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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127949
to rid e for it. McCa llen a nd Dunl o p
w ere joi ne d in official Hond a Brit ai n
colo rs fo r the two m ai n (s u perbi ke )
races by reg ular British Championship
fro nt-ru nners Ian Simpso n, Michael Ru tter and lain Du ffu s - all po tent ial w inn er s. Honda Britain was a lso back in g
Jason Gri ffith s, Irishman James Co u rtney and vet eran Nick Jefferi es , as well
as entering severa l rid ers in th e 250cc
and 125cc races. Add to that the appearance of its satelli te Sanyo-ba cked team
in the SOOcc and Production events and
it appeared tha t thi s year' s IT looked
like it would be a Honda benefit. .
However, in the weeks lead ing up to
the IT, Ho nda 's ho pes too k a nose d ive.
On the weeke nd of May 2-3, McCa llen
a nd Du n lo p we re bo t h involved in
heavy cras hes . The Iri s h pai ri ng
in cu r r ed se ve re injuries . McCa llen
cras hed in a British Cha mpionship 600cc
race at Thruxton , br eak ing th ree vertebrae. The injury would subsequently
ru le him o u t o f th e TT, a nd at press
time, the fu ture of his who le career is in
so me doubt. Dunlop, 46 years "young :'
had a horrific accident a t the Tandragee
100 meeti ng in his native Ireland. Dunlop broke his right hand and his pelvis
a nd lost the top half of his wedding-rin g
finger. It seemed that the IT and Honda
were goi ng to be without their two main
attactions,
Unlike McCall en, Dunlop d ecided to
practice and see whether he could ride and more importantly, rid e fast. On the
first evening of pra ctice, he rea lized that
he would never be abl e to rid e the RC45
or the V-twin compe titive ly. Honda thus
passed the "special" RC45s on to Rutter
and Simpson , and the V-tw in was given
to Welshman Ian Loug her - twice a IT
wi nner and lap record hold er for the 250
and 125cc classes.
At the e n d o f pra ct ice wee k , th e
Honda lineup had anothe r last-m inute
w ithd rawa l, thi s in the most bizarre of
circumstances . Scotsma n Du ffus, retu rn ing to the IT for the firs t tim e in tw o
yea rs afte r a n in jury , fe ll fro m h is
motorhome in th e paddock and broke
hi s leg s hortly be fore th e start of th e
penultimat e pra ctice session . Duffus'
bikes wer e then passed to James Co urtnev for race week.
'What of the other factory interest? Basically, there wasn't any. Suzu ki did send a
World Superb ike-spec eng ine and frame
for Mark Flynn - but if Peter God dard and
James Whitham can't get their machines to
handl e in superbike, wha t chance did poor
Flynn have on the Isle of Man?
Kawasa ki gave some factory bi ts to
Simon Beck for h is Formula On e and
Senior machines . Apa rt from that, there
was vi rt ually no interest in th e event
from the major makers, except Honda.
Despite the seeming lack of opposition before the event started , there ma y
have been so me concerns fro m Ho nda
p ersonnel. While th ere is no doubting
their shor t-circuit prowess, neither Ru tter no r Simpson are exact ly McCallen or
Dunlop mater ial around the Isle of Man .
Any fears Hon d a ma y h ave had go ing
int o race week we re exacerbated when
Beck, on his kitt ed Ka wa sa ki, set the
fas test time of practice week. And while
H ond a m ach in e s to p p ed th e 125cc,
250cc an d 600cc classes, it was the
Yamaha RI a nd Kw asaki ZX-9 R th at
d ominated the first six places in the Produ ct ion cla ss . Wou ld Hon da's party
plans be spoiled?
FORMULA ONE
While practice week had been held in
largely excellen t cond itio ns, the weather
wa s about to have a pro found effect on
the entire week of racing.
(Right) Perenn ial TT
competitor (and now
23-time winner) J oey
Dunlop won the rainsh ortened 250cc race .
Dunlop had s uffered a
severe cras h in the
weeks leading up to
the TT and felt he
wasn't fil enoug h for
the Sen ior or Formula
One race.
(Below right) Simpson
met with much
success at this year's
TT, winning both the
Formula One and
Sen ior TT races and
placing second in the
600cc class.
The Form ula One race is traditionally
the open ing race and was scheduled for
Sa turday, June 6. However, th e day
dawne d wet (to say the lea st) and the
mountain section was cove red in hea vy
fog. Racing was ultimately canceled for
the da y and scheduled for Sunday.
Unfortunatel y, the next day' s weather wasn't initially mu ch better , eit he r.
But as the 2 p.m. sta rt time approached ,
conditions appear ed to improve. However, with th e ra ce just seconds fro m
being started, the orga nizers suddenly
anno unced a del ayed start - it tra nspired
that rain was fallin g on the west side of
th e 38- m ile tra ck an d the mis t was
d escend in g o n to th e Mou n ta in once
more. The s tart tim e was delayed two
h ours a nd th e ra ce di stance red uced
from six to four lap s.
Tires would pr pve to be a cruci al factor , as the track was dam p in mos t areas.
There was mixed op in ion among most
rid ers as to what rubber to run with .
Micha el Rutt er and Jason Griffiths we nt
writh full slicks, but Simo n Beck and Ian
Sim ps o n w ent w ith cut slicks on th e
fro nt and full-slick rears. Rutter see med
to have made a shrewd choice .
At 25, Mich ael Rut ter was still looking for his first IT win in this, his fifth
yea r of com pe ting on the Island . With
his family connec tions wit h the IT (his
fathe r, Ton y, won eight races bet w een
1973 and 1982), there was so me pressu re
o n the Birm in gham yo ungster to perform . He h ad p o w ered in to an early
lead by th e firs t s plit timing sections
(Glen H el en and Ra m s ey; 10 and 22
miles, respectively) and by th e end of
the opening lap he was six seconds up
on teamma te Ian Simpson.
Rut ter's opening lap wa s indicative
of the d am p conditions as his lap speed
was "only" 118.27 mph (no rm ally th e
opening la p is at lea st ov er 122 mph).
But it wasn't just th e damp th at w a s
causing Rut ter a problem.
"I los t my contact lens on the fir st
lap: ' he expla ine d . "Bu t luckily I wa s
able to get my han d inside my visor at
. Ramsey Hairpin and push it back in."
Si mo n Beck's cha ll e nge on t h e
Kawasak i already ap peared to be falte ring. The big English rid er - he wei gh s
aro und IS stone (210 pounds) - wa s runnin g third at the end of the opening lap
but some 10 seconds adrift of Simpson .
Co urtney was an im pressive fourth on
this, his first su per bike IT ride.
With the sho rtened race d istance, pit
sto ps ca me in to play at the halfway
point, by which time Rutter had extended hi s a d va n tage to 14 seco nds over
Simpson . Beck, meanwhile, main tained
third place and had actually closed the
Mick Grant's Hond a in the 1980 Classic
TT (a ra ce w in tha t reawakened th e
Ulsterman's caree r).
"On the last lap I really went for it,"
explained Simpson late r. " It was really
scary. Comi ng down th e Mo u ntain , I
actually los t the front wheel a t Windy
Co rne r (a sweeping 9