NW200: Michael Dunlop wraps up maiden 'Triangle' treble and shrugs off Superbike drama - 'I don't see any reason for the fuss'

The Ulster rider claimed his first victories at Northern Ireland’s premier road race on Thursday since 2016, winning the opening Supersport and Superstock races.

Dunlop followed up with a battling triumph in Saturday’s first Superbike race, fighting back after mistakes at Mather’s chicane and Metropole on the opening lap to claw back a deficit of around 20 seconds to Davey Todd.

The 36-year-old passed Todd on the sixth and final lap into Station Corner and won the race by almost two seconds, setting the fastest lap of this year’s meeting at 125.539mph on the factory ROKiT BMW Motorrad machine.

“I felt good, rode well, I think I deserved the race. I lost a load of time, came back again and it’s great to do it in front of the home crowd, so I enjoyed it.

“It’s great to do it in front of the home crowd and it’s good to win a Superbike race again.

“Not even that, just to get back to winning ways, winning a Superbike race, winning for the ROKiT guys, Carl Cox, Hawk Racing again, the SMR boys and everybody that’s chipped in again to get the job on the road.

“We’ve still got stuff we need to address and we’ll get there.”

His father Robert won 15 times at the event and would surely have achieved even greater success had it not been for a serious accident at the Isle of Man TT in 1994, which limited Dunlop to the smallest capacity 125cc class afterwards.

Robert was a treble winner in 1990, 1991, 1993, and 1994, and now Michael has added his name to the exclusive list of former hat-trick winners at the north coast showpiece.

His tally now stands at eight victories and combined with Robert’s 15 wins, uncle Joey’s 13 victories and brother William’s four successes, the legendary Dunlop motorcycling dynasty has 40 NW200 wins in total.

Dunlop, whose own record includes three Superbike wins, two in the Superstock and Supersport classes and a 250cc victory – his first at the NW200 in 2008 – was officially confirmed as the Superbike winner on Saturday after claims he should have been penalised by 10 seconds.

English duo Peter Hickman and Davey Todd, who co-own the 8TEN Racing BMW team, were angered that Dunlop had not been hit with a time penalty when he did not stop after running on at Mather’s chicane.

Dunlop, though, said he acted with safety uppermost in his mind.

“I think we’ve got a bit of a complaint from a couple of riders in parc ferme about we ran on at the chicane,” he said.

“We were pushed into the chicane, Pete [Hickman] jumped over the grass which was dangerous, we went over the kerb, we got going and I ran on at Metropole again and came back to win.

“The rules are if you go through the chicane, as in go through the stop box, you should stop, put your foot down; for safety reasons I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t jump off the grass onto the stop box – it’s just too dangerous.

“But they’ve obviously got a problem with it, but end of story, I didn’t gain an advantage, I caught everybody, won the race, and that’s enough for me.

“Pete got all crossed up and got into it [chicane], there’s a bunch of riders, you know somebody’s going to go straight on – you can’t just start swerving all over the road.

“I made a decision. We mounted the kerb, he mounted the kerb and made a decision to drop off, which was quite dangerous I thought, but I didn’t gain an advantage.

“People got past me, I made another mistake [at Metropole] and I don’t see the reason what the fuss is about.”

Dunlop finished third in a close Supersport race on Saturday on his factory World Supersport Ducati Panigale V2 behind Richard Cooper and Dean Harrison, with the trio separated by less than three tenths of a second at the line.

He retired from the Superstock race on his MD Racing BMW and went out of the headline Superbike finale with an issue shortly after taking the lead from Todd on the fourth lap.

Dunlop will now turn his attention to the Isle of Man TT, where he is on the brink of a milestone 30th win around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course.

Last year, he surpassed his uncle Joey’s 24-year-old record of 26 wins to make history, winning four races for a second consecutive season to extend his tally to 29.

His form at the NW200 with his new line-up of BMW and Ducati machines certainly suggests he will be one of the biggest favourites for more TT glory, while the ill feeling from 8TEN Racing team-mates Todd and Hickman adds extra spice to their rivalry with the Ballymoney going into the two-week festival.

TT practice week is scheduled to get underway on Monday, May 26 with the first races due to take place on Saturday, May 31.