Seeing Joey Dunlop's 26 Isle of Man TT victories surpassed isn't something I expected to see in my lifetime. I hoped I would, but hope is dangerous in road racing. The hope of seeing certain riders achieve certain goals can leave you overly invested, considering the sport claims many lives every year. But if there was one person that I know, deep down, I'd love to see take the crown, it's Michael Dunlop.
Who better to surpass the GOAT than his own flesh and blood? But, new information has surfaced, which suggests that Michael could've even further surpassed his uncle's record, had he used racing engines.
According to a recent interview with Motorcycle News (MCN), Dunlop said, “To be honest I think there’s a lot more to come on the Superbike. Last year we did the whole TT with standard engines – Superbike chassis and standard engines – because as you know from BSB, Honda were having issues with tuning engines and we were winning races against what you would call factory BMWs with tuned engines, and we all know how quick they are – and the riders often."
It's pretty wild to think that the rider who broke the IOM TT Superbike lap record, did so on a motorcycle with a stock engine, albeit fitted inside a racing chassis. But it wasn't just when Dunlop broke the lap record in 2023 that he was using a stock engine—he's been using stock superbike engines for around a decade.
“I’ve probably, since really 2014, not had full Superbike engines. When the Suzuki came out we had to detune them because we broke crankshafts and that’s what happened in the first race [Superbike TT in 2017], so we had to detune it,” said Dunlop when speaking to MCN at the London Motorcycle Show.
It was disappointing enough to see an incorrectly fastened visor likely rob Dunlop of another TT win last year. After logging the fastest lap of the TT at 135.970 mph, he wound up finishing fourth after pulling over to fix his visor on Bray Hill.
So, knowing he could upped his record of 29 to 30 TT wins if that visor malfunction never happened is frustrating enough, but now we're left to wonder how many he could've had if he'd used a racing engine in the Superbike class for the majority of the last decade.
This is especially interesting when you consider that the 35-year-old has already taken eight Superbike wins during his career, making him a class favorite. Dunlop can't change the past, but the question about what kind of machinery he'll ride going forward remains.
