Isle of Man TT legend Michael Dunlop ready for Le Mans 24-Hours race after BMW M1000RR test with Team LRP Poland

The 29-time TT winner wrapped up a two-day test at Le Mans in France during the week, where Dunlop will return later this month to contest the iconic 24-Hours race from April 17-20.

He will join Enzo Boulom, Danny Webb and Marek Szkopek in the line-up at Le Mans in the Superbike category.

Last year, Dunlop finished 16th at Le Mans in the Superstock class, when he rode for French outfit TRT27 on a Honda.

The 35-year-old looks poised for a return to BMW power for the major road races in 2025 after riding a Honda Fireblade for the past two seasons.

The Ballymoney man recently tested a BMW M1000RR at Kirkistown in Co Down.

In September, he said his team had “got the best” out of his Honda Superbike at the TT last June, when he set his fastest ever lap at 135.970mph.

“The one we have is all self-built, we don’t have any factory bits, and I think we’ve done a fantastic job,” he said.

“Steve [Hicken] got the best out of the package and I got the best out of Steve and the package.

“We broke the lap record in that [Superbike TT] race and for me it shows that we’re still tramping along.

Dunlop has strong ties to BMW going back to 2014, when he famously won the Senior TT on the Hawk Racing BMW, 75 years after the marque’s last victory in the historic race when Georg Meier was victorious.

He also won the Superbike and Superstock races in the same year on S1000RR machinery.

Two years later, Dunlop clinched a Superbike and Senior TT double on a Hawk Racing prepared BMW S1000RR in 2016, setting the first sub-17 minute lap of the 37.73-mile Mountain Course and the first 133mph average lap.

Another BMW success followed in 2018, when Dunlop claimed the Superbike TT spoils for Northern Ireland team TAS Racing in emotional circumstances following the tragic death of his team-mate, Manx rider Dan Kneen, in an incident in qualifying.

He later rode a BMW M1000RR for the TAS team at Armoy in 2021 and won the Open and ‘Race of Legends’ Superbike events, setting a then lap record for the three-mile Co Antrim course at 106.945mph.

Dunlop last sealed victory in the Superbike class at the TT on the Hawk Racing Honda in 2023.

A change also appears to be on the cards for the Ulster rider in the Supersport class, with Dunlop testing a Ducati Panigale V2 in Spain this year before riding the Italian machine at the Daytona 200 in Florida in February, when he finished ninth on his second appearance at the event.