After finishing third in the second Superstock race at Man TT Island in 2025, Michael Dunlop said he is dealing with the issue of the BMW M1000 RR “All Week.”
Ballymoney Rider still won a 1,000cc race at this year’s TT, and after spending 2023 and 2024 in the Superstock and Superbike classes in 2023 and 2024, switched to BMW machinery.
BMW has dominated the “big bike” class in recent years, but in 2025 its advantage was somewhat destroyed by Honda and Dean Harrison.
Todd also complained about electronics issues at his Superstock BMW at TT, and Dunlop admitted that after his second Superstock race he still encountered his own problem.
“We had problems with bikes all week,” Dunlop said after Superstock Race 2 in an interview with Parc Ferme after the race.
“It seems like an electronic problem. We’ve been struggling a bit.”
Dunlop added that he knew he lost the victory after two corners of the race as a result of a run-on.
“I ran on the first lap and ran to two corners, and if I knew it was game over,” he said.
“So we had to fight just to get back to the podium.
“I saw ‘James’ on the board and knew he must have been dicing with James (Hillier), so when I saw him heading down the road, I knew he was fine, so I took him into vision, sort of stable, there was no point to emphasize.
“I knew Dean (I knew Harrison (who would have come out of the block quickly and saw (Todd) in the pit) so I don’t think it started, so Dean was gone and I didn’t even try and fight for it.”
Dunlop added that lack of track time contributed to the struggles on Superstock and Superbike machines.
“It was just a tough week, especially with this big bike this week,” he said.
“We just had a hard time on the track, so we just had a hard time going forward, but that’s just the way cookies crumble.”
Winning at Supertwin
Later that day, Dunlop returned to the top step of Super Vin Race, beating Davee Todd for over 25 seconds to wipe out the 2025 edition of TT class.
The victory included a new super lap record on the final lap. Dunlop admitted that he was surprised afterwards.
“The bike was good. We didn’t do a big pile of laps on it.
“The last lap (time) I was surprised as I kept the bike to try and make sure everything was fine.
“The Patong boys did an amazing job and I would like to thank those boys.
“The main thing for me is to win the race. Everyone needs a Paton, so I’m happy to be still ahead as the boys have Paton.”
Senior Focus
Dunlop also said there are still some issues to be resolved with the Superbike ahead of Saturday’s Senior TT after the Super Win Race.
“The lack of practice has been hindering us a bit with a big bike and perhaps a 600 (super sports) if I’m being honest with you,” he said.
“But the main thing is (Saturday) and I look forward to it.
“Let’s take a look at what the weather will be and hopefully the changes we made. We made changes for practice laps that didn’t actually work, so hopefully we can make something to make it work.”
