What a Race⚡️ ~R.I.P.~ William Dunlop (Ulster GP–Belfast–N.IRELAND☘️) , (Type Race, Isle of Man TT)

Backwards! Well, that's the Michael Dulloch of old. In Locker has burst through. He had a terrible start last time. Look at Locker! He's pushing up to the lead there, four abreast almost as they go along the Flying Kilo. Cameron Donald has got it just ahead of him all. Guy Martin looking to sneak ahead, but it's the Australian who's going to lead them down to Leithamstown for the first time in this restarted race. What a cracking start. Michael Dulloch, that's the thing of old. So many times he was so sluggish off the line. He always had to play catch-up. That's what he's doing. He goes past Anstey and he's made it up behind the Locker. And Michael Dulloch, all action, 100% hero on the roads. Well, look, Ian Locker, not the senior citizen of this class of racing, but that wasn't a very senior start, was it? It was very butch and aggressive, but he's going backwards a bit now. Cameron Donald has made the break. Keith Amore just going back behind Guy Martin there. And it is all to play for, as you were saying in the first start. If you're there, you're in with a shot. And they are all there, aren't they? Cameron Donald's doing the right thing. If you heard the one about the Englishman, the Welshman, the Australian, the Scotsman, the Irishman, they're all in there. They certainly are. And they're not joking. They are not kidding. This is serious stuff once again. Yeah, Cameron Donald's doing the right thing, really. He's trying to break away from the pack because especially in the 600s, they all start sucking each other back and slipstreaming and getting each other's drafts and what have you. Cameron Donald trying to break away, but he's not managing to do that so far. Look, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Dual figures. That's how many potential race winners there are. That is a breathtaking corner they have just come out in. If you haven't ridden it yourself, you won't know. But that is a man's corner even though it doesn't look like it on the TV. There's a lot of those here. But it's just one of the reasons why this circuit is so good and why there are so many people coming in towards you. Yes. Keith Amore goes through on Guy Martin. So new second place then. But he's trying to reel in Cameron Donald. And also as well, Richard, the track much drier this time than we saw in the earlier Superstop race. We're on board with Michael Dunlop yet again. Watch him close in. That looks like William in front of him, is it? Dry roads everywhere, Dave, at the moment. But the weather is so changeable. Keith Amore, sorry Rich. Keith Amore is going to try and go up the inside of Cameron Donald here. Not on this occasion though. No, no, no, no. Look at that. That's what one six of them there. A 12-wheel runaway express train on the Dundrod circuit. They're up at top of the circuit now. Cameron Donald top of the world at the moment. Keith Amore right behind him looking for the inside. We've seen passing manoeuvres here but that wasn't it. William Dunlop goes through on Guy Martin though. So William Dunlop up to third. Down to Lindsay Hairpin. And there's about four different lines around the hairpin. So, oh, look at the speed that Cameron Donald's carrying there. William Dunlop trying to get the inside of Amore. Michael Dunlop goes up the inside of Johnson. Does he? Johnson into it. I thought he was down there. He was leading right into Michael Dunlop. Johnson's lost a bit of momentum because of that. He's lost the drive out of the turn. Hasn't he just? He's bounced off, hasn't he? And we're looking at still Cameron Donald leading the round. What a big lap this is. Wave the chequered flag now. We've had enough incident in this first lap to last us a whole race. Is it only one lap? I thought it was about six. Back on board with Michael Dunlop and he's riding solo now instead of with Gary Johnson on the bike with him. He's closing in on William as well. Look at the speed from Michael Dunlop trying to go through. Carrying the speed around the turns. See how the weather is different here. It's gone dark. There's wet patches back on the road. It's very difficult for the riders. This is going to have a new race leader now because Cameron Donald is certainly down past the Flying Kilo. You'd fancy Amore to pull out the slipstream of the Australian here. He's tucked in right behind. Trying to break the slipstream. Johnson and Bruce Hanstey who's tagged on to the back of this group as well now. And Amore, well fair play to Cameron Donald. That 600 has got so much speed. Oh front wheel