Michael Dunlop has been dramatically excluded from today’s Supersport race result after a technical infringement was identified in post-race examination.
A statement released by ACU Events Ltd announced Dunlop’s exclusion just minutes after the conclusion of the RL 360 Superstock race, from which Dunlop retired with a gear lever issue.
Dunlop had finished second in the race, some 15 seconds behind winner Ian Hutchinson. Dean Harrison will now be awarded the second-placed spot with James Hillier moving up to complete the podium.
Rob Hodson, who finished 14th, was also excluded from the result for running a ‘significantly oversized engine’.
The statement read: “ACU Events Ltd can confirm that two competitors have been disqualified from today’s Supersport Race 1 at the Isle of Man TT Races.
Michael Dunlop has been excluded from the results for a technical infringement identified during post race examination.
Mar-Train Racing have apologised to Michael Dunlop for supplying an illegal engine for his Yamaha R6 Supersport machine, which resulted in his disqualification from today’s Monster Energy Supersport Race.
Dunlop, who finished second in the race to Ian Hutchinson, was excluded from the result after a ‘technical infringement’ was identified during post-race scrutineering.
The issue found was a set of coated camshaft buckets, which the team were completely unaware of as they sourced the engine from a third party last week.
Mar-Train Racing, who supplied the engine, have since issued a statement apologising to Dunlop and the team.
It read: “Mar-Train Racing can confirm that they supplied Michael Dunlop and MD Racing with a Yamaha R6 engine for today’s Monster Energy Supersport TT. Unfortunately this engine has been found to be illegal and Michael has subsequently been disqualified from the result.
“The illegal element within this engine was a set of coated camshaft buckets which had been legal two years ago when the engine was originally built. This has been a spare engine and as such was fully refreshed to again be our spare engine for the 2016 TT.
“An oversight due in part to personnel changes in the team as well as a change in engine builder has meant that this obvious irregularity was missed. Our crew-chief, mistakenly assumed that this engine had seen use in 2015 and that it would be in compliance with the rules. Our engine builder, subsequently, and in good faith, refreshed and prepared the engine as he received it.
“We replaced all known components associated with wear and tear, known as an engine refresh, however regretfully overlooked the specifications of the Camshaft buckets as they were not a component that would have suffered from this wear and tear. We are devastated that Michael Dunlop and the MD Racing team have been disqualified over an issue that we as a business completely overlooked. We would like to apologies to Mar-Train Racing, Michael, MD Racing and the technical inspectors for the inconvenience we have caused.”
“We trust that anyone who knows the team, including the TT technical inspectors, will understand that this embarrassing oversight does not reflect the specification of machine we usually put on the grid. It goes without saying that the rider being excluded from the results could very well have been our own in this instance.
“We are gutted for Michael, his team and sponsors and can only apologise for this oversight on our behalf. We fully understand the effort that goes into achieving a TT podium and can therefore appreciate just how they must feel right now.”
ACU Events Ltd do not believe that there was a deliberate attempt to gain an unfair advantage and no significant performance advantage was gained.
As a result of this disqualification, Dean Harrison moves up to second place with James Hillier now taking the final podium position.
In addition Rob Hodson, who finished 14th in the same race, has also been disqualified from the race having been found to have been running a significantly oversized engine.”
