Dunlop hits back over Guy Martin jibe

Ulster Grand Prix double race winner Michael Dunlop has hit back at Guy Martin's post-Ulster Grand Prix jibe that he only won the 'B' race at the international meeting.

Tyco Suzuki rider Martin tasted victory in the feature Superbike event after Dunlop slid off his Honda Fireblade on the penultimate lap.

Dunlop made amends by defeating Martin in a spectacular final-lap confrontation in the second race to earn the first major international superbike race win of his career.

But in an official Tyco Suzuki press statement issued afterwards, Martin was quoted as saying: "No-one comes to win the 'B' race, do they?"

Martin - toasting his first big international success since he won the second Superbike race at Dundrod a year ago - added: "It's been a great week at Dundrod and it's always the job to win the main Ulster Grand Prix Superbike race.

"I did my best in the second Superbike race to also take the win but if you're going to win one at Dundrod, the main race is the most important.

"No one comes to win the 'B' race do they?"

Dunlop - who also claimed victory in the Superstock race and set the fastest overall lap of the day at 133.435mph - had this to say in response.

"The main thing on Saturday was to win a Superbike race and I did it. Guy Martin and the Tyco boys have been doing all this talking about winning the blue riband race, but nobody cares who won the middle race - everyone in the pub on Saturday night would have been talking about who won the last race," the Ulster rider told the Belfast News Letter.

"That's the one everyone remembers and Guy wouldn't have won the big race if I hadn't made a stupid mistake.

"I proved that in the second race because there were no excuses, it was me and Guy on the last lap, no backmarkers, and I knew I had him.

"Guy said no-one wants to win the 'B' race, but they did enough celebrating last year when he won the 'B' race," added the 23-year-old.

"They can say what they want, but all the talking was done on the last lap in the last race of the day.

"They needed to win that second Superbike race badly to prove that Guy would have won the first race anyway, but I spoiled the whole show for them," said Dunlop, who received pain-killing injections on Saturday, when he was riding with two slipped discs in his back.

"I had a lot more corner speed than Guy but he was good on the brakes and he kept jamming it up the inside of me when I came past because he knew I'd pull away.

"You take it from me, Guy Martin tried his hardest on that last lap in the second superbike race to be beat me, but he hadn't a mission," he said.

"Guy's best circuit is Dundrod and that was his best chance of getting a win this year, but now he knows he's got me to deal with around there."