William Dunlop has his eyes set on a top 10 finish with his new team at the Vauxhall International North West 200.

Despite an engine blown during Tuesday’s practice sessions, William is remaining hopeful for the rest of this week’s races, tonight and Saturday.

“A week ago I lost my team so we’ve just started from scratch and the bike is pretty much new to me,” William said during downtime in the paddock yesterday.

“Considering how new the bike is it’s really good.

“We’re about three months behind everyone else so to be where we’re at is pretty good — but it’s still disappointing because it’s not where we should be,” he said.

“You come here expecting to get results and when you know you can’t get them, its not enjoyable,” he added.

Racing under his own new team on former Mar-Train owner Tim Martin’s bikes, after his signing with Halsall Racing fell through, Dunlop believes that everything will eventually come together.

“I’m grateful to Tim for giving us the bikes. They had them for sale and they just said to take them with me,” William said.

Having won a Supersport race at the 2012 North West 200, Dunlop makes it no secret that the 600cc is the bike he is most confident on.

“The 600 is the only bike I know so for it to have blown up on the first day has put us on the back foot. We’ve just received a new engine with not much time to get it tested, but hopefully the more time we get, the quicker we get,” he said.

“The bikes are good, really good. If I can get a couple of top 10 results I will be happy.”

Looking ahead to Saturday race day William is optimistic and says his main focus after this week is the Isle of Man TT.

Jill Golligher