Q
uick, can you name the
first American to lap
the Isle of Man at over
100 mph? Nine out of 10 of you
probably failed to mention Dave
Roper, the classic racer known
best for his races on Team
Obsolete Matchless G50s, AJS
7Rs and maybe even the 350cc
Aermachi.
But Roper has done "the
ton" on the infamous mountain
course. And he's done it more
than once—and first, at least
among the American riders who
have waged battle there.
"Our best year at the TT must
have been in '84, when I won
the Historic TT," Roper recalls. "I
did, like, 97 mph or something.
I did do a 100-mph lap, but not
in winning the Historic race. I
also rode Formula Two that year
on a TT2 Ducati—a belt-drive,
air-cooled, two-valve Ducati. I
did a 102-mph lap on that bike,
but in the race, I ground the shift
lever in Glen Helen and folded it
back and upshifted into fifth and
then realized I couldn't downshift
it. I did the rest of the lap in fifth
gear, including Ramsey Hairpin
and Governor's Bridge."
That year, 1984, was the first
and only time that a Historic race
was held at the TT and Roper
won. (In previous years, and ev-
ery year since, the classic bikes
are raced only in the Manx Grand
Prix in September and not the
more meaningful TT races that
are held annually in June.)
"A lot of people get signals to
tell them where they were and
so forth, so you'd have someone
out at the Gooseneck, let's say,
giving you signals," Roper says.
"They would be with a radio and
following the commentary, and
they would signal you where you
were. I didn't want any signals
because I didn't want to know
that I was a couple of seconds
behind and would push harder
than I should have. Or, alter-
natively, that I was 30 seconds
ahead and would goof off. I just
wanted to ride my own race at
my own pace. But on the second
lap, I started getting signals from
people. Now, you have to take
that with a grain of salt, because
there was talk of your competi-
tion giving you disinformation, so
I tried to ignore the signals I was
getting. Then, on the last lap, all
CN
III ARCHIVES
P132
BY PAUL CARRUTHERS
THE
ROPE
AND THE
ISLE
