NW200: Michael Dunlop unveils new BMW M1000RR Superbike and Superstock machines and Ducati Panigale livery ahead of opening practice
Michael Dunlop has pulled the wraps off his stable of MD Racing machines for the major road racing season.
The record 29-time Isle of Man TT winner’s BMW M1000RR Superbike and Superstock bikes and Ducati Panigale V2 are ready for opening practice at the Briggs Equipment North West 200 on Wednesday.
Dunlop, a winner in the Superbike and Supersport races at the Cookstown 100 in April, is aiming to end a nine-year wait for a victory at the NW200, where he last won in 2016 in the Superbike race on a Hawk Racing BMW S1000RR.
The 36-year-old made history in 2024, surpassing his legendary uncle Joey’s record of 26 wins to set a new benchmark of 29 after his second consecutive four-timer around the Mountain Course.
Dunlop has relied on a Hawk Racing Honda Fireblade for the past two seasons and recorded his fastest ever lap at the Isle of Man TT last year at 135.970mph, which was a new lap record for the Superbike race.
At the North West, he finished on the podium twice in the Superbike class, taking third in the first two races, and fourth in the headline race last May.
He has enjoyed plenty of success on BMW machinery in the past, achieving his Superbike and Superstock double at the North West on S1000RR machinery in 2014 before taking the spoils in the sole Superbike race two years later.
At the TT, Dunlop delighted the German manufacturer in 2014, when he famously won the Senior race on the Hawk Racing BMW, 75 years after BMW’s last victory in the historic race when Georg Meier emerged victorious.
Dunlop also won the Superbike and Superstock races in the same year on S1000RR machinery.
Two years later, he 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 iconic 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.