BRADFORD motorbike ace Dean Harrison has won the Senior TT Race on the Isle of Man.

The former Hanson School pupil won the event's premier race for the first time, having finished runner-up last year.

Harrison was pipped by Peter Hickman in 2018 but the roles were reversed today as the Bradford rider came from behind to claim the biggest win of his career.

Starting the second lap of the race, Hickman held a 2.209 second lead from the Silicone Racing-backed Harrison, who had two TT wins to his name previously.

At half-race distance the margin had grown to 13.486 seconds.

At Ballaugh Bridge on the third lap, the 30-year-old had pulled back half a second but coming into the second and final pit stop after the Mountain section, the lead for Hickman was 17.683 seconds.

But Harrison then began to claw back time. As the pair passed Glen Helen for the fifth lap, the difference between them had dropped to just 7.915 seconds, a change of nearly ten seconds.

At Ballaugh that lead dropped to 1.130 seconds, with Hickman’s team reporting cooling issues on the Smiths Racing BMW Superbike.

At Sulby, the Lincolnshire rider's top speed had dropped to only 159mph - well off the 190mph-plus the potent BMW S1000RR had shown on previous laps - pointing to serious engine problems.

Hickman trailed into Ramsey 7.877 seconds down on the Silicone Engineering Kawasaki of Harrison.

That difference grew to 18.386 seconds by the start of the final lap and his advantage grew to over 46 seconds at Ramsey as Harrison - who only bought his first racing bike as an 18-year-old - claimed a momentous victory by 53 seconds.

Conor Cummins was closing in on Hickman with just 12 seconds separating them as they began the mountain climb for the final time but last year's champion held on to claim the runners-up spot.