MICHAEL DUNLOP: THE ENIGMA
He’s already won 15 TTS, but who exactly is Michael Dunlop?
He’s already won 15 TTS and comes from the most famous road racing family of all time. Yet Michael Dunlop remains an enigma. Bike talks to six people who’ve worked, raced, watched or lived with him to find out what he’s really like…
The Brother: William Dunlop Michael Dunlop’s elder brother by three years
Michael’s strongest attribute as a rider is his size and his determination. His size allows him to wrestle a bike over the bumpy sections of the TT course and I think that’s where he makes up a lot of time. It’s hard to see a weakness in someone who’s probably the best TT rider of them all – bar John Mcguinness. But if I was pushed I’d say it’s his determination, again because it’ll probably catch him out some day. He rides with pure hunger for success and he’ll do whatever it takes to win a race. He rides with his heart and really muscles the bike around. As I say, that determination is his main strength but it could also prove to be his weakness. I’d say his North West 200 win in 2008 was Michael’s best (William and Michael’s father, Robert Dunlop, had been killed during practice for the same event that very year). His bike was underpowered and he didn’t have the same speed as Christian Elkin but he managed to win by pure determination. Michael’s a bad loser! If I beat him he can go for weeks before speaking to me properly again. It can take the fun out of the sport at times.
I’d probably be a bit more like Michael myself but I’ve never been in a position where I could afford to be like him. Michael’s always had people to fall back on – he’s always had very loyal sponsors since he started racing – so he can afford to be outspoken because he’ll always have bikes to ride. I’m not in that situation. I think Michael has changed since our dad died. He didn’t used to be as loud as he is now, but maybe it’s because people listen to him now. He’s very confident in himself and Dad’s not here to rein him in now. Maybe a bit of success changes you too, so whether he would have changed anyway, it’s hard to know. But he’s very confident and speaks his mind and some people like that and some people don’t.
The Race Boss: Paul Phillips TT and Motorsport Development Manager
Michael is one of the TT’S biggest stars. The mixture of his famous surname, his own remarkable achievements around the Mountain Course, and his unique approach to his sport and his life more generally make his a really interesting character who can be the hero and the villain all in the space of 20 minutes! Sport thrives on characters and it needs heroes and villains and as I have already said Michael can be both of them, almost simultaneously. I see his popularity rising and when he was younger he was a bit more bombastic than he is now, but he has gained a lot of experience for a young man and that is starting to show with the way he behaves and the way he performs on track.
‘Sport thrives on characters and it needs heroes and villains and Michael can be both of them, almost simultaneously’
Michael’s achievements at the TT, more than anywhere else, have been utterly remarkable. Not just the wins he has racked up but the way in which he has won those races. He’s beaten some truly great TT riders along the way and taken lap records – in a number of different classes – to places that were, at one time, almost unimaginable. If he stays fit and healthy, there is no reason why he can’t keep winning TT races for another ten years or more but there is a lot of luck needed to be able to maintain that level of success, never mind his own motivation. But he is a great champion and great champions have the knack of being able to continually refocus. To work with, Michael can be either the best of the best or the worst of the worst. We’ve had a couple of fairly major falling-outs over the years, but I think that has probably been good for our relationship and we generally work well together now. I respect him and I would like to think he has respect for me and my colleagues. Michael loves the TT and really wants to see it succeed and is generally happy to give a lot of himself to help things improve. But compared with some riders we work with he is really quite low maintenance. His demeanour is not an issue for us at all. That’s something for him to worry about and manage. We provide a bit of counsel on it from time to time, but he always makes his own decisions and as his CV shows he seems to make the right ones most of the time. As a TT rider, Michael has to be one of the best ever. He’s the youngest ever winner, he’s won on almost all brands of bikes, he’s won in private and factory teams, he’s won on bikes he has built, and he’s taken lap records in a number of classes to crazy places. He’s a force of nature when it comes to the TT and if he is on the entry list it’s always going to take a very good rider to beat him.
‘If he stays fit and healthy, there is no reason why he can’t keep winning TT races for another ten years or more’
The Journalist: Stuart Barker
Freelance journalist and editor of the TT programme Michael is notoriously hard to deal with if you’re a journalist – he just doesn’t want to know, so most journos have given up trying to phone him for interviews because he doesn’t answer or says he’s too busy. I usually get a sit-down with him once a year at the TT launch. This year I asked him if he’d be happy never doing another interview in his life. His answer spoke volumes: ‘very much so. I’d quite happily never do another interview with a journalist again. In fact, I’d put yers all on an island together like rapists and leave yers to get on with it. He was laughing when he said it, but it’s probably not far from the truth. Michael can be great fun if you catch him in the right mood and ask him more interesting questions, rather than the same old stuff about the TT. When I once asked him if he could cook he said, ‘Oh aye, I can cook. I can cook anything. You come to my house and I’ll sort you out something. It might not be nice but it’ll be edible.’ He might be difficult but I refuse to judge Michael Dunlop for this. People forget that he lost his dad at a young age. Worse, he effectively watched him die during practice for the North West 200 in 2008. Anyone is going to be affected by that and I think Michael might have been a very different person if his dad had been alive to guide him. He’s a simple country boy at heart but he suddenly found himself an international racing star with no-one to help him deal with the pressures that come with that. So while he might make my life difficult at times, I always remember that, while he may appear to be a fearless, nerves-ofsteel TT racer, he’s actually a young lad who lost his dad in tragic circumstances and at an age when he really needed him most.
