Michael Dunlop wins Frohburg on BMW

Michael Dunlop joined forces with the Penz13.co BMW team to win the feature event at Germany’s only road race on Sunday. Riding a S1000RR, described as “the spare bike from Le Mans” by team boss Rico Penskofer who had run a factory supported BMW squad in the 24 hour endurance race at Le Mans a week earlier, 25 year old Dunlop won a titanic battle with local star Didier Grams and Dutchman, John Fredriks who were also on BMWs.

“Didier is top of the tree around here and the boys were riding really well so it was good to get the win.” the Ballymoney man said afterwards.

Dunlop had lost out to Grams (W&G Motorsport BMW Motorrad) and Fredriks (RFA Racing BMW) in the three earlier superbike races ran over the weekend and he was forced to break the lap record for the 4.75 km Saxony course  to get ahead of Grams and Fredriks in the final feature race of the day after trailing off the line in third spot. The huge crowd were on their feet as he surged past the Netherlands rider with four laps to go and began to hunt down the German who had already clinched the International Road Race Championship title at the meeting.

“I passed Didier at the fast left hander going up the hill.” the four times TT winner explained after the huge celebrations after the race that involved every rider in the grid stopping on the course to congratulate him.

It had been a memorable way to end the day, taking his first win at Frohburg on what was his third visit to the German course. It also meant he became the fourth Dunlop to win a race in Germany. Michael’s uncle Joey won the 125cc race in 1995, his father Robert won the same race in 2004 and his elder brother William won on a superbike in 2007. The feature race has been called the Joey Dunlop Open since 2003.