Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

2000 Is le of M an TT B Y STEPHEN B URNS PH OT OS BY D A VE C O LLI ST ER ISLE OFMAN, MAY 27-JUNE 9 n e thi ng that the Is le o f Man TT ca n no t b e c riticized for is the a mo un t o f t im e s it th ro ws u p rea l sporting dram a o r achievement, arid ema na ting from the maze of d is illu sionment th at was p ractice week came a rgu ably some of th e be s t racing in the lo ng history of th e TT .. Th e most notabl e of wh ich was the Formula On e event . At the root of TT week we re Joey Dunlop a nd Da vid J effe ries . Th e former being the win ner of 23 races at this event, and a ll rou nd TT hero, who even at 48 y ea rs of age r emains Ho nda 's (if not th e TT's) talisman . While J effer ies , at 25 , was the yo ung u ps t art who h ad won th re e TT s in 1999 at just his second attempt, had do minated qualifying , a nd was Yamaha 's chief a nd co nfident ho pe of rubbing Honda's nose in the TT dirt aga in. The ma in pre -race chat had been suggestions that Dunlop had not been trying that ha rd aboard the RC51 during qualifying and that we would see a m or e agg ressi ve approa ch from the Ulsterman during the race. Th e cynics thought otherwise - surely , be ing just two years sh y of his 50th birthd ay, the glory yea rs were now beh ind him? O FORMULA ONE Naturally the Manx weather caused th e other m ain talking point prior to 32 JUNE 28 , 2000' cue • e the first big ra ce of the meetin g . Ra in and m ist do used the circuit for most of the morn ing , but by ea rly af tern oon a nd race time, conditions had turned full ci rcle. Visibility on the high ground was clear a nd most of the track was dry, a lbeit with some d amp pa tche s under th e trees. Tire choices wouldn 't be a n iss ue as s licks we re to be the order of the day. As the field raced off towa rds the first timing s plit (Glen Helen - 10 m iles into the race) it was expected that Jefferies would hav e al ready establ ished hims e lf at op th e or der. It was not to be , howe ve r, for Du n lo p seemingly really did ha ve a new approach and the ve tera n ride r re a ch ed th e tim ing split two seconds qu icke r than J ef fe ries. The other V&M rider, Michael Rutter, also seemed 'up for it' aft er his lackluster q ua lifying showing , and was but a second ba ck from his teammate. At the second split (Ramsey - 22 m ile s ), Dun lop had stretched his le ad over the V&M bo ys to s ix a nd se ve n se conds , res pective ly. Now we began to take Dunlop seriou s ly! However, at the end of the lap, Dunlop's lead was down to just one second, but it was now Rutter who had taken up the cudge l of challeng e, pulling some six se c ond s b a ck o n Dun lo p over th e mountain. While this was a little surp rising (although the Mountain section is not Dunlop's favo rite part of the course ), what was even more startli ng was tha t J effer ies ha d slip pe d to fourth overall , some 10 s econds ba c k. J ohn McGu in o 'UV s J oey Dun lop never c e ases t o a m aze. The 48-year-old Irish m a n won three races during the Isle of Man TT, including the all-important Formula One race. When he didn't w in, he was still a factor in the outcome. ness had taken the second RC51 into third place . Th e ga p re ma ined the sa me at Glen Helen on la p two , and \l(e wondered if J efferies had a problem . The qu e stion was a nswere d q u ic kl y at Ra ms e y where J e ffe ries had s udden ly hauled himself ba ck to second pla ce just s ix seconds ba c k of Dunl op. So why th e sudden c ha nge in pace? "To be ho nest , I had a coup le of bad slides on th e first lap", exp lained J efferie s. "I scared m ys e lf a bit a nd lo s t my rhythm and it took m e the best part of a lap to get it ba ck again." Now the race dev eloped into a two ho rse a ffair between the veteran and young pretender. The end of la p two brought about the first of the pit stops . Some pre-ra ce concern of th e Honda te am abo ut ch ang ing th e re a r wheel with th e d oub le -sid ed swing a r m proved to be unfounded as they did a great job in getting Dunlop on th e road a gai n with a full tank of fue l in 35 seconds (no q uick filler s re mem be r) an d he cont inue d to lea d, th is tim e by a n ex te nded nine secon ds . Last yea r, the V&M tea m did not need to c ha nge J effer ies ' Pire lli re ar , thi s tim e was diffe rent however - this yea r he was in a rac e and it was too r isky n ot t o cha nge. Th ro u gh o ut la p thr e e , J effe rie s sta rted to pick away at Dunlop' s lead. But it was a second he re and a second th er e . Dunlo p's pa ce wa s fa st enough to ke ep a re as ona ble c us hion between him s elf a nd the Eng lish man . However, by Ramsey on lap four , Jefferies had whittled the gap do wn to just two se c onds , and as they entered the pits at the end, the timekeepers c o uld not separate them . Aga in the Honda tea m did a mag nificent job in s e rvici ng Dun lop, getti n g hi m o ut a rou nd six seco nds quicker th an the Yama ha crew of J efferie s . At t h is p o int Jeffe ries mu st hav e been asking himself just what he ha d to do to beat this guy? The hypo- . thetica l question was quick ly to become irrelevant. Jefferies never made the first split tim e on lap five. His R1 had started to bellow smok e ea rly on in ·the la p, and h is machin e cr ie d e nou gh at Ball ig Bridge just eig ht m iles fro m the p its. A clutch ba sk et had blown and sm as he d the e ng ine casing . Du n lo p wo u ld be free to ride at his own pace from now on a nd ta ke an incredible 24 th TT victory. Rutt e r inhe rited second plac e , but he was now the bes t part of a minute beh ind Dun lop . Natu ra lly , Dunl o p d id wh a t was expecte d, a ltho ug h he didn 't alte r the pa ce that mu ch, ma inta in ing a mi nute 's advantaq e o ver Rutter by ra c e 's e nd . It has bee n a lon g t ime since th er e has be e n so mu ch emotion a nd e xcitem ent in a TT pa rc -ferme and it was into a e upho ric vict ory lane that Dun lop fina lly e me rged. "Inc redi b le, Joey , how did yo u do that? " someone asked . "I don't know," was the reply. At th is point we m arvele d at how cool Dunlo p appea red to be , altho ugh we s hou ld n't ha ve been s urp rise d . In his 24 yea rs of racing on th e Isle of Man , n o o ne co ul d reme m ber h im s howi n g a ny k ind o f e motio n . And here he was vic torious in one of the be st ra ce s in recent times com pletely unfluste red, elated or exci ted . Eventu a lly some words were coaxed from his smiling face . "It was hea vy work for six la ps on this thing, " he said . "It was a bit wor rying in th e early sta ges beca use it was qu ite damp in areas and I had a bad s lide on the first la p wh ich wok e me up a bit. David [J effe ries] pushed me all the way a nd it wa s a ve ry tig ht ra ce. Th is bike [the RC51] wa s fanta stic tod ay , th ou gh . Hond a bro ught it her e to do a job a nd it ha s done just that. " Mich a e l Rutt er m ainta ined second pla ce a nd wa s relieve d to finish. "I took a while to get into it to be ho nest," he sa id. "It was very slippery on the first lap a nd I had a co up le of slides whic h shook me up a bit. After that it was a case of just be ing stead y, although the b ike s tarted vib ra tin g badly on the last la p. I've got a heck of a hea da ch e now!"

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