wobble from Amore as he goes through as well. Cameron Donald does the sensible thing. He's going to try and tuck inside him. Is he going to leave himself? Cameron Donald perhaps. Did you say sensible? I'm sure you said sensible then and this is not sensible. He's sensible keeping out of the way of Keith Amore from the helicopter shot. Looked as if his front wheel tucked from under him. There goes Cameron Donald. I think Donald 600 in a straight line is the fastest bike out there. Oh now coming through Johnson as well. Michael Donald is back in fifth place. How has that happened? There's four people there who disagree with you about the speed of Cameron Donald's bike. They're getting towed along I think Rich. They're trying to pull out this slipstream. Watch Keith Amore. Watch Keith Amore here. This is where he's so strong last year. This is where he won it all last year. Look at Donald though again. He's got the speed and he can carry the speed into the turn and he can still hold on. Cameron Donald is dictating this race at present because he's inch perfect. He's not making any mistakes. He's got the most powerful bike out there and even out of his slipstream they can't pull. They can't pull past him. Cameron Donald very much back on form. So quick through here. So easy to get it wrong and Keith Amore right behind him and then there's Q. There is no spaces. There's not a bike's length between them. And look at the guys that we're not talking about. Locker, McGuinness. Those people behind. They're not in this group. That shows the depth of quality. The strength of quality that we've got again at the Ulster Grand Prix. Oh they're making a break for it. Gary Johnson looked as if he was under pressure there from Dunlop. He's pulled back though. Oh here goes Keith Amore though on Cameron Donald. He might have even set into it. It goes to the right hand kink. No. He backed off and he had to really. There was no way through. William Dunlop is it? Yes William Dunlop I think in third place. Guy Martin further back just behind Michael Dunlop. We're on board with Michael Dunlop now. Looks like William Dunlop. Is he going through perhaps? Oh yeah. So William Dunlop goes through. Yeah. And look at that. It looks as if Michael Dunlop is trying to get through as well. Gary Johnson still in fourth place. It's still Cameron Donald. Oh Amore's gone wide. Yeah. Amore's gone wide. Here we go. And he's going to lose two places here. That's Gary Johnson through. Michael Dunlop is through as well. Oh William Dunlop up the inside of Cameron Donald. Super riding from William Dunlop. We know how good he is on a 600. Cameron Donald just didn't see that one coming. We saw the black magic of the slipstream at work there and how. But we weren't expecting that. Now William Dunlop's got to be right. Gary Johnson. Mistake from Johnson. He's gone wide. Yeah. So he's out of it. I think that's it from Gary. Oh down goes Johnson. Thrown himself away. How did he do that? You can see he's shaking his hands and it gassed it up on the grass. Yeah. Back wheel on the grass as he tried to get on. Top of the dip. That's it. Now out of gear. You know what he's saying don't you? Exactly. Oh Michael Dunlop. How did he push that through there? Where are we? What's going on? It's William Dunlop from Michael Dunlop from Cameron Donald. That's how they are over the line. Guy Martin in fourth place and it looks as if he's coming under threat from Moore. Ethan Moore looks like he's going to take. Oh in fact I'm just saying Michael Dunlop's going to take William Dunlop here as he's to go down the flying kilo again. And it is Michael Dunlop on William Dunlop. Is he through? Yes he is. No. No this time. Wow what a race. Well there's Gary Johnson. This boy is going to go on winning for years and years and years. Yeah yeah definitely. I think they're both at their game where they were both Yeah. Here we go down to the hairpin. Now William tends not to hook into the hairpin so much. Michael seems to hug it much more. As you can see there's a gap there. No. William doesn't tend to follow. Doesn't hook into the hairpin as much as and Michael seems to follow the line. If you know he hooks into the white line and look at the drive he's trying to get out of William as well. William was minding his own business going through the hairpin and all of a sudden his brother stuck the front wheel up his side and said hey remember me this is the Yamaha. Michael really likes it through this section. This is through quarries of course. They're going to chalk off another lap. This race reduced of course. He's trying it everywhere isn't he? There's a double