The incident in Superbike Race 2 made Michael Dunlop one of the best superbike rides in the Northwest 200, but also covered his achievements.
Ballymoney Rider ran on lap one with Peter Hickman at Mather’s Chicane, but Hickman stopped and put his foot down, and Dunlop was carried straight.
Initially, Dunlop was given a 10-second penalty, categorized third by time that was corrected shortly after the race.
However, the penalty was cancelled. That is, Dunlop was declared the third winner of this edition of Causeway Coast Road Race, with a second run-on with Mother and Metropole at close to 20 seconds at the end of the lap, but passed Davee Tod on the final lap.
Hickman had expressed his opinion on how the results were supposed to be from the race steward when speaking in a post-race interview conducted before the final race results were declared to Todd, Hickman’s 8ten racing teammate and co-owner.
“It’s simple,” Hickman told an interview after the BBC Sport Ni Ins IS RACE.
“If you run on Chicane, you have to stop at the stop box, put your feet down and go again.
“Michael (Dunlop) was clearly drawn into my mother’s cross. We both missed the chicane. Michelle went straight, I cut it off, stopped in the stop box, and went as you intended.
“So, as far as I’m concerned, one of us gets a 10-second penalty. One of us isn’t.
“The 8ten bike ran really well. I was really happy. You need to slowly raise the tires to the temperature, like normal, on the first few laps.
“Davie (Todd) rode and cleaned up really well, just like Michael, who rides very well, and it’s great to see him come back again.
“Maybe Michael hadn’t made excuses for a long time, but he has a complete factory BMW built by SMR (Shaun Muir Racing) at Toprak (Razgatlioglu). What more can you ask for? It’s the best bike on the grid.
“He’s great, it’s great to watch. It’s great to get involved in a fight against it. If it’s by the rules book, unfortunately there’s a 10-second penalty there, but who knows?”
Todd: “It’s his backyard.”
Todd was unhappy with the final decision, but was also frustrated by the technical issues he felt he had sacrificed his chance to win on the road, regardless of his decision on Dunlop’s penalty.
“Of course he did,” Todd told BBC Sport Ni when he was informed that Dunlop had been declared the winner.
“It’s his backyard, I mean, playing with him fair, he’s clearly riding well.
“But we should have won the race anyway. We had miles before and had technical issues with the bike. It really started to run late. I don’t know what was wrong, but I didn’t know if it would be over or not.
“I don’t have words. I have rules. I just change the rules to suit the right person. I don’t really want to say that, but that’s true.”
Dunlop: “I didn’t get any advantage.”
Dunlop said the reason he didn’t stop at the stop box on the first lap was about safety and there was no benefit from him running.
“We’ve had a few complaints from some riders at Parc Ferme (running at Mother’s Chicaen),” Dunlop said in a post-race interview with BBC SportsNI.
“We were pushed into Shikne. Pete (Peter Hickman) jumped over the grass. It was dangerous. We got over the curb.
“The rule is to stop and put your feet down if you go through Shicane, you can’t do that for safety reasons, and you can’t jump off the grass, which was too dangerous.
“But they’re obviously (Hickman and Todd) have problems with it.
“But the end of the story – I couldn’t get any advantage, I caught everyone and I won the race. That’s enough for me.”
He added:
“I made the decision. I installed the curb. He (Hickman) installed the curb, and I thought he thought it was very dangerous.
“But I couldn’t get any advantage. People walked past me and made another mistake.