Joey Dunlop exhibition a must see during MGP and Classic TT.

An exhibition commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the great man’s untimely death and celebrating his achievements in the TT Races was opened in the Mercury Club at the TT Grandstand this morning. His former team mate John McGuinness shared some stories of racing with Joey. To this day John seems to be in awe of Joey; amazing from a man who has won 23 TTs himself. John has included in the exhibition the purple Vimto fairing from the Honda SP1 that Joey rode in the Senior TT of 2000; his final race on the hallowed 37.73 miles of the Mountain Course. Joey did not win this race; he was second (to DJ) and set his fastest ever lap of 123.87mph on the 6^th lap.

In 2000 completed his third hattrick of wins; he won both the Lightweight 125cc and 250cc races to take his total to 26 wins. His finest hour came in the first race of the meeting; the Formula 1. His factory Honda SP1 had been suffering from seemingly incurable handling and lack of power problems all week. In a final throw of the dice; to try to rectify the handling issue; the front wheel from a 250cc machine was inserted. To resolve the lack of power issue; the engine was taken from Aaron Slight’s WSB machine and flown to the island. The reaction of the Honda factory mechanics to the sight of a grey haired 48 years old rider is the stuff of legend.

Fate seemed to be against joey; the final practice session gave us thick mist on the mountain section and damp patches on all of the lowland sections. It seemed inevitable that the session would be cancelled. Clerk of the Course, Neil Hanson, had other ideas; he made the decision to allow the riders to go at their own pace to Ramsey; from where they would be escorted over the mountain by the travelling marshals. This decision allowed Joey the opportunity to test the handling at almost full pace on the lowland sections and to give the engine full beans on Cronk y Voddy. Satisfied with the outcome; Joey duly lined up on Saturday and, as John McGuinness said, gave everyone a lesson in how to ride in the challenging conditions that the race was faced with. Honda regard this as the finest win of all for a Honda machine; what an accolade, to be placed above Hailwood, Doohan and Rossi.

There is much priceless memorabilia to see in the exhibition; I will not give away anything else; if you are on the island, you must go and soak up the nostalgia.