across between these two. Inch perfect from both of them as well. Absolutely they trust each other. They know each other's riding. Of course they can almost predict what's going to happen but who can predict this? Down the kilo. Michael should nudge his nose in front. We should see Cameron Donald going through as well. A glance over from Michael to have a look at William. Side by side. It might be William you know. No it's not. It's Michael. Michael gets into the into the lead. We're looking back at Ryan Farquhar. Well that was just a little bit of track position working for William there wasn't it? Yeah but Michael's got the lead of this race. They're going to Leithamstown. They're breaking away at the front. Well I'm not sure that I'm going to call that a breakaway yet. Well these two. Well going back to Cameron Donald. There's a gap there isn't there? It's a third. Then it's Guy Martin. Bruce Hansen's past Keith Amore. Keith Amore had a look around to see if there's anyone else coming as well. Or is it just this half a dozen? Oh out of the slipstream of brother Michael. That was lovely wasn't it? Yeah it was just as easy as you like. Now what should I do? Look at the speed. We saw that before from Michael Dunlop didn't we as well? William carrying a lot more speed into the top of Deer's Leap than Michael. Well Wilson Craig does prepare those Hondas immaculately. That team does turn out the bikes. Uh Honda versus Yamaha. Who knows? Might be a little bit in it mightn't they? Possibly. Cameron Donald's not out of this either. We're looking at Michael and William Dunlop at the front. Cameron could close in on them perhaps. They're coming down towards Ireland's again this time. See Michael just quicker in that time this time carrying the speed through. So obviously they've got their corners where they're hot and not so hot and the ones that they enjoy and they don't enjoy so much. Trying to get the drivers in. You want the run up the hill and everything. This is this circuit is so great because every bit of it counts. There aren't any places where you can say well I could afford to back off there or get that wrong. You've got to be on it everywhere. It's all working. That's right. So here we go then. Michael Dunlop is going to try and slipstream his brother William. There he goes and now the kinks to the right. So Michael Dunlop takes the lead from William. So it's not a Yamaha Honda thing after all. It's a slipstream thing that's all it is. And here comes William fighting back pulling out of the slipstream and they're again into the right hand coming up to the top here. Well there we go. William Dunlop appears ahead again and this is what they call a ding-dong. It is. It's also true as we've said several times before that when you're in someone's slipstream not only do you get a tow but you suck them back. You pull them back. So you're actually slowing down the bike in front and that's why you're getting this kind of catapult effect that you're seeing from the helicopter particularly. And we've seen between these two swapping places. It's just a question really of who gets the best drop nearest the chequered flag at the moment. You see in a certain short circuit. I mean this is what's unique really about road racing. Certainly here at the North West 200. And watch William this time goes wide. Always opens that. Come on. There we go. Yeah he did. He's just a little bit wider off into the turn every time. Michael Dunlop's exploited again. Michael knew William was going to do that. Oh I bet he had an idea that William was going to do that. He certainly again if you watch him again Michael really hugs the line as he goes around the hairpin. William tends to drift out and that leaves that door open. But as I say in the short circuits there's only really I can think of the chicane where that slipstreaming works into there. They all get sucked in. Yet that's happening all the way around as Michael Dunlop uses every inch of the track and more around and they come across the line. Bruce Hanstey still in fact he's up to fourth place now. We didn't see him go past Guy Martin to get the last lap flag. Guy Martin is trying to pull out the slipstream of Cameron Donald and what a story that would be. We've concentrated on the Dunlop so much at the front and look at Bruce Hanstey. Where's he come from? Side by side with Donald and about to take third place of the Australian. Michael and William as well. There are five riders in a thin three second spread going across the start finish line at the beginning of this last lap. So it is still anybody's game and they're still at it down the field. Look