This is just about the earliest shot I would put my name to now, it shows Joey coming in from an early morning practice session aboard his 750 V4 Honda.
A few interesting things to note here, this was taken at the end of the pit lane, unlike now when the riders go under the bridge and turn into Nobles Park, in 1984 they had to turn left by the armco and down through the winners enclosure into the paddock, also check out them knee sliders, more like ironing boards. During his Formula 1 race win of this year, Joey was forced to kick off a loose silencer, he remarked,
" I'd like to say say sorry to the two young lads who wanted to push me when I stopped after BraddanBridge.
I maybe told them to "go off" or words to that effect. It was all in the heat of the moment, they didn't realize I would be disqualified if I had accepted outside assistance. No hard feelings lads. anyway, you've got the burst tailpipe as a souvenir. I'll autograph it for you some time!"

 

 

Joey seen here at the Bungalow on his first outing on a 250 Honda on the Island.This was a prototype based on the Japanese road going machine. As far as I know, it was the first 250 that Honda had entered since Mike Hailwood's win in the 1967 Lightweight.(watch the e-mails flood in now) Unfortunately it expired during the last lap of the race with Joe holding onto second place.

 

 




 

Before the start of the 250 lightweight race, Joey is watched by Barry Symmons, Honda Britain team manager.
If Joey looks nervous it could be something to do with the fuel tank had sprung a leak as the bike was being warmed up in the paddock.
He made it TT win number six just the same, after race leader Brian Reid ran out of fuel at Hilberry on the last lap, just two miles home from the chequered flag.
It was Joey's first 250 win, and Honda's first ever 2-stroke victory at the TT.

 

 

 

 

 

This picture was taken at "Ago's leap" at the bottom of Bray Hill, back then it really was a leap with the faster guys getting fully airbourne. In 1986 it was flattened slightly to take out some of the sting after a fatal accident. Joey was the master at work here, especially on this photo. Front wheel kicked up so high that the road must be obscured from view, he kept it going like that for another 200 yards towards Quarterbridge. Watch the 1985 Man to Man TT review by Duke Video to see it for yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last lap of the Senior TT, with Joey just 17 miles from joining Mike Hailwood as only the second man to win three races in a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1986 RVF 750 at speed at Rhencullen, a bike which Joey supposedly didn't like, not that he'd have made a big fuss, Joe would just keep his head down and get on with the job.
During the Formula 1 World Championship hey-days, Joey never got to ride the same machine two years running.
Honda wheeled out new bikes every season, quite unlike the production based Superbikes which we are used to today. Joey had to content himself with just the single win in the Formula 1 for 1986.
A broken steering damper put paid to his Senior TT ambitions on the Friday, a race won by Roger " hairnet " Burnett on a 500 NS triple. Joey was later quoted " its got to be the 500 for future Senior TT's "

                                              

 

 

 

Getting ready for the Fomula 1 TT, staring hard down the road.World Championship points at stake.This was THE race of the week for Honda. A tense, serious atmosphere I don't think you witness at the TT since it lost it's Championship status.
Thankfully, everyone respected his space, no one but no one would bother Joey before the start of a race, not mechanics, not camera crews and certainly not photographers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joey waiting for the signal to start the Formula 1 on the NW6X.This was the race that would mark him down alongside Hailwood and Agostini's record of winning the same TT five times in a row. Dunlop found himself MINUS -3 to Phil Mellor on the Suzuki on the first lap at the 13th milestone.
That made him turn the wick up, so much so that by the end of the opening lap he turned Mellors advantage into a 21 second lead!. Going onto to win by nearly a minute.
Joey remarked at the finish "this time I had to go hard all the way. There were times on the fifth lap when I was heaving the thing about that I had to tell myself how old I was."
Remember this was in 1987......

