&M Yamaha RFl-SP
B Y ALA N C A TH CA RT
PH OT O S BY K E L ED GE
;\ ny rema ining doubts that YamaV \ha 's R 1 r e p r e s en t e d th e new
b en c h m ark in ultrasports m o t o rc y cl ing were dispelled by Yorkshireman
David Jefferi es' '99 -season roa d- rac ing performa nces, on th e modifi ed R1
street bike honed by B ritain's top tu n i n g hou s e , V&M Ra cing , i n to th e
und isputed r e ign ing K ing of th e
Roads.
For in the final rac e season of the
20th century , the 26-year old son of
a famous father - DJ 's dad is factory
Triumph rider Tony .Jeffer ies, himself
a TT winner in his own right - completed an u np r ecedented clean
sweep of all th e world's greatest and
fastes t road circuit races aboard the
V&M Yamaha. He first won the North
West 200 - Ireland ' s b es t atten d ed
spo rt ing event of any kind, attracting
100 ,000 spectators - then both the
Fo rmu la 1 and Sen i or TT races on
th e Isle of Man, th e Ulster GP at Dun drod, and fin all y the la st Ma c au GP
to be run on the shores of the Sou th
C hina Sea, befo re the Portug uese
co lony reverted to China . In m any of
these , Dav id was followed ho me by
h is Scottish t eam m at e lain Du ffus on
the second V&M R1, while in both the
Irish events he set a new outright lap
rec ord (w hich in th e case of the Dundrod ci rcu it' s 12 6 .86 m p h m ar k , is
th e world's fast est closed -circuit lap
record for a track in current use) .
Fin all y , in all of these races, Jefferies
defeated n ot only a stern challenge
from m ore th an one curren t 500cc
Grand Pri x two -strok e, bu t also the
m igh t o f the w ork s Hond a team ,
aboa rd the ir hyp er -ex pe n si v e and
ultra -trick RC45 fa ctory -built racers
wh ich have do m inated raci ng on the
roa d s fo r t h e bes t p ar t o f two
decad es. In the 10M TT , for exa m ple,
Hond a had won the Formula 1 race
for an unpreced ent ed 17 -s traight
years - until the advent of the V&M
Yama ha R1 brought th at to an end,
relega ti ng TT-meiste r Joey D unl o p
. to second p lace on his wo rks RC45.
And all thi s with a modified streetbike which , eight wee ks before its
first race, was wearing a li cence plate
and t a x e d fo r th e st re e t. Pr e t t y
im p ressive!
HAYA BU SA HUNTING
Riding th e V& M RF 1-SP is a win - .
do w into the world of wha t it t ak es to
beat a works Honda t eam's meqa -ye n
factory RC45 Superb ikes in the Isle 01
V&M builds very fast bikes w ith a
Britis h flavor.
20
MAY 3 1 , 2000 '
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