Michael Dunlop says PBM Ducati deal for Isle of Man TT 'turned into a bit of a nightmare'

Dunlop announced on Saturday night that he would no longer be riding the Panigale V4R Superbike at the North West 200 and TT.

The Ballymoney man was speaking at the official launch of the TT and admits he now faces a race against time to secure alternative machinery, with practice for the TT getting under way in just over one month’s time.

Speaking at the launch, Dunlop – who is the third most successful TT rider ever with 19 victories – said: “It turned into a bit of a nightmare, stuff hasn’t arrived, testing has fallen apart and a lot of my sponsors have been let down a bit.

“We should have been testing last week and it hasn’t happened, so I thought ‘you know what, I’m too old in the tooth for this’. We should have been on it because it’s a brand new motorbike and we needed time.

“Racing against these lads that are full-time professionals riding bikes day in, day out, and they want me to rock up at the first race and be the first time I sat on it – it’s just not practical.

“As I said to my boys if we weren’t smiling we’d be crying.”

Dunlop said the TT organisers have been understanding of his circumstances, with the 33-year-old opting to call it quits now rather than during the TT fortnight as he did when he was unhappy with the Milwaukee Yamaha R1 he was set to ride at the event in 2015.

“We’re three weeks away, there’s a lot of things to happen before then. I haven’t forgotten how to ride a motorbike and something will come up no doubt,” he said.

“We’ll just keep at it and see what happens. The TT has been fantastic with me because I keep coming back with a drama and somewhere along the line I seem to be someone who brings a lot of bad vibes with me, but Paul (Phillips, TT Business Development Manager) has been