Ducati aim for TT glory
Michael Dunlop is itching to win another TT and the bike he’s itching to win it on is Ducati’s V4R. Hold on tight folks…
PuttingpPutting the lairiest rider on the wildest bike guarantees exciting short circuit racing, but doing it at the TT takes things to another level. No wonder the combination of Michael Dunlop and the 234bhp Ducati VR has TT fans salivating. Nervously. Dunlop’s record is well known: the 19-time TT winner dominated the superbike class on the Island from 2013 to 2017, when Harrison and Hickman lifted things to a different level. Since then Dunlop has had various injuries, plus of course the horrendous blow of his brother’s death at Skerries in 2018. But Michael is now fit and apparently desperate to win another Superbike or Senior TT. Ducati’s VR is far more of an unknown road racing quantity. Paul Bird Motorsport – the outfit running Dunlop’s TT effort – raced one at the North West 200 last year (it came fifth with Alastair Seeley on board), but a factory-supported VR has never raced at the TT. There’s no doubting the bike’s speed though, what with it winning BSB in 2019 and battling at the front of WSB. The question is, can it survive 228 miles with Mr D at the controls? Paul Bird Motorsport’s John Mowatt is the hugely experienced crew chief in charge of Dunlop’s TT effort: ‘Ducatis have come on leaps and bounds in the last ten years in terms of durability. You wouldn’t think of taking a V-twin round the TT because it would rattle and crack itself to bits but we’re confififidentconfident confident in the V. That’s not to say it won’t break, because it’s an unknown quantity, but we wouldn’t be taking this on if we didn’t think we could win. ‘We did the North West last year with it with no real dramas, but there’s a big difference between a relatively flat nine mile circuit and a 37.73-mile lap of the TT. We’ll use all our TT experience, but until Michael does a lap or two in practice we won’t know how it’s going to go.’