Dunlop tight-lipped on PBM Ducati split

Michael Dunlop is remaining tight-lipped on the details of his split with the PBM Ducati squad but it seems the prospect of the Ballymoney man riding a Ducati V4RR at this year’s TT has vanished.

The Ulsterman’s shock announcement at a press conference that he would not be riding for Paul Bird was confirmed in a conversation with bikesportnews.com late yesterday. He did not reveal the reasons for the change saying: “I don’t want to say what has happened at this stage.”

Rumours circulating were suggesting that a potential shortage of practice time on what is relatively a new bike was causing concern but all parties were remaining quiet.

As seems likely it will also apply to the North West 200 but there is confidence among the knowledgeable in Ulster that he will be riding something at the two great road races and he is scheduled to compete in the support races at Oulton Park’s British Superbike round this weekend.