ROAD RACE
By Stephen Burns
Photos by Nigel Ki,:,rade
ISLE OFMAN, ENGLAND, JUNE 6-14
n recent yea rs, the or ganizers of the
TT in the Isle of Man have atte mp ted to a ttach some kind of "anniversary " to mark the event. This approach
apparently makes th e meeting m ore
marketable, and th is yea r's TT was no
different. However, this time the organizers didn't need to attach one of their
own mystical tags, Hond a, the mainstay
of th e TT in recent yea rs, in ten d ed to
make the very most of its 50th anni versary.
In th e weeks lea d ing u p to the TT,
ru mo rs we re rife that Honda was effectively going to tem porarily change the
nam e of the sma ll island in the middle
of th e Irish Sea to th e Isle o f Honda.
Ap pa ren tly we wou ld not be ab le to
move around the pl ace w itho u t see ing
H o nd a ba n ne rs, p o s t e rs or socia lly
spo nso red event s. In truth, it never we nt
qu ite that far - excep t w here anything to
do with the race was concerned.
This was a blessing in ma ny ways, as
in rece n t years the Isle of Man Tou rist
Board (respo nsible for marketing the TT)
has seemingly concentrated more on the
socia l eve n ts than the actual racing. In
one moment of controversy on the eve of
the event, it even seemed that the Tour ist
Bo ard wa s u n w il li ng to re cogn ize
Honda's unfailing support of the TT over
the last 40 yea rs. Some prominen t trackside adv ertisin g was sold to a rival man ufacturer. A lleged ly, Honda was not very
pleased at not havin g been give n "first
refusal" on this advertising opportunity.
An yway , th is little wrangl e a si d e,
I
36
Honda was d efinitel y putting eve ryth ing into its ra cin g-team effor t. Two
special RC45s were hand-bu ilt for their
m ain TT st ars, Phillip McCall en a n d
Joey Dunlop . These were to be ridd en in
th e Fo rm u la One rac e, a n e ven t th at
(Above) RC45ยท
mounted Michael
Rutter (4) leads
Simon Beck (1) and
eventual winner Ian
Simpson (hidden) in
the Formula One
race .
(Right) Jim Moodie
won the production
race on a
CBR900RR.
Honda has won eve ry year since 1982.
Honda a ls o m ad e ava il a b le t h ree
NSR500 V-twi n s for th e Senior eve nt. '
These would be ridden by 'Dunlop , Scot
Jim Moodi e, and up-and- com in g British
250cc star, John McGuiness.
In an attem p t to win e'Very race at the
TT, H ond a even built a one-off 650cc
sing le-cylinder bike for the Singles TT.
As w ell as its at tack on th e wor ks
a n d s peci a l "t rick bits" bik e s fro n t,
Honda also hired a host of TT stalwarts
