It’s been a year of U-turns so far for Ballymoney born rider Michael Dunlop, who initially announced his retirement from road racing before making a very quick return to the scene with an expert team of engineers from BMW to back him up. Add to this a switch to Metzeler before the NW200, and then back to Dunlop in the week before the TT and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Michael would have a lot going on in his head with a new bike and different tyres but it didn’t seem to affect him one bit.
At the age of 25, Michael has plenty of racing years left in him yet to try and surpass the winning record of his uncle Joey, and he took four convincing wins on the Mountain Course in 2014 on Dunlop tyres, also smashing a number of lap records in the process. This means he has 11 TT wins to his name already, and surely there is plenty more to come from the man from Northern Ireland.
Kiwi Bruce Anstey also helped to ensure that there were even more Dunlop caps on the podium with some superb rides in the Supersport, Superstock and TT Zero classes. He also became the first ever rider to break the 132mph barrier.
“We’ve had a fantastic year at this year’s TT” said Mark Sears Dunlop’s Motorcycle Product Support Manager, “There is nothing like the atmosphere in the winners enclosure on Senior TT- It’s got an end of term feeling and the day was topped off for us by Dunlop riders taking the top two podium places.”
“There is no bigger testament to Dunlop’s Race to Road programme than this event and by breaking so many lap records. The Isle of Man is one of the most challenging motorcycle races in the motorsport calendar, there are no gravel traps or run offs like circuit racing – just houses and walls surrounding the riders.
“Racing in the TT plays a particularly important role in developing tyres for the road. As an open competition between tyre manufacturers it further enhances Dunlop’s relentless drive to innovate and develop new technologies to heighten product performance. These developments then cascade to Dunlop’s commercially available tyres, allowing us to take a superior product to market that is rich with motorsport technology.”
It’s safe to say that we’re delighted with the success of the 2014 Isle of Man TT and can’t wait until next year!”.
