Manx Grand Prix: Michael Dunlop says unprecedented cancellations preferable to 'somebody getting hurt over stupidity'

A raft of cancellations following heavy rain, gales and low cloud on the Mountain Course threw the schedule into chaos, with the Manx Motor Cycle Club and ACU Events Ltd blaming ‘some of the worst August weather in 20 years over the past week’, with Storm Lilian bringing ‘unseasonably high winds along with heavy and persistent rain’.

Only two afternoon qualifying sessions were held throughout the nine-day meeting, while racing – due to have taken place across three days – was condensed into the final day of the programme on Bank Holiday Monday.

A further delay of over four hours on Monday because of low cloud and wet roads put further pressure on the organisers, who were forced to declare a result in the Junior MGP race, which had been red-flagged on Saturday on the second lap, while the remaining races were reduced in distance to a single lap with the exception of the Senior MGP, which was run over two laps of the 37.73-mile course.

Dunlop, who was leading the Lightweight race at the Bungalow on his MD Racing 250 Honda by over three seconds before running into trouble with the machine and eventually finishing 15th, said the organisers had ‘done a good job’.

“It’s not really a difficult week, there’s obviously flak over it but the boys that are crying that racing should be happening are the boys that’s crying when somebody gets hurt,” he told Manx Radio.

“I think Gary’s [Thompson] had a lot on his plate and I think he’s done a good job; you can’t do anything about the weather and you can’t do anything about the event, so it’s quite simple.

“If somebody gets hurt over stupidity then it’s worse, so I think they’ve done a good job and we just have to deal with what we’ve got to do.

“Everybody’s crying about racing so they had to cut laps to try and get all the races in, so it’s a vicious circle.

“There is no happy medium and they’re doing the best they can with the tools they’ve got, so I don’t see a problem.”

Dunlop had been set to compete in the Classic Superbike race on a Ducati 916 but issues with the machine meant he never rode it after stopping on his first lap in the opening qualifying session.

Irishman Mike Browne won the one-lap race on The Bike Specialists by Key Racing Ducati 916, becoming the first Mountain Course winner on the iconic Italian machine.