Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ ROAD RACE Isle of Man IT ~ Reid also won the JW1ior TT on his Yamaha Tl25O; here he's pictured at Quarterbridge. Nick Jeffries was second in the 600cc class, but he set the fastest lap at 117.01 mph. Junior TT 20 Brian Reid scored his second TT victory of the week when he clinched the four-lap Junior race by 3.2 seconds from Steve Hislop with a dramatic charge from the 32nd milestone at Windy Corner on the finill.lap. Reid led the race from, the start and saw his healthy eight second lead cut to four seconds when the Loctite Yamaha refused to chime in on, two cylinders after the second lap pit stops. Undeterred, Reid got back in the groove and chased down leaders-onthe-road Robert Dunlop and Ian Lougher and by the end of lap three was nearly eight seconds clear of Hislop again. , But Hislop was now charging on his box-stock Padgett Yamaha (which had come out of the crate for the first time in practice week), and by the time they had sped through Ramsey (25th milestone), Hislop was 0.26 seconds in front on corrected time and still had his favorite mountain section to come. But Reid responded to the challenge. He got a minus one second signal at Windy Corner (taken from the Ramsey time checks) and rode like a man possessed the last five miles to secure a long overdue TT race win for the Loctite Yamaha team. For Reid it was a first ever Junior TT win, an event he crashed out of last year at Handley's, breaking his wrist and arm. "I've been trying to win this race for years," said Reid. "In 1985 I led Joey Dunlop by over five seconds then ran out of fuel. In 1986 it seized and threw me off at Ballaugh. Then last year I was in contention when I crashed at Handleys. While I was in hospital, I made my mind up to quit the TT after that but here I am again. I've never come down the mountain so quick in my life. I think Steve (Hislop) was a little surprised." Hislop was surprised. And never before had he looked so dejected after a race. He felt he had done enough on the last lap to win and was indeed shocked when Reid had ridden the last section quicker. "I took too long to get into' it again," he said. "But I was trying on the last two laps and went into Keppel too deep and brushed the bank. I thought I was' quick enough dow'n the mountain but obviously I wasn't. Oh well, I've always wanted to win the Junior. I've been trying for years but it's not my turn again. If I ever come back here, this will be the only race I'll bother with." Robert Dunlop was third, Stephen Johnson took fourth and 1990 winner ,Ian Lougher was fifth. Supers:port 600 There was no stopping Phillip McCallen as he rocketed to his second TT win of the week aboard his Castrol Honda CBR600. He got off to a tremendous start with a 116.17 mph lap, smashing the lap record from his standing start. On the final lap, with a 41 second lead in the bag, he relaxed his pace and allowed Hislop to cut the gap to 22 seconds. Hislop's last lap was turned at an electrifying 117.01 mph on street legal tir,est But it was always going to be another runner-up spot for Hislop after a slow getaway had left him back in fourth place at the end of the first lap, some 19 seconds down on the leader. McCallen said, "I was just worried about pushing it too hard and blowing the thing up. I had a few bounces and wobbles here and there, the suspension' was not quite as well set up as it could have been - I bet there were a few spectators jumping back outof the way when I went past. But on that last lap I knew there was no way Steve could get back that time. Hislop quipped, ''I'm quite getting used to second placel I think I'm riding too many bikes and it's taking me time to get into it each race. The motor felt lazy for the first couple of laps but it seemed to chime in." Steve Ward, Nick Jefferies, Bob Jackson completed the top five. All rode Hondas. Best Yamaha finisher was Johnny Rea who survived a 'Scary last lap with the front brake lever coming back to the bar. For Ward, a 36-year-old veteran of the TT (his first mountain course ride was back in 1975 in the Manx GP), the third place ride equalled his previous TT best. "It was a last minute ride," he admitted. "I entered the race but had no bike then Steve'Ives had to drop out due to injury and I took over his Magic Wheels Honda. I never . saw it before the TT but it's been perfect. I had no problems apart from flies on the visorl" American Tom Montano, aboard a Yamaha FZR600, finished 25th at an average speed of 102.62 mph. Senior TT Steve Hislop gave Norton their first Senior TT win in 31 years after a fantastic race-long scrap with Loctite Yamaha's Carl Fogarty. The battle between the pair put the rest of the competitors in the shade, Ro~ert Dunlop taking the second Norton to third place almost two minutes adrift. Fogarty set the initial pace, but Hislop, having softened off the front suspension, raised the seat by increasing the padding and fitting a higher fairing screen, felt much more comfortable on the machine, and gradually got into the groove to take a two second lead at Ramsey on the second lap. "It was a