WILLIAM DUNLOP

William Dunlop has been offered the chance to ride a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R provided by British championship team MSS Racing in 2009. Dunlop, from Ballymoney, will again ride in Chris Dowd's colours next season, competing on Yamahas in the Superstock and Superbike classes.
However, the 23-year-old, who joined CD Racing in June, yesterday told News Letter Sport that MSS team boss, Nick Morgan, has been in touch to sound out interest in a possible switch to Kawasaki for the highly competitive 600cc series.
Dunlop emerged as a serious Supersport contender on the roads this year, regularly challenging Ryan Farquhar and Scot Keith Amor, who finished first and second respectively in the Irish championship, with William third overall.



He plans to test the MSS-supplied Kawasaki at the annual Easter short circuit meetings at Bishopscourt and Kirkistown before making a final decision ahead of the Cookstown 100 in April – the first Irish road race on the 2009 calendar.

"Nick Morgan of MSS has been in touch and he's keen for us to ride the new 600cc Kawasaki next year," Dunlop said. "They would provide the bike in a race-ready condition and we'd have back-up support from MSS, but it would be Chris's bike and it'd be running in the CD Racing colours. Nick feels that the 2009 Kawasaki will be a big improvement on the previous model and he's always provided Chris with good bikes in the past, like when Rob Frost finished second on a Kawasaki for Chris at the North West 200 behind Ian Hutchinson in 2006," he added.

"I ran Yamahas this year, but we had no direct factory help from them and it would be a big help knowing that MSS would be supporting us. They'd do all the tuning work and would help us out with any set-up data we needed. I'll be racing at Daytona on Chris's 600cc Yamaha in February and then when I come back I'll take delivery of the Kawasaki and ride it at the Easter short circuit races. If it's better than the Yamaha then we'll go with Kawasaki next year and Chris will probably buy a second engine."

William, meanwhile, has decided against competing in the Superbike class at the North West 200 on May 16 and instead plans to concentrate his efforts on the Superstock race.

"The Superstock class is more competitive and the bikes handle better, so I've decided not to bother with the Superbike races. I'll do the Supersport and Superstock races and the 125cc and 250cc races, if they still run them at the North West next year," he explained. "I'll be riding Paddy Flynn's 250cc Honda again next season and Paddy has also given me my dad's 125cc Honda. It's the bike he won on in the 125cc race at the North West in 2006 and James Delaney is going to help us out with sponsorship for it. I've also got the option of riding in a couple of 125cc British championship rounds for Mark Keen in the KRP team whenever I feel I need to get away for a bit."



William Dunlop