Dunlop confirmed with PBM Ducati for 2022 Isle of Man TT

Michael Dunlop will take charge of a works-backed Ducati Panigale V4R at the 2022 Isle of Man TT after completing a deal with Paul Bird.

Following on the agreement made in 2020 which was scuppered by the pandemic, Dunlop will race one of the team’s formidable Superbikes at the 2022 International North West 200 and TT.

“It will the same bike as we are going to put out in this year’s BSB Superbike Championship, straight from the factory, and we are delighted that Michael is going to ride for us,” Bird told bikesportnews.com, fresh from a holiday in Dubai.

“He wouldn’t be on the bike if we, he or his sponsor Gary Ryan of Street Sweep, didn’t think he could do it. We’re very confident.” The last time the TT races ran in 2019, Dunlop won the Lightweight TT to add to his tally as the third most successful rider around the 37.73-mile course. He will race his own machines in the Supersport and Superstock events, but PBM will field the Ulsterman in the two main races as they look to add to their illustrious TT history. PBM last contested the Isle of Man TT Races in 2015 when Ian Hutchinson scored a second in the Superbike TT and a third in the Senior TT as well as winning the Superstock TT race, all aboard Kawasakis, to celebrate the team’s first major foray onto the Isle of Man for 12 years. That success came after PBM previously contested the event with Ducati in 2003 when John McGuinness took second in the TT Formula 1 race and third in the Senior TT riding the MonsterMob-sponsored bikes. Prior to that, Joey Dunlop – Michael’s uncle - famously won his last big bike TT for Paul Bird when he took victory in the 2000 TT Formula 1 race onboard a Demon Vimto Honda SP1, just a month before he was tragically killed in a race in