spectator who put me right in the end," said Hislop. "This guy came up to me and said it looked like I was trying too hard in the first couple of laps of the other races. So this time I was determined to relax more and concentrate on some smooth laps. That's the secret of the TT, a smooth flowing rhythm." But the Norton rider saw his three second advantage at the Grandstand turn into a five second deficit after the Norton team opted to change the rear Michelin while Fogarty's team decided to keep the same Dunlop rubber. Hislop's tire change was a precautionary measure rather than necessity after he had lost a chunk of tread during Saturday's race. The first round of pit stops also marked the retirement of two of the Castrol Hondas, Saturday's TT FI winner McCallen with a holed radiator and Joey Dunlop, who retired feeling dizzy and sick" possibly going down . with a stomach bug. Hislop clawed back in front only to lose more time in his second pit stop, at the end of. the fourth lap. While Fogarty stopped only for gas, opting to run the full six laps on the same tire; Hislop lost time when it took three attempts to re-fit the filler cap. But there was no stopping Hislop once he re-joined the race. He clawed back in front and held a six-second lead going into, the final lap and even a new outright lap record from 'Fogarty, 123.61 mph, was not enough to prevent Hislop and Norton scoring the most memorable TT victory of modern times. "It's great to win it for Norton," said Hislop. "It is probably my last TT ride so it's nice to have won on a British bike. When I first saw the Norton project I knocked it like everyone else, but this year I started to get interested in what they were doing and now that I've worked with Barry Symmons and his team, I've got to say I'm impressed with their professionalism. "I tried to ride smoother today. The, bike handled superb, ~he changes we made really worked well. Mtertalking to Trevor Nation the other night, he told me to knock the tickover right' back to prevent it running on into the corners. That worked a treat. It felt like a steady ride after Saturday's race! And there was no problem with overheating this time. The engine ran 80 degrees all race. On Saturday it was over 90 degrees and threatening to overheat all race. "My only moment in the race came on the fourth lap. Someone had crashed at Hillberry and there was oil everywhere. There were no flags out then and I nearly lost the front end ... Oh, and I nearly lost it at St. Ninians (crest of hill jump at Bray Hill which causes the front end to rocket skyward!) after a tire change. I used to take that flat out on the RVF there's no way you can on the Norton. I had to roll it off. They could do with removing the bump there!" Fogarty didn't seem disappointed to finish second. After logging his firstever TT lap record, and what a landmark at that, he joked, "Just call me the fastest man ever around the TT course." Putting on a more serious face, he added, "The bike wasn't really quick enough. I went hard from the start but we had a problem in the FI race with the rear wanting to sit down. It got worse this time and kept trying to flick me off. And every time it went lockto-lock, it would knock the pads back. I was having to pump the brakes real hard to get anything. I arrived at Quarterbridge one lap with absolutely no brakes- and then we lost some top end speed when the exhaust broke on the fifth lap." Robert Dunlop was third, completing a great day for Norton, Nick Jefferies claimed fourth, his fourth such placing of the week and Loctite's Mark Farmer took his second fifth place on tpe OWOL Kiwi Robert. Holden completed the top six after a great ride on the Tillston's Yamaha. ClassicTT Alex George, a former TT and Manx GP winner, :won the big race of the Classic TT races on the 4.25 mile Billown circuit on the outskirts of Castletown at the southern tip of the island. Riding an 850cc Triumph Trident, he fought off a tough challenge from Asa Moyce and Trevor Reid. The race marked a unique 1-23 for-BSA-Triumph tuner John Sims. Bob Heath won the 500cc race riding a Seeley. The meeting was marred by the death of 43-year-old Roger Allen. He was involved in a three-bike 'collision during the Vintage race. Sidecar TT Thirty-four-year-old Geoff Bell and ,38-year-old Keith Cornbill dominated the two Sidecar races with their Yamaha FZR600-powered Jacobs outfit. They scored their first-ever TT victory in fine style on Saturday afternoon with new lap and race records, hoisting the one-lap record to 102.54 mph and completing the three lap race at 101.50, faster than Mick Boddice's 1991 lap record! On Monday, the race was run at almost identical pace, 101.49 mph, but this time Bell annihilated the opposition by storming to a 33-second victory. For Boddice, hoping to create a new 'IT record of 10 Sidecar TT wins', the meeting was a disappointment, with third and second places. In the first race, his Castrol Honda CBR600 was slowed by overheating. On Monday, the bike ran clean and Boddice admitted the best crew won on the day. CN

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