arnold finished 16th and Marc Colvin 27th despite the Peel man being hit with a 30-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

TT veteran David Madsen-Mygdal finished 32nd of the 34 finishers.

Fellow locals Marcus Simpson and Paul Cassidy were both retirements, while Anthony Redmond was a non-starter following his crash in last night’s warm-up solo lap.

Fuller report in TT News issue five - free with tomorrow’s Manx Independent.