at the people again we're not talking about. Look at Bruce Hanstey now though Richard. Into Leithamstown and he's close right on them and I'm going to get my hand in my pocket. I didn't see if I can get a because you wouldn't have got one on him a lap ago. So Bruce Hanstey right behind William Dunlop. Michael Dunlop still leading them and Bruce Hanstey looking to pull into second place. There goes William into Leithamstown. Will we see Bruce Hanstey coming through as well? Wow wow this is fantastic. Dumps back to third and it's still the Dunlops out in front. So William leads Michael at the moment. Bruce Hanstey's definitely got his name on the podium hasn't he? Cameron Donald isn't done yet though. I haven't checked I'm sure he's got his name on the fastest lap for the last time around. But Bruce Hanstey in third place. Spots of rain on the lens there as well. So that might just come into play. There might just be a chance of some back markers as Ryan Farquhar moves up one position. So we're looking down then at William Dunlop. Michael Dunlop still in second place. Bruce Hanstey third. We're on board with Michael Dunlop. This is the man in second place. Following his brother and you'd have to say Cameron Donald and Guy Martin might be out of it now. It's a three-way fight at the front. He was right on the grass there. William checked over his shoulder got half a lap to go. Three and a half miles basically of this Dundrod circuit. A Dunlop is going to win this but I don't know which one. It might be Hanstey and he's got a tall, that's a big arse from even for Bruce. It is. Even for the slipstream here. We're going uphill he's not close enough but Michael is. Oh no. So Dunlop William is still carrying. It's like the rev limiter kicked in there with Michael wasn't it? It's almost like he got too close back here. But that would be a first. So Bruce Hanstey pulling up the inside and the slipstream of Michael Dunlop. Will we get a face full of Bruce Hanstey in a second? We've got a face full of William Dunlop almost. No, Hanstey's not coming through. Again. Here we go. There we go. That's the same again isn't it? Got right up on the back wheel and then just had to get out of it. This is at Wheeler's down towards Tornograph. I've got to take it back about Bruce Hanstey. Look he's right there isn't he? He suddenly closed that gap up in the slipstream. Got the toe and he's there. It's a three-way battle. But we've seen this every lap so far Richard. William Dunlop has led into the hairpin. He's out of his seat there almost. He's led into the hairpin. Now watch. I say he doesn't hug the white line as much as Michael tends to. He's trying to defend that line. He's trying to hook in as much as he can. Now. No and that's it. Just right every time. He just. Oh Dunlop William out of the scene again. I think he needs to be about half a yard further over to his left as he goes into the hairpin just to protect it so he can hook back in for the exit. But he's having to go back. But I tell you what it's a brave man. It's a very hard man who beats Michael Dunlop between here and the chequered flag. And Michael Dunlop waits so many times for wins to come along the Ulster. It looks as if two are going to come back to back. Well it certainly looks as though William did the same thing at the hairpin and gave his brother the opening he wanted. He saw Michael as you say go high and wide and dive back across. And William just let him do it. And I don't think he'll let that happen again. Here we go then. Michael Dunlop two-time winner of the Ulster Grand Prix. Yes there you go. And the results a point three of a second. It didn't really look that much between first and second place there. Bruce Antony did indeed have his name on the podium. Did you time it to perfection? Was that always in your thinking? I often knew I'd have a go in the last lap you know. But I played and played and it was nice. Yeah good craic. Just sat in there and watched. But can't say more about it. Unreal. What a great race. Just a job. I was riding the wheels off it. And I was riding the wheels of this and two bikes were equal. Great racing with somebody that you can dice with. You know what I mean. Properly good tight racing. We're already writing new chapters in the Ulster's Book of Legends and there are three more races left to run. Pick a winner out of this Dave. Well I think it's not so much pick a winner it's pick a tyre for this because obviously they've not had any dry practice. They're looking for a setup and tyres or choice of tyre is going to be a lottery because this could be a race that goes damp once we get going.