IOMTT: Michael Dunlop leaves Milwaukee Yamaha for BMW
Dunlop has made a drastic decision over half way through practice week
BALLYMONEY man Michael Dunlop has made the decision to ditch Milwaukee Yamaha and revert back to BMW machinery after struggling to set a quick lap time around the TT course.
Dunlop has split with Milwaukee Yamaha after a poor North West 200 and poor lap times at this year's Isle of Man TT and will instead ride for Stuart Hicken's Swadlincote based Buildbase BMW team on a BMW S1000RR with similar spec to the one the Northern Irish ride rode at last year's TT.
After only three laps of practice on Wednesday night, his lap on-board the Milwaukee Yamaha left him down in 13th place on the timesheets with a lap of 124.519mph compared to that of Bruce Anstey's of 128.641mph.
Speaking about the drastic split, Dunlop explained: “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.”
The 26-year-old had a phenomonal year at the TT last year on-board a BMW S1000RR and due to this he will now ride Hicken's BMW in the Superbike and the Senior TT races this year.
Dunlop already has his Hunts MD Racing Honda Supersport bike on the island ready for the two Supersport races as well as his own MD Racing BMW Superstock machine.
The 11-time TT race winner will be looking to get as much track time ahead of Saturday’s races and will be appearing on the BMW’s in this evening’s qualifying session, which will be only the second timed Superbike qualifying session of the week.
Hicken's Buildbase BMW team are said to be on the 2pm boat over this afternoon which arrives on the Island at approximately 5pm ready for practice to start at 6:20pm.
