Road Races
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Joey Dunlop M.B.E, O.B.E 1952 - 2000
King of the roads
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A permanent memorial to the great man has been erected at Ballanorris by Ian Craven and Katrina Steel. Ballanorris was the corner where Joey went into the field on the right during the 1979 meeting. The gate is open during racing.
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After Joey equalled the long standing record of 14 TT wins held by Mike Hailwood, Harry and Liz O'Grady at Harrys Cafe in Douglas presented Joey with a cake with 14 candles. Joey celebrates yet another milestone in his remarkable carreer with egg and beans on toast and a kiss from the staff before lighting the cake
Click here to view Joey's remarkable racing achievments
The People’s Champion
by Phil Edge of Motorsport Media Services
To say William Joseph Dunlop OBE., MBE was a phenomenon would be an
understatement.
He was at one on a racing
motorcycle. Proof of this comes with five consecutive Formula One World
Championships; Twenty-six TT wins, including three hat tricks, 1985; 1988 &
2000; twenty-four Ulster Grand Prix victories,the most recent in 1999 plus a
similar number on the same Dundrod course at the Killinchy ‘150’ and Dundrod
‘150’ National Road Races.
Away from his native Ulster, his
second ‘racing’ home was here in the Isle of Man, competing not only on the
world famous Snaefell Mountain Course, but also at the Island’s major National
Road Races - the Southern ‘100’ Meeting
held in the south, on the outskirts of Castletown.
Joey first rode the
4.25 mile Billown Course in 1976, the diminutive Irishman, on his first visit,
proved the sensation of the meeting with two second places and a third in the
Wednesday evening's qualifying races, then, most important of all, a
magnificent victory in the Championship event, shattering both lap and race
records.
The 250cc event had been a lap and
race record smasher in what turned out to be an Irish Jig. Ian McGregor kept
eventual winner Ray McCullough at bay for the opening four laps but once he was
ahead he was unstoppable. The previous year’s winner Neil Tuxworth held third
place until two laps from home when Dunlop slipped past him for an Irish 1-2-3.
The 350 brought a similar result
this time however, McCullough had a much cosier time leading from flag to flag.
Joey did himself no good with a desperate start but provided most of the
interest as he battled his way through the field taking second spot on lap
seven.
Bill Smith became the first man to
average 90 mph. for a race when he took the honours in the 750 event. From the
outset Smith was locked in an enthralling dice with Gordon Pantall, both riding
750 Yamaha’s. Unfortunately Pantall, who was on Smith's tail, crashed heavily
on lap three at Ballawhetstone but this proved to be far from the end of the
leader's problems. Joey Dunlop, on a 350cc, harried Smith for several laps and
seventh time round actually took the lead. With three laps to go, however, Bill
Smith was back in command and extending his advantage to 10 seconds by the
chequered flag.
350cc Yamsel
Race Average 92.60 mph
Absolute Course Record 94.09 mph
Joe Dunlop returned to
conquer in 1977. The first solo event, the 250, gave Joey, a runaway victory.
The final Championship solo
qualifying event, the 1300cc, provided Dunlop with his second victory of the
event. Blackburn's George Fogarty, Suzuki, in determined mood made the Irishman
fight all the way and at the chequered flag the difference between the pair was
less than two seconds.
The Championship event proved almost a carbon copy of
the 1300 race. Dunlop took the lead on the opening lap and maintained a four-second
advantage over Fogarty once again runner-up.
747cc Rea Yamaha
Record Race Average 94.60 mph
Absolute Course Record 96.59 mph
It was very much the
year of the Irish as far as the solo classes went at the 1978 meeting, with
Joey Dunlop collecting three wins.
The 1300cc race turned out to be a
most dramatic event. Marty Ames on the 750 Lock Yamaha got off to a cracking
start and, to the surprise of many, began pulling away from champion Dunlop, on
another 750 Yamaha. Dunlop could make little impression on the Leeds flyer,
then on lap eight victory was in sight as disaster overtook the leader.
At Cross Four Ways Ames and Mick
Dunn [who was about to be lapped] collided and down they went. While Ames was
picking himself up both Dunlop and George Fogarty, 750 Yamaha, passed him and
he had to settle for third. Conor McGinn, Yamaha, led a pack of Irishmen into
fourth place, ahead of Frank Kennedy, Suzuki, and the Yamahas’ of Con Law and
James Scott.
After the previous excitement the
Championship was a rather pedestrian affair, Joey retaining his title pretty
well as he pleased, equalling his own lap record. He finished the 12 laps
less than a second slower than he had 12 months before - a piece of remarkable
riding.
747cc Rea Yamaha
Race Average 94.59 mph
Equalled Absolute Course Record 96.59 mph
Despite being forced
to relinquish the Championship title Joey Dunlop was once again the centre of
most of the conversation during 1979.
Three wins and a second were his
final tally but his astonishing escape from injury when a steering damper broke
at Ballanorris will perhaps be his most remembered feat.
Dunlop got off to a cracking start
in a 250 event that became rather a procession after the opening lap.
The 350 provided Dunlop with
victory number two. His advantage this time was even more comfortable.
After two start to finish wins,
the 1300 race was eventful to say the least for Joey Dunlop. After stopping at
Castletown corner to remove some tape from a boiling radiator the initial
leader found himself in fifth place. A new lap record of 2 minutes 36.8 seconds
soon promoted him back into contention until a near disaster befell him at
Ballanorris on lap three. A steering damper broke and jammed leaving Dunlop
with no alternative but to head for an open gateway into the field where he
jumped off the bike, escaping serious injury.
