Dunlop's debut with Rizla Suzuki.

The Rizla Suzuki team are looking to the future of racing and helping develop new talent in the form of William Dunlop, nephew of the late Joey Dunlop.

The team offered him a test at Donington Park to see how good he was after being tipped off by the late Davy Wood, as Dunlop explained.

"I had very little time on the bike, I only got about six or seven laps, but what I got was great!" he said. "It was great to just sit on John Reynolds bike, it was amazing.

"Rizla have been looking at me for a while thanks to Davy Wood who put a word in for me, he said I was a talent. That is how it came about, it just came at the right time. It's been just right for me, they were talking about doing the North West, but I didn't get it so they decided to give me a run at Castle Combe."

Moving from riding small machine up to a full blown Superbike didn't faze the youngster at all.

"I ride a 250 and a 600 so it's a bit more power," he explained. "They were able to soften the map for me, so it was not quite what they were riding. They made it as easy for me as possible, it's an easy bike to ride anyway. I thought it would have been harder to ride."

With the test behind him, and his race debut still to come, Dunlop added that he feels this could be the perfect stepping stone for him to make the move into British Superbikes.

"It is a good chance for me to get to Superbike level as I'm stuck back in Ireland riding the roads on a 125," he said. "So hopefully this will be a stepping stone to the BSB racing. It's really exciting, but there were no nerves when I was riding the bike. I thought I would have been nervous as I usually get nervous when I ride the wee bikes."

William Dunlop will make his first race debut on the Blue Suzuki at Castle Combe during the mid season break and it looks like he is one to watch for the future...