TT 2024: Hail Michael Dunlop, the new King of the Mountain
Michael Dunlop now stands alone as the most successful racer in the storied 117-year history of the world-renowned Isle of Man TT races after dominating Wednesday’s Supertwin race for his 27th victory.
The mercurial Ballymoney racer equalled his revered uncle Joey’s record of 26 wins in the opening Supersport race on Saturday – his fifth successive triumph in the class on his MD Racing Yamaha – to abundant acclaim, but Dunlop has written a new chapter in the chronicles of the TT’s hall of fame.
Robbed of victory in Sunday’s Superbike race after a visor issue wiped out his 25-second lead, Dunlop came out fighting on his MD Racing Paton.
With a new record tally of victories amassed around the hallowed Manx roads of the infamous 37.73-mile Mountain Course, Dunlop has surpassed a record once thought unconquerable.
Five-time TT Formula 1 world champion Joey – a national treasure and a hero of the Ulster people – won his final three TT races during a vintage year in 2000.
Aged 48, he rolled back the years to win the six-lap Formula 1 race for a seventh time, securing the victory he wanted to savour one more time on a special factory Honda VTR SP-1.
It was a privilege to be present at the TT in 2000 to bear witness to Joey’s finest hour.
He won the Lightweight 250 and Ultra-Lightweight 125 races to complete a hat-trick during an unforgettable week, setting a benchmark that stood for 24 years – one that I believed would never be topped in my lifetime.
Tragically, Joey lost his life in a racing accident a few weeks later at Tallinn in Estonia.
It was the end of an era, but Michael’s maiden TT success in the Supersport class nine years later heralded a new beginning for the Dunlop dynasty.
His father Robert – himself a five-time TT winner whose career was severely limited due to the injuries he suffered in a crash at the TT in 1994, restricting him to the smallest 125cc machines – died a year before Michael’s first TT win following a crash in qualifying at the North West 200.
While his older brother William opted to sit out the TT in the aftermath of his father’s death, Michael made a last-minute decision to travel to the Isle of Man.
It was only his second appearance at the event following his debut at the centenary meeting in 2007, but Dunlop marked himself out as potential future winner.