William Dunlop hopes to tie up a new deal with Ulster team Tyco Suzuki for 2015 after an impressive debut season for the Moneymore outfit.

Dunlop achieved his maiden international Superbike victory on the GSX-R1000 at the Vauxhall North West 200 in May, edging brother Michael in a dramatic final lap tussle that left fans on the edge of their seats.

The 29-year-old also proved himself as a frontrunner in the blue riband class at the Isle of Man TT in June, when he was battling for the rostrum places in the Senior race until a crash at Graham Memorial ended his chances.

After fighting back to fitness, the Ballymoney racer was optimistic of picking up more silverware at the Ulster Grand Prix last month, but a machine issue denied him victory in the first Supersport 600 race while he was leading from Bruce Anstey on the final lap.

The second Supersport event was cancelled at Dundrod and only one Superbike race took place, although Dunlop opted to sit it out after struggling throughout race week with a virus.

He admits some of the results he had anticipated didn’t quite materialise, but nonetheless Dunlop feels he made sound progress on the Superbike this year in particular and although he has already received offers regarding next season, the Ulster star is unequivocal that his preference is for a second term alongside Lincolnshire’s Guy Martin in Philip and Hector Neill’s team.


“My contract was up after the Ulster Grand Prix and I haven’t been in contact with Philip [Neill] really since then because they’ve been busy with the British championship,” Dunlop said.

“I’m hopeful the team for the roads will remain the same again, although as yet I don’t have an offer. Obviously they’ll be aiming to finalise their BSB plans first with sponsors and stuff.

“I’ve had a few phone calls with options for next year but I want to stay where I’m at.

“Guy doesn’t want to go anywhere else but everyone else wants him in their team – he’s been offered every ride going in the paddock,” he added.

“Guy’s just so popular and any team would want him, but the TAS set-up suits him so well and he won’t go anywhere else.”

Perhaps Dunlop’s biggest regret this year was his failure to secure a result at the Senior TT, when he flew out of the traps to set a scorching pace and was still in the hunt for the top-three when he came off on the Mountain section prior to the first round of pit stops.

“I think I could’ve had a second place in the Senior if it hadn’t been for my crash, but I think Michael probably had a bit too much pace for us,” he said.

“The Suzuki is a great bike and by the time we got to the end of race week everything sort of clicked for us. I was disappointed with the crash but it happened and that was that.

“I’ve also got used to the Pirelli tyres and it was a matter of changing my riding style a bit to suit them. Once I persisted with them and adapted a bit they started to come good for us and it started to pay off in the end.

“It was a good year for me but it could have been a lot better. Like I say I felt I could’ve had a second place on the Superbike at the TT and although I had a third on the 600, I think I could’ve went better on the Supersport bike,” he added.

“I went to the TT thinking that I didn’t really have to practice much on the 600 and I focused on the big bike instead, but then we came across a few wee problems.

“I should have come away with a couple of wins on the 600 at the Ulster Grand Prix but we ended up with nothing with the way things turned out. “Unfortunately I just wasn’t fit enough to ride the Superbike on the day at Dundrod and it was just one of those things,” Dunlop said.

“It was always looking good for the results but we just never managed to put them on the board.”

William has no more racing planned this year although he could compete at the Sunflower Trophy meeting next month if the opportunity presents itself.

Meanwhile, Michael Dunlop is competing at the Frohburg Road Races this weekend in Germany for Rico Penzkofer’s Penz13.com BMW team.

The event is the final round of the 2014 International Road Racing Championship.

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