Finishing joint fourth in Road Racing News top ten riders of the 2015 pure road racing season, is William Dunlop and Dean Harrison.
Both riders have impressed many throughout the year, showing world class form for Tyco BMW, Ivan Curran/CD Racing and Mar Train Racing.
Embarking on new challenges in 2016, they go into next year, as holders of the prestigious Duke Road Race Rankings championship and the Steve Henshaw international gold cup.
Main highlights of William Dunlop’s season have included:
Duke Road Race Rankings championship victory
Irish road race superbike championship victory
Irish road race supersport championship victory
Second place finish in opening supersport race at the Ulster Grand Prix
Walderstown grand final victory
Supersport victories at Cookstown, Tandragee, Kells, Faugheen and Armoy
Main highlights of Dean Harrison’s season have included:
Steve Henshaw international gold cup victory
500 classic TT victory
Cock of the north road races feature race victory
Barry Sheene trophy victory
Supersport race two victory at the Southern 100
Senior race 1 victory at the Spring Cup National Road Races
Established amongst pure road racing’s most talented competitors, it still may be a surprise to many people to see William Dunlop and Dean Harrison, finish joint fourth in the top ten riders of the year.
Reasons why are, Dean has worked many a miracle with the new YZF R1M Yamaha, he’s lead Yamaha’s challenge at TT 2015, Southern 100, Dundrod 150, Ulster Grand Prix and the Scarborough Gold Cup.
He’s consistently chipped away with the bike which has suffered many a teething issue. He and Mar Train Racing’s hard work paid off at the gold cup, going the entire meeting unbeaten.
Whilst for William Dunlop, he might not have scaled the heights that he would have wanted, at the international road races, but his Duke Road Race Rankings championship and Irish road race championship victories, more than made up for this, in my opinion.