The Solo Championship was possibly
the race of the week, Ian Bell once again led for most of the race but had to
settle for third at the end. This time it was long-time Championship aspirant
George Fogarty that took the title, nipping past Bell at Great Meadow on the
final circuit.
Joey Dunlop took the runner-up
position after Bell's clutch went on the final bend.
The Irishman had been looking for
his fourth successive Championship and despite the restriction of a 350 Yamaha,
brought about by his spill in the 1300cc race, he certainly made quite a race
of it.
The Ulsterman completed a
hat-trick of wins by taking the 10-lap Solo Millennium race on a 500 Suzuki.
With Solo Championships in 1976,
1977 and 1978 - Joey became the first and so far the only rider to achieve a
hat trick of Solo Championships.
After an absence of
eleven years, on World Championship duty for Honda, the Ballymoney man returned
to the Billown Course in 1991, delighting his loyal band of Island fans with a
performance even he probably never dreamed of.
He made a wining start to the week
with a record breaking victory in the Junior Founders Race, defeating Ian
Lougher by 0.8 of a second.
One hour later, Joey clocked up
win number two with a start to finish success in the Senior Founders Race on
the RC30 Honda.
Wednesday evening and Dunlop
smashed race and lap records in the combined 250/350cc race, again pushing Ian
Lougher into second place.
In a straight head to head with
Dave Leach, Joey again set lap and race records in the 1000cc race the same
evening.
Joey’s fifth win of the week came
in Thursday’s combined 125 race, when he out paced a host of multi cylinder 600
and 400cc machines to finish 12th overall in a field of 37!
By far the most spectacular of
Joey’s six wins came in the feature 12 lap Ronaldsway Shoe Co. Solo
Championship Race. Putting the icing on
the cake as Joey pulverised the race and lap records.
750cc RVF Honda
Record Race Average 102.76 mph
Absolute Course Record 104.93 mph
The Solo Championship
was his again two years later in 1993. Having ‘warmed up’ by winning the 250cc
Race on the Wednesday evening on the 250cc Payne Honda, the Ballymoney man took
the opening race of “Championship Day” the Regal 600cc Race on his Harris
Honda, setting the fastest lap into the bargain.. following that with victory
in the 125cc race.
Speeds during the afternoon were
down on recent years due to damp and misty conditions around the Billown
Course, as the watching crowd awaited the Solo Championship Race, the blue riband
event of the meeting. Reduced from 12 to nine laps due to the conditions, Joey
was soon in the lead and although challenged strongly by Simon Beck in the
early stages, he slowly but surely increased his lead from 0.3 of a second at
the end of the opening lap to 14 seconds at the chequered flag.
Yet another hat trick for Joey during the Southern ‘100’ and his fifth Solo Championship win.
750cc Castrol Honda
Race Average 99.49 mph
Fastest Lap 101.45 mph
Nineteen Ninety-nine saw Joey take his sixth Solo Championship, having previously opened his ‘1999 tally’
with a ten seconds victory in the
Corlett’s/Total Oil Senior Solo Founders Race on the Wednesday evening, heading
home New Zealander Blair Degerholm and fellow Ulsterman, Adrian McFarland.
Thirty riders lined up on the grid
for the Ronaldsway Shoe Company Solo
Championship Race run over twelve laps.
Once again it was New Zealander
Blair Degerholm who made the early running with Joey Dunlop, Adrian McFarland
and Jason Griffiths vying for second place.
By lap four it was the maestro
in front and in full control to take the chequered flag by 4.3 seconds
at the end of the fifty-one mile race.
McFarland on the Rendezvous R1
Yamaha broke free of Griffiths on the O’Kane R1 and eventually reeled in the
Wilson & Collins Kawasaki mounted Kiwi, passing him with four laps to go.
Blair finally got ahead on the
last lap as Adrian suffered from a reoccurrence of tennis elbow.
750cc RC45 Honda Britain
Race Average 104.087 mph
Fastest Lap 106.176mph
Outside these six prestigious wins, ‘Year Maun’ collected further twenty-five laurel wreaths for first places during the Southern’100’.
In 1991 the Steam Packet National
Road Races were introduced to the Billown Course to conclude the annual TT
Festival. Joey won the 250cc Race in the inaugural meeting and brought his
tally of wins to eleven, when he took the chequered flag in the 1000cc Race
last year.
In all, Joey Dunlop achieved a
total of forty-two victories on the
Billown Course, in the Southern ‘100’ & Steam Packet Road Races - a record
unlikely to be equalled, similar to his wins on the Snaefell Mountain Course
and Dundrod, in Northern Ireland.
He received the MBE, in 1986 for
services to motorcycling, ten years later he was awarded the OBE, for services to
charity - such was the esteem in which he was held both inside and outside his
chosen sport.
The shock of his untimely death,
whilst racing in Estonia on 2nd July has still to sink in - Joey was set to line up with his fellow
competitors on the ‘By-Pass’, defending his Championship Title during 2000
Southern ‘100’ week - regrettably he
was not with us in person, but no doubt looking down upon us thinking of what
might have been, as we were all thinking likewise.
Southern ‘100’ Racing mourn his
passing, although without doubt we are better people for having known and seen
Joey Dunlop OBE, MBE in action around our unique Billown Circuit during the
course of what is generally known as “The Friendly Races”.
Joey will always be the
“King of the Roads” and “Master of Billown”.
Cheerio Joey & thanks for some wonderful memories.
Joey with 250cc sponsor, Bertie Payne
during his Exhibition at Summerland
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Joey Dunlop M.B.E, O.B.E Killed 2nd July 2000 The legend will be missed |
