The big news out of the Isle of Man TT today is that Michael Dunlop is dumping the Milwaukee Yamaha team, and its 2015 Yamaha YZF-R1 race package, in favor for a BMW S1000RR in Stuart Hicken’s Buildbase BMW team.
The move comes after critical practice days were lost to bad weather on the Isle of Man, which in-turn caused Dunlop to feel that he could not tame the R1 in time for the 1,000cc bike races.
As such, he will contest the RST Superbike race (June 6th) and PokerStars Senior TT race (June 12th) on the Buildbase BMW S1000RR.
He will also compete in the RL360 Superstock race (June 8th) on his own MD Racing BMW S1000RR, while racing in the Monster Energy Supersport races (June 8th & 10th) on his MD Racing CBR600RR race bike.
The move is a bold one for Michael Dunlop, a rider who has truly come into his own, professionally. No doubt, he is feeling the pressure that now is his most competitive time in road racing, and that he cannot afford to waste a year on an uncompetitive machine.
Talking in a press release, without any grammatical interruptions, Dunlop said “I would like to thank Milwaukee Yamaha for their support in bringing me into their team and I am genuinely sorry to be making this decision but unfortunately I don’t think there is enough time left with the sessions we’ve already lost at the TT to be truly competitive and get the bike to the level we need to in order to win races here.”
Time will tell if his jumping of ships pays off, but we’re sure the 11-time TT winner plans on adding a few more marks to his tally this TT fortnight.
Source: IOMTT; Photo: © 2015 Tony Goldsmith / www.tonygoldsmith.net – All Rights Reserved
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