Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

2 000 Is le 'o f Man TT (Left) Dunlop was all smiles - all week. (Above) Boy scouts show their colors. .JUNIOR 600cc TT " It' s n ev er easy round h ere," sa id Dunl op . " I'll admit the bi k e ran p erf ectl y a ll ra c e . I k new b y the t im e I second advantage over Robert at the end of th e f irst lap. It w as a s close as a nyone ca me as M cCull ough notched g ot t o th e bottom of Bray Hill o n t he f i rs t la p [ ab out a half m ile fr o m the sta rt ] and the b ik e w as o n. T h at gave me th e co n fi de nce to go ve ry hard quite early in the race. It' s qu ite ti ring o n a 12 5 ro un d he re though beca use you h ave to b e tucked in for such a lo ng t im e." M c C u ll o u gh overcame t h e c h a lle nge fo r second p lace from Ro be rt Dunl o p early in th e race. O nly a sec on d covered McCulloug h , Rober t up h is th ird TT ru n ner up sp ot . "I enjoyed th e race b ut th er e wa s no stopp i ng J o e y ," sai d M c Cu ll ough . "I Dunlo p an d another Irishman , Darra n Lind s a y, for th e fi rst h a l f l a p , but McC u llough h ad established an eig ht - ca n 't fault t he b ike . I had a good dice o n the roads wi th [Darran ] Lindsay for m o st of th e rac e wh ich w as good fu n ." Robert Dun lo p didn ' t h av e o ne of h is most m em orable TT r ides, in this a c lass he has won fo ur times himself, but st ill h e clai med the fina l podium spot. " It was down to m e, I just wasn 't quick enough on the day, " explained Dun lop j r. "T he bike ran well enough , like a d ream ac tually." The entry for the first n of the 2 1st Century was much the same as the last of the 20th . There were no new stars entered, and the main worry was the lack of professional riders the event is now attractin g. The F1 and Senior races would be the main highlights. Honda eventually found the enthusiasm to get back their F1 tro phy in partic ular after losing out for the first time in 17 years to new n star David Jefferies and Yam aha in 1999. Honda Britain and their affiliate team, Paul Bird Motorsport . suppl ied a fleet of machines for Joey Dunlop. John McGuiness, out right lap recor d holder J im Moodie, and lain Duffus. Dunlop and McGuiness would risk their lot with the new RCS1s while Moodie and Duffus were to make do with tuned CBR929s. Dunl op pointed out to Honda's hierarc hy that if they really wanted to beat Yamaha this year they would need something a bit more special than the standard m achin es used by James Toseland in the British Superbik e Championship. Seeing his point, the Honda chiefs agreed to send Aaron Slight's spare World Superbike engine for Dunlop to use. Yamaha was back in force and confident of giving it to Honda again. David Jefferies again led the team, but with Duffus'. defection to Honda, form er Millar Grand Prix man Micha el Rutt er was the V&M team's number two. Yamaha was expected to have a couple of quick privateers as well. Ian Lougher aboard hector Neill 's hybr id 'R71' (an R1 engine housed in an R7 fram e) was expected to shine, while Welshm an Nigel Davies also had high hopes of his Yamaha 'R7 1'. Another Welshman, Jason Griffiths, also had a quick pri vately entered R J. . Suzuki and Kawasaki were notable by their official absences, altho ugh the latter had two good 'private entries for Gordon Blackley and New Zealander Blair Degerholm. Not only is the quantity of real quality riders waning with each passing year, the lack of real officia l manufact urer-based teams adds to the grow ing concern surround ing the futur e of the event (as expressed previously in these pages). Even Honda's effort thi s year seemed somewhat low key - did they really expect Dunlop and Moodi e to mount a serious challenge on CBR-based m achines in the Superbike races? Only Dunlop 's alleged vociferous clamor for a more competitive mac hine persuaded them at the last minute to up the ante somewhat - thankfully , for Honda, it paid off. Suzuki's approach to the n remains puzzling. Part of the hype around this year's event was the supposed celebration of Suzuki racing at the event for 40 years · yet where was the race team? Nowhere in sight was the answer. Sure Suzuki pulled out all the m arketing stops with the Suzuki tented village and they sponsored the Bushy's beer tent on Douglas prom (corporate hospitality took on a new m eaning here!) , yet not one offic ially backed rider appeared in the whole event. The classic parades are of param ount im portance to the n marketers these days and we had two of them again in 2000 . Once mor e Suzuki's response was puzzling. As a supposed part of their 40-year 'celebratio ns' they sent out about 12 bik es of various vintag e for the cursory lap of honor on Monday of race week. Two of the bikes and riders were worth waiting for, these being Mick Grant and Graeme Crosby aboard 1980-typ e Formula One and 500 RG specification m achines respecti vely. The remainder of the Suzuki contl ngent was fairly nondescript to say the least. . An interesting element of the parade was backed by Benelli and featured our illustrious editor who was aboard a fanciful looking Benelli street bike of some vintage. The star of the Benelli parade was Kel Carruthers, who was reunited with the factory with which he won his first n (and only World Championship ) some 31 years a go. Carruthers rode the magnificent looking Tornado Triple with which Benelli hopes to soon be competing in World Superbike. 