Why Dunlop's 2025 TT wins have only been on smaller bikes so far

The most successful Isle of Man TT racer of all time Michael Dunlop's victories in the supersport and supertwin classes in the opening days of racing have already extended his record to 31 wins.

And that success in the smaller bike classes comes as no surprise given his domination of them in recent years.

But success on the 1000cc machines has been harder to find in 2025 and currently he's only got podiums to show from the opening superbike and superstock races.

Switching from Honda to BMW machinery for this year to try and close the gap to the formerly FHO-run and now 8Ten combination of Peter Hickman and Davey Todd, it's been a slightly more rocky transition than perhaps Dunlop had expected, especially when compounded by issues out of his control so far.

Struggling with a rear Dunlop tyre in the opening superbike race that he says "fell apart like a cheap watch", he was forced to settle for second behind Todd. Even a technical problem as the race winner crossed the line was not enough to close the gap and hand Dunlop victory as he came home still 1.2 seconds behind.

Things went from bad to worse in Tuesday's shortened two-lap superstock race though, when a series of electrical problems which began as soon as Dunlop started to accelerate away from the line meant he had conceded almost 10 seconds before they were a quarter of the way round on the first lap.

Despite those issues, however, Dunlop remains upbeat about the opportunities he has for the remaining one race each in both of the classes, should he be able to get the issues addressed in time for a second outing on Friday and Saturday respectively for the superstock and superbike.

"I think we showed in the first superbike race that we've got a wee bit of pace with the big bike," Dunlop told The Race.

"The stock bike, we had that issue that we'll try and sort, but we know that the other boys are quick."

While on paper those are the two classes in which he's got the most work to do, the 48-time TT podium finisher (another record he set with Tuesday's supertwin win) says that he can't be complacent in any of the remaining four races, given how important luck and timing can be at the historic event.

"Every class is hard here nowadays," he stressed. "The 600 class will be hard again, the twin race will be hard again.

"There's so many ifs and buts and tin cans here. You just have to take every race as it comes, because every race will throw you a different factor into it, so the main thing is to just keep battering away at it."