Lap and race records were smashed to smithereens in perfect conditions at Billown on Wednesday evening as the Southern 100 gathered pace.

Michael Dunlop set the ball rolling when he produced a time of 2min 14.007sec on the final lap of the Ellan Vannin Fuels Senior race.

But he was forced to push his Bennetts Suzuki superbike all the way to the line to hold off local man Dan Kneen on the Superstock-spec DTR BMW.

Unlike the previous evening, when Kneen led the equivalent race for three laps, this time Dunlop held the reins throughout.

There was nothing in it and Kneen later admitted that he bided his time in the hope of finding a way past Dunlop on the final lap, only to have his rhythm and concentration affected by a couple of lapped riders on difficult sections of the course.

Ultimately, both men went inside Dean Harrison’s lap and race records from 2014, with Dunlop producing the fastest lap of all with a speed of 114.173mph on the final circuit to edge over the line 0.184 of a second ahead of Kneen.

Jamie Coward was also inside the old race record, finishing third on the Radcliffe’s Racing BMW ahead of James Cowton and Ivan Lintin. Harrison was unable to start the race after experiencing rectifier issues with his Kawasaki.

The best newcomer was Sam West in seventh and second local Jamie Williams in 16th.

Lintin and Cowton had a start-to-finish battle in the 650/250 twins race, quickly breaking away from the chasing riders.

Lap three was their quickest when they both went into the 104mph bracket for the first time - Cowton marginally quicker on the McAdoo machine.

But Lintin went back to the head of proceedings soon after and managed to keep his Devitt/RC Express Racing Kawasaki to the fore to take the Mike Kerruish Plumbing honours by a third of a second.

Former MGP winner Rob Hodson was third and S100 newcomer Joey Thompson fourth on the leading 250. Best local was Dave Moffitt in sixth, with Dave Quine 11th.

The Radcliffe’s Butchers 600cc race was another hum-dinger between Harrison and Cowton, with Dunlop ever-present right behind them for the duration of the seven laps.

The race got quicker as it progressed, with the top four all producing their quickest laps on the final circuit.

Harrison ultimately broke his own race and Guy Martin’s lap record when crossing the line three quarters of a second in front of Cowton, with Dunlop another 0.145 of a second astern.

Coward was fourth and Thompson again the leading newcomer in fifth, while the leading locals were Dean Osborne and Brendan Fargher in ninth and 10th.

Completing a full-set of lap and race records, brothers Ben and Tom Birchall won the Ace Hire and Sales sidecar race at the conclusion of a superb night’s racing.

To begin with, there were four top crews dicing it out at the head of the field, but Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle retired at Church Bends on lap three.

Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes continued to lead until they also hit problems, losing power and eventually stopping at the end of lap four.

This left the Birchalls with an increasing advantage over John Holden and local passenger Lee Cain, who both went faster than ever before round the course.

The margin at the close was 5.364s, but that does not reflect the closeness of the battle in the earlier stages of the race.

Third place ultimately went to Wayne Lockey and Mark Sayers. The first local crew home were seasoned campaigners Nigel Smith and Chris McGahan in seventh.

Reports from the final day of the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company-sponsored International Southern 100 meeting will appear in Tuesday’s edition of the Isle of Man Examiner.