TT 2025: Michael Dunlop out to make amends for Superbike despair on new BMW - 'Everybody had written me off'
For Michael Dunlop, success at the Isle of Man TT was always the primary motivation in his quest to reach the “pinnacle” of road racing.
The Ballymoney legend made TT history in 2024, winning four races for the second consecutive year to break his revered uncle Joey’s famous tally of 26 wins around the Mountain Course, which had stood since 2000.
Dunlop won both Supersport and Supertwin races to extend his haul to 29 victories, 15 years after his maiden triumph in the Supersport class in 2009.
The 36-year-old is on the cusp of a milestone 30th success this year, a target that would have been done and dusted 12 months ago when Dunlop was poised to win the Superbike TT only for an incorrectly fitted sidepod on his helmet, which forced him to stop and wiped out his 25-second advantage with two laps to go.
Furious after the setback, Dunlop smashed the Superbike lap record to finish fourth, posting his fastest ever TT lap of 135.970mph on the Hawk Honda Fireblade.
A slipping clutch ended his prospects early in the Senior TT in what was a memorable fortnight for the Ulsterman on the island.
Dunlop, though, was stung by his Superbike misfortune and has had to wait almost a year for the opportunity to make amends.
With a new ROKiT BMW Motorrad M1000RR supplied by the Shaun Muir-run factory World Superbike squad at his disposal, he will be fired up to leave his mark on the six-lap Superbike and Senior races.
Dunlop has also made the switch to BMW for the Superstock races and is set to ride a Ducati Panigale V2 in the Supersport class in a change to his stable of machinery, with only the Paton Supertwin remaining in his awning from last year.
The honour of being the most successful TT rider ever is now solely his, but Dunlop isn’t finished and is steadfast in his belief that there is more to come.
“Road racing was my thing obviously and the pinnacle of road racing is the TT, so I started road racing as soon as I could possibly get onto the roads and do it,” said Dunlop, who won his first races since 2016 at the North West 200 earlier this month with a Superbike, Superstock and Supersport treble.
“Obviously Joey’s target stood for 24 years – it’s a massive achievement for that to stand for so long – but it’s like everything in life, records will be broke and someday mine will go too. The main thing for me was to at least achieve that goal of being at the top.
“The motivation was to achieve [the record] and people genuinely thought after I had achieved it that I was just going to ride by pitlane, get straight on the truck and drive home!
“I’m probably the only person in their mind that would’ve done that and said, ‘right I’m going home’, but there’s still more in me – I knew there was more in the tank and there’s more to be achieved.
“I still think there’s more to be achieved in myself: I think I’m faster than I ever was, the pace has got hotter but I feel like I’m going good.
“Last year, the Superbike race pissed me off and so I feel that everybody had written me off that I wasn’t a Superbike rider any more,” he added.
“I proved [them wrong] last year by breaking the Superbike lap record with nothing to gain [after the issue with his visor], so I feel that hopefully there is more in me.”
Dunlop carries one of the most famous names in motorcycle racing on his shoulders and accepts the weight of expectation that comes with the territory, but the pressure to succeed has largely always come from within.
“Pressure has never really come from the outside, we were always… My dad always taught us that second was the first loser – to achieve is to always achieve at the highest level,” said Dunlop, who has lost his father, Robert and brother, William to road racing.
“Every day I live with the lows, not with the highs I’ve got.
“With [the] highs you get they’re dragged with the lows, but that’s motorsport, that’s demons that I have to live with in day-to-day life, but the ride hasn’t been easy.
“Some people wanted to see it [Joey’s record] broke, some people didn’t want to see it get broke, so you had negatives and positives coming every way.
“It wasn’t an ego thing, I just wanted to break Joey’s record to keep the Dunlop name [at the forefront]. We were always a proud family of the name and I’ve always just wanted to create that thing.
“I feel as much pressure now because I want to win even more just to keep going. I genuinely wouldn’t be coming to the TT unless I had an ambition to win,” he added.
“I know people who just love racing motorbikes but it bores me not to win – I don’t go scrambling or motocross, or trials, but people love going riding motorbikes.
“Yes, the buzz is I love riding my motorbike but the fact of the matter is to win as much as I possibly can.
“The motorbikes themselves, I’ve won on some of the best machinery that’s about, I’ve won on some of the worst machinery that you could get your hands on.
“Probably in my career I could have done it a lot easier because I’ve made decisions that probably weren’t the best, but in my view it was the best for me.”