Dean Harrison and Davey Todd won a race apiece at the Southern 100 on Wednesday evening, when the outright lap record was also smashed.

The Ellan Vannin Fuels 1,000cc race was not surprisingly the quickest when both men each took turns to carve tenths of seconds off the old record for the 4.25-mile Billown course.

Harrison led by a quarter-of-a-second at the end of lap one when Todd had to make up early ground from fifth on the grid.

Lap two saw the race lap record go at 114.4mph, then it went even higher to 115.301mph on lap three when Todd was also inside the old record (set a little over two minutes earlier).

Harrison raised the record to 116.03mph on lap four - the first average lap speed in excess of 116mph to ever be achieved.

A split second later Todd raised it by another fraction to 116.141mph to take possession of the record. But it still wasn’t enough to take charge of the race.

Heading into the seventh and final lap the pair were still locked in combat with Harrison 0.5 of a second ahead.

Harrison held on to take what was his 25th win at the Southern by a mere nine 100ths of a second on the DAO Racing Kawasaki, which he later revealed had suffered an electrical fault the previous evening when he was forced to retire.

Todd said it was ‘pretty cool’ to set a new absolute record for the course, but could not hide his disappointment at having to take second place in the race.

‘It’s not easy to make a pass round here, and Dean doesn’t make mistakes. He went into Church Bends a little deep on the last lap, but it still wasn’t enough for me to get past.

‘I was a little hesitant at the final corner, where Dean was nearly off. He had his outside foot down, but managed to keep it under control to just squeeze over the line ahead of me.’

Todd revved his Honda Fireblade so hard in the final stages that it was making a few noises at the finish.

Michael Dunlop was more than 14 seconds adrift in third spot, having relinquished his tenure of both the lap and race records.

Manxman Nathan Harrison was fourth, marginally ahead of Jamie Coward, with Irishman Michael Sweeney rounding out the top-six.

Anthony Redmond turned the tables on fellow local Marcus Simpson in ninth place, with Jamie Williams 12th.

Todd gained his revenge over Harrison in the Radcliffe Butchers 600cc A race, edging home 0.344 of a second ahead after another close battle - this time a four-way contest.

The two main protagonists swapped first and second places just about every lap, with Dunlop and Jamie Coward right on their tails.

At the end of lap four only 1.1 seconds covered the top four as they sped down Castletown Bypass at 160mph.

Todd finally made the lead stick on the final two circuits to chalk up his second win in two nights.

‘I knew they would be snapping at my heels. It was super fun, I hope the fans enjoyed it. I’m really stoked at winning that. Padgett’s have built me an incredible bike.’

Harrison admitted that he’d enjoyed the slip-streaming and had tried to have a final go at the last corner, but settled for second place.

Dunlop, again third, said that the Hondas seem very fast, perhaps forgetting that only Todd of the leading quartet was on a CBR600.

‘Jamie shifted inside of me and then ran on, so just got in my way a little.’

Paul Jordan was fifth on the PreZ Racing Yamaha and Rob Hodson sixth, but one of the rides of the night came from local man Joe Yeardsley in his first Southern 100, finishing seventh, well clear of Nathan Harrison.

Michael Russell, who rode every single race at the TT, and similarly rode two and three-wheel classes at the Southern, won the seven-lap JCK Mike Kerruish Plumbing and Heating 600cc Support race by more than two seconds from Don Gilbert of Nutbourne and Jack Petrie of Christchurch in Dorset.

‘Jack’ Russell’s time would have placed him 19th out of 27 finishers in the A race.

The Mike Kerruish Plumbing and Heating Lightweight race, held over from the previous evening, was a battle of the roses between Coward and Hodson.

Lancastrian Hodson led by three thousandths of a second at the end of lap one and 0.5s at one third distance, but Yorkshireman Coward took over at the front on lap three, albeit by two tenths of a second.

Hodson never let go and achieved a new lap record for the twins on lap five, but the honours and a new race record went to Coward by 1.181 of a second.

Jordan and Jonathan Perry completed a cleansweep of the top four by ER650 Kawasaki riders, with Marc Colvin the leading local in sixth, behind Barry Furner of Bishops Castle, with Paul Cassidy of Castletown eighth.

The 250cc battle went all the way to the line between friends Dan Sayle and Gareth Arnold in 19th and 20th positions - with two tenths of a second between them at the flag.