The Fan: Steve Mort
TT fan and bike salesman at ndin2moto in Warrington I first went to the TT 40 years ago, in 1978, so I watched Joey and Robert Dunlop’s careers unfold and Michael is completely worthy of the famous Dunlop name. Everybody thinks he’s a ragged, out-of-control nutter on a bike but he’s actually super smooth and super precise round the Isle of Man TT course now. Just like his uncle Joey, he could hit a single 50p piece glued to the track lap after lap. Michael is 11 wins short of Joey’s record of 26 wins at the TT so we could easily see him beating that record within a few years. With so many of the top stars out of this year’s TT, I could see him winning three or four this year alone.
When he won his first international race at the North West 200 in 2008, just two days after his dad had been killed on the same course, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. That was the most dramatic and emotional race win I’ve ever seen. I mean, he witnessed his dad’s death and then went out and raced flat-out around that same corner lap after lap. How does anyone do that? I’m supposed to be a rufty-tufty biker but I was crying like my mum watching a tear-jerker movie. He gave absolutely everything to win that race for his dad, for his family, for the Dunlop name. It was simply unbelievable. I do think he’s pretty unprofessional when he switches teams at the last minute and leaves them in the lurch. And I can’t see him ever having a deep rapport with a factory like Joey had with Honda. He’s burned too many bridges. I mean, when a team signs him, they don’t even know if he’s going to show up at the start line, never mind see the season out. At the same time, I love his outspokenness. There are too many corporate monkeys in Motogp and that’s filtering down to World Superbikes and British Superbikes too, so I love the fact that Michael still says exactly what he thinks and doesn’t care who he offends. He’s just a proper, old school, hairy-arsed biker who happens to be a TT star. And I love that.
The Photographer: Stephen Davison
World’s leading road race photographer Road racing is all Michael Dunlop’s ever known – it is in his DNA. He sneaked off his school to go to races with his dad and his dad even added a year to Michael’s age so he could get a racing licence a year early. He is very funny and incredibly sharp-witted when he wants to be. He can sum things up in a flash – as quick as he makes decisions on a bike. He’s a Dunlop and knows that people made money out of his dad and Joey and that they maybe didn’t get their fair share so he’s determined that’s not going to happen to him. Michael has a fierce determination and relentless ambition and won’t let anything or anyone stand in the way of winning. But you have to remember he is still so young and has had to deal with so many difficult things in his life. He’s only 29 but he made his debut on the TT course 12 years ago in the Manx Grand Prix. So he’s way ahead of John Mcguinness or Joey Dunlop in terms of the experience he has for his age. He had to deal with his father’s death when he was just 18 and, because his older brother William started
‘You have to remember he is still young and has had to deal with so many difficult things’
racing before him, that increased the pressure on him too. They say the first person you have to beat is your team-mate but actually it’s the racer who lives in the same house as you. So he’s always had that pressure to succeed. He’s greatly admired by the other riders – even the ones who don’t like him. But he doesn’t care what they think of him. He’s often said to me, ‘I’m not here to make friends’. He’s there to beat all those people and he won’t allow any of his rivals a psychological advantage by being over-friendly with them. He clearly has a talent that’s head and shoulders above everybody else at the minute, but he’s only too aware that there’s always new guys coming through to challenge him. A lot of people think he’s a very risky rider but I don’t think so. He was a bit wild in the early days and you still see pictures and video footage of him pulling wheelies and backing the bike into corners, but a lot of that’s just showboating because he knows where the cameras are. He’s done that right from the start. Michael’s a Dunlop through and through and he’s made of the same stuff as Robert and Joey. They gave him the DNA that’s made him a road racer and that’s all he knows and all he’s interested in.
The Rival: David Johnson
Top TT and roads racer, riding for Gulf BMW this year When you follow Michael at the TT now he doesn’t look as wild as he used to. He used to ride much closer to the white lines but last year when he came past me in the Senior I had no idea that he was leading because he didn’t look that fast at all. He was really smooth and in control so it was surprising to later find out that he had been leading at that point. He does ham it up for the cameras though. You always see a shot of him on the back wheel at Black Hill during the North West 200 and he hangs off the right-hand side of the bike and looks around it to make the pictures more spectacular. While he didn’t look that fast, I knew I wasn’t on a bike that was capable of staying with him (Johnson was on the Norton SG6 last year – ed). But I’ll have a go this year, for sure. The TT is so important to Michael I don’t know of anyone who would try harder in a last lap situation to get a win. He’s a Dunlop after all – it’s in the name. I don’t see anything that different to his riding compared with the other guys but I would say that in some of the real fast places he maybe takes more risks, and the fast places are where you can really make time up on the TT course. He doesn’t really interact with the other riders much. I very rarely talk at length to him but I’ll always say hello and we’ll exchange some random shit. He does tend to keep to himself in the paddock though. He’s good with the fans though and will usually take the time to sign autographs or pose for pictures. I think he can overtake Joey’s record of 26 wins. He’s still hungry for it and he’s got loads of time on his side. It’s not like he has to retire any time soon so as long as he stays fit and healthy. He’s been pretty lucky with injuries actually – never really had any big ones. I think Peter Hickman is the man most likely to beat Dunlop this year. Although I reckon I might be able to get him one day too.
Qualifying for the 2018 TT starts 26 May, and racing 8 June. Full coverage on ITV4. For more information go to iomtt.com
‘The TT is so important to Michael I don’t know anyone who would try harder to get a win’