Michael Dunlop says Irish national road racing is 'finished' as 'folk need to look at themselves'

The Ulster rider, who broke his revered uncle Joey’s record of 26 wins at the TT in June to set a new benchmark of 29 triumphs, previously said those involved in running national meetings ‘need to look at themselves’.

Over the past two years, only the Cookstown 100 and Armoy road races have taken place in Northern Ireland along with the North West 200.

There has been no national road racing in the Republic of Ireland since 2022, with clubs unable to afford prohibitive insurance costs following a hike in premiums post-Covid.

Next year, the Tandragee 100 in Co Armagh is set to return to a depleted calendar from June 27-28, but Dunlop says the days when road racers came through the ranks at events such as Cookstown and Tandragee and went on to win at the NW200 and TT – as he did so successfully – are over.

Speaking during a special homecoming event in Ballymoney on Saturday to celebrate his feat of becoming the most successful TT rider in history, Dunlop told BBC Sport NI: “People will not like it but national road racing is finishing. It’s finished, we can see that.

“The TT will thrive regardless, the North West will thrive regardless. That might be controversial. National road racing used to be the platform to go international road racing.

“Realistically, who is now winning international road races who is a national road racer? We’re racing against BSB people now.

“That’s who is at the front of the North West now, that’s who wants to be riding at the front of the TT.”

Previously, Dunlop aired his doubts over the future of national road racing during a reception at Stormont in September to mark his record-breaking TT success.

At the time, he told the News Letter: “There’s not many young boys coming along and people say we need Sports Council funding and all this, but folk need to look at themselves too.

“The North West and TT are massive, that’s the long and short of it, and they’re pulling people in, the other events, people aren’t doing them properly and it’s as simple as that.

“I don’t think they ever will, I think we’ve gone so far off the scale. At the end of the day, if I get beat on my motorbike, it’s me to blame and I need to change something, you can’t keep saying ‘we need money’ – even if they were getting the money to put into the events, people aren’t turning up.

“They’re going to the North West and the TT because they put on a spectacle, and the TT has just got to that stage now where it’s the be-all and end-all.

“The amount of people that goes to the Isle of Man TT is fantastic and that’s because they’re doing a great job.”

Dunlop is one of the last road racers who learnt their craft between the hedges at Irish meetings such as Cookstown, Tandragee, Skerries, Mid Antrim, Kells and Walderstown and went on to win at the highest level at the NW200, TT and Ulster Grand Prix.

He has won 119 Irish road races and is tied with his late brother William in fourth on the all-time winner’s list, which is headed by Ryan Farquhar (211), Joey Dunlop (156) and Robert Dunlop (135).