In a shock move William Dunlop has left the Wilson Craig Honda Team for whom he rode the past two seasons giving team owner Craig his first ever international race wins when he won a supersport race at both the North West 200 and Ulster Grand Prix earlier this year.

Dunlop has left the team on amicable terms the 27-year old Ballymoney rider saying, “I enjoyed riding for Wilson these past two seasons, but it is time to move on and try something new. Wilson has been good to me and I’m glad I was his first rider to win international races for him. I have a number of options, but nothing concrete at the moment.

"The ideal scenario is that I would have bikes for the international road races and the opportunity to compete in the British Supersport Championship whether that is with an established team or run my own team, either way it would take a considerable budget. It is a case of wait and see, but I hope by the NEC show at the end of November to have something tied up.”

Dunlop finished on the rostrum at the TT for the first time finishing third in the first supersport race, but a high-speed crash at Skerries in June injured a shoulder that restricted his appearances on the team’s superbike for the rest of the season.

He is clearly a potential winner at the North West, TT and Ulster Grand Prix and any national road races he decides to enter in 2013 with the lure and the fresh challenge of the British Supersport series a box that he would like to tick.