34 JUNE 28 , 2000 ' C " C • e nevvs This ev ent wa s expected to proba b y be the closest of t he week. Ho nd a had a fle et of very competitive CBRs for M oodie , Du ffus, not t o mention that ch ap wh o had already won a few races during th e week called Du n lo p . W hi l e Ya m a h a w a s lo o ki n g f or rev en ge for t hei r defeat in the Formu l a One race . T h e V &M t eam h ad es ta bli shed re g u la rs J effe ri e s a nd Michael Rutter, and for go od m easure t hey d rafted i n L ou gh e r , wh o was beginning to forge a st ro ng reputati on fo r his perfor ma nces o n th e l a rg e r c ap aci t y mach ines. Atop th e pra ctic e leader board , h ow ev er , h a d b e en U lsterma n A d ri an Archi bald , ridi ng for burn o ut in parc-ferme highlighted th e p le asure of J effer ies and Yamaha to be ba ck in v ictory lan e . " I j ust w ent for it f rom the start, " sa id an elat ed Jefferies. " I was really di sa p po inted after Sat urday 's F l race and 1 j ust wa nted to get a w in under m y belt here. The bike and Pirelli ti res were fantast ic." Archiba ld w as as eq ually delighted with second place , his b est ev er TT fin ish . He broke t he c lass reco rd o n t he la st lap fo r good m ea su re'. "I' m ve ry p l e a sed t o b e o n t he p odium ," he sai d. " It's a bonus to get t he lap re co rd t oo . I k new I was ca t c hing h im (Jeffe ries) b ut I was co ming from to o far b ack . I d on 't really know y et why I wa s so far behind on th e first two laps . I really w ent fo r it from the sta rt, I h ad n o m oments t o sp eak o f so it' s a bit of a m ys ter y ." Lo ughe r was a f in e t hi r d o n th e o ne of Honda ' s affilia te t ea m s, Colin Dowd Raci n g . T he condi ti o ns we re t he best of th e week as th e race was fl ag g ed away . J efferies was in the g rove im med iate ly , estab lis hi ng a four - seco nd l e a d over Dunlo p afte r 2 0 m iles . Lougher ' s second V&M b ik e. " I thought I'd b lo wn a podi u m spot as 1 ran across fi ve o r six ba c kmark ers o n t ha t l ast l a p , " said L ough er. " I' m g la d I h eld o n bec aus e th e b ike i n cl u sio n in the V&M tea m seeme d justified , as h e lay th ird a head of Brit i sh Cham p io ns h i p se ries lea de r Moodie. week." Dunl o p wa s an ex ha u ste d fo urth . " I' m w o rn o ut, " sai d Dunlo p . " A ft er J ef f er i es co ntin ue d t o pu ll away slowly fro m his pu rsu ers fo r th e n ext t hree q ua rters of a lap , an d halfwa y a roun d the second la p fe lt confident to p u sh ha rd er. B y th e ha lf di stan c e pit sto ps th e Yam aha man see med to h a v e th e r a c e in t he b a g as h e le d D unlo p b y 16 second s. Loug her was still th ir d , but Archi bald , aft er a slow sta rt , was c losing fa st , ju st two sec onds back. T he pit stops passed witho ut major in ci d ent, alt hough Dunlop did begin t o and team h a v e b e e n f an t a st i c a l l this morn i ng's 12 5 r ac e I a m ab sol utel y sh atter ed . I gave it everyth ing I had in th e race, bu t I just di d n 't hav e eno ugh in th e end ." PROOUCT ION TT The bad weath er tha t had don e it s b est to d isrupt th e TT fo r a third co nsecutive year. Hea vy rain prev ailed all o ver the Island o n Frid ay and ultimate ly it led t o th e organi zers fi nally ge tt ing t he Pr od uctio n r ace un d er w ay fiv e an d a h alf hours lat er than sch eduled . The r a c e d ista nce was re d uced fr om t hree to tw o l a p s a nd w a s a pull a little bac k ea rly o n the thi rd lap. How ev er , a n u nprecedented fo u rth cons ec ut ive win ,w as beginn ing to fade com plete d a m p sq uib o f a n e vent. a s th e 48 -yea r -old ve teran began to tire ( h e had adm itted that he was sh att e r ed f oll ow ing th e m orni ng ' s 125 cc ra c e whi ch fini sh ed just 50 J efferies won at a ca nter aboa rd th e Chesterfie ld Mo torcycles e nte re d Yam aha Rl fin ish in g ov er 5 0 seconds ah ead of l ocal Man x rider Ri cha rd minutes before th e 600s were flagged off) , and by the end of the th ird lap he ' ha d slipped to fourth behind th e now fly ing A rchibald and Lougher. A rchibald now b eg an to t ake th e c ha l le n g e to J e ff e ri es . Tr a i lin g th e Engli shm an b y 16 seco nds early on lap three, th e Irish contender was j us t seve n seco nds b eh ind as th e d uo p assed Ra msey fo r th e fi na l ti me. It w as J efferies , h o w ev er , w ho was t o h old o n t o w i n b y nin e sec o n d s . A Q ua yle, w h o was arguabl y t he ma n of th e ra ce in c laim ing a podi um position in t h is his first full TT meeting . Th e fact that n obod y lapped a t over 100 mph during th e race h ig h lighted the awf u l c o nd iti o n s t h at th e riders had to contend with . W hile nat urall y h app y a t gaining h i s f ifth TT vi cto ry in tw o yea rs J e ff er i e s appea re d t o dep lore the conditio ns that th e race was h eld in . " It w a s wh ee l s pi n all the wa y ," ,

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