Isle of Man TT superstar Michael Dunlop has been linked with an expanded Ducati partnership for 2026, which could see him race a V4R in the Superbike class.<\/p>\n
The Northern Irishman became the Isle of Man TT\u2019s most successful rider in 2024, when he surpassed his late uncle Joey Dunlop\u2019s tally of 26 victories.<\/p>\n
Michael Dunlop raised the bar again in 2025, bringing his total number of wins from 29 to 33, with a brace of victories in the Supersport and Supertwin classes.<\/p>\n
His Supersport double in 2025 came on the Ducati Panigale V2, with Dunlop switching to the Italian bike having successfully raced Yamahas in the class in previous years.<\/p>\n
After Davey Todd proved the Ducati was podium-worthy at TT 2024, Dunlop gave the Italian marque its first wins at the iconic Isle of Man event since 1995.<\/p>\n
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Riding under the Feel Racing banner, Dunlop had World Supersport-spec bikes at his disposal.<\/p>\n
Dunlop to campaign Ducati in Superbike class?<\/p>\n
According to The News Letter, Dunlop could expand his Ducati partnership to finally race a Panigale in the Superbike class.<\/p>\n
Dunlop had been due to race a Ducati in the big bike races with Paul Bird Motorsport in 2020, before the COVID pandemic put those plans on hold.<\/p>\n
A deal was struck between both parties ahead of the 2022 season, before it collapsed at the 11th hour.<\/p>\n
Dunlop rode Hondas in 2022, 2023 and 2024 in the Superbike class, before switching to BMW for 2025.<\/p>\n
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He was second in the Superbike TT this year and third in both Superstock races on the M1000RR.<\/p>\n
Dunlop hasn\u2019t won a Superbike race since 2023.<\/p>\n
Ducati is producing a new version of the Panigale V4R for 2026, which will produce around 235 horsepower and a more developed aerodynamic package.<\/p>\n
Dunlop is yet to announce any of his racing plans for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isle of Man TT superstar Michael Dunlop has been linked with an expanded Ducati partnership for 2026, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,17197,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-314446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ducati","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}