Michael Dunlop unofficially surpassed it during qualifying but it is only during racin🌼g that the true൲ Mountain Course record can be broken - nobody has ever hit 136mph but they are getting precariously close.

Current record holder Peter Hickman went 135.452mph in ꦉthe 2018 Senior TT but knows that he could go faster on these public roads that are usually limited to 3ꦐ0mph.

“I don’t know, I really don’t,” Hickman replied to when asꦆked who might break the lap record. 

“Even in 2018, on my fastest lap I passed between six and 𝄹10 backmarkers. 

“There was oil down at the bottom of Barregarrow so I was a bit slower through there than normal, it prob❀ably cost me at least five seconds anyway and that would have put us into a 136mph.🅘 

“So 136mph is possible. So who knows. 

“Hopefully that’s not needed!”

Hickman and his peers are acutely aware of t🙈he danger that exists with the TꦗT inherently, and also with chasing speed records.

He explained: “Race wins come first.

“The 🌳record is nice, it’s a cherry on top, but at the end of the day race wins are what we’re here for and we want to win the race at the slowest possiblꦏe pace.

“This whole game is more of a calculated risk than what ༒people think.ꦛ 

“You’ve got to use your brain to limit the risk as much as possible and it just depends on where everyone else is and whether you’re wi🌃lling to go 🧸further with it once the time is right.

“The difference will be whether people are on the limit alread💙y or not. 

🦩“It’s ok going this fast already, but is everyone on the limit and they can’t go any faster? Or, is it because they’ve still got something l꧟eft in the tank? You just don’t know, do you? 

“I know for me personally, not that I necessarily sandbag, but I tend to get faster day to day, whereas not everyone’s the same.&nb♏sp;

“A lot of other people can get to their limit a lot faster and a lot earlier, then struggle to go any fu♌rther.”

He added: “People think we’re idiots who just take our brain out and ride flat out. It doesn’t work ꦫlike thatꦍ.”

Hickman’s current lap record came from the all-time classic Senior TT five years♕ ago wh🎃en he edged Dean Harrison.

“It was an accumulation of the race and the two weeks and all the rest of it, where me and Dean were pushing each other a bit more and a bit more and a bit more, and it was that end of race, last lap and only a couple o🃏f seconds between us,” Hickman said.

“That was basically all cards on the table.”

This year, the great weather has added to the p🧸ossibility of a new lap record.

Hickman even threatened to do it himself in the Superbike race on Sunday, when he finished behin🦩d onꦇly Michael Dunlop.

Dunlop’s two wins this year so far make him the man 🍃to beat, and perhaps the man to threaten the lap ꩵrecord.

But, clearly, it will not be chased at all costs.