 

 
 
Flat out after Brayhill.When ever I see this shot I always remember the noise. Starting at No 3, Joey would be leading on the road after the first couple of laps. Waiting with a camera at the ready, tucked in tight to a garden wall and With a radio within earshot, Grandstand commentator Peter Kneale would pick up the sound of the bike accelerating up Glenclutchery road... fourth gear, then fifth, just snicking into top as Joey disappeared under the bridge by Nobles Park. That is when you would just start to pick up the distant scream for your self, revs constant not rising or falling getting loader and loader.Then you would just pick up the sight of the machine way up at the top of Brayhill hugging the right hand kerb as it passes the school playing fields, the speed mind boggling.
Losing sight for about a second behind the canopy of trees the bike would burst into view almost clipping the kerb at the bottom, the noise deafeningas it bounces of the garden walls lining the road. Revs shoot up as the back wheel loses contact with the road, front wheel high in the air, a rush of wind on your face, then its over, and the sound fades to a distant as the King of the roads blips down through the box for the rapidly approaching Quarter Bridge. A religeous experience, that was actually frightening to watch, I tend not to go down there too often now, especially after poor Paul Orritts much seen get off from there in 1999.
 
 
Podium party, Joey celebrates his five in a row Formula 1 victory with second and third placed finishers Phil Mellor and Geoff Johnson. A very sad picture looking at it now, as all three have now passed away.
Mellor crashed in the 1989 production race at Dorans bend, and Geoff Johnson due to natural causes in 1993.

 

 

 

 

 

Villa Marina, Formula 1 prize presentation. Peter Kneale attempts to get a few words from Joey, and he did...a few!
The man did all his talking on the track.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 1987 Senior TT, possibly the worst weather conditions that a race has been run.
The previous year Joey had vowed to not run a 750 in the Senior, and he didn't back down, lining up for the delayed four lapper on his NS 500 Honda.
By the end of lap 1 Dunlop had a 26 second cushion over second placed Phil Mellor, but the Weather was closing in rapidly, torrential rain falling all around the circuit, and Joey was on intermediates.

 


 

 

 

 

Joey pitted for fuel at the end of lap two, he wanted to retire, the conditions were too bad.
The pit lane commentator was shouting he wants to stop, but some how the pit crew just pushed started the Honda triple, it fired back to life, and Joey was wheel spinning his way towards the top of Bray hill in a flume of spray.
This is where I was shooting from, about fifteen minutes later a camera crew came past on the way up to the Grandstand from Ago's leap.
This guy was saying that Joey had been very close to coming off when the rear end lost grip and snapped sideways, how did he stay on it?
Yet again, if you watch the "Action man" TT video review you can see just what he meant.
Yer maun controlled it perfectly before it got too far out of control, Mellor was less fortunate, sliding of the Suzuki at the  nook whilst trying to wipe his visor.

                    

 

 

Cold, wet and exhausted, but still smiling, Joey with manager Davey Wood. It was his tenth win, putting him alongside Agostini and Stanley Woods in the all-time TT wins.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joey has SIX appeal, sorry if that was a bit MCN-ish, but how better to describe the result from the Formula 1 TT, when Yer Maun, the undisputed King of the Roads, blasted his way into the record books. First rider to win six consecutive TT's in a row, a new outright lap record at 118.54mph and a new race record 8 seconds inside the previous best.
" I never thought it would be quicker than the RVF, but it was really hauling".
All this on a race kitted Honda RC30 "road bike", the first time in eight years Joey hasn't received full works tackle, but in this sort of form he didn't need it.

 

 

 

 

 

Win number twelve for Joey in the shortened four lap Junior TT.
A new lap record of 113.26 mph made him the first man under the 20 minute barrier on a 250.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr motivator is not a title normally attributed to Joey, but Steve Cull had to ride the race of his life in a struggle to over throw Dunlop in an epic Senior TT of this year.
Without doubt, one of the best races I have ever seen, Cull, mounted on Joeys old NS500 Honda, ping ponged the lap record between them on the first two laps," I knew Cull could give me a run. He's brave and quick and he dosn't abuse the bikes."

 

 

 

 

 

The record was broke by Joey on lap one to lead by 5 seconds, he did it again when they both stopped for fuel at the end of lap two, but Cull had upped the pace even more to a scorching all time high of 119.08mph, just 0.6 seconds off the sub 18 minute mark.
At Ballaugh he was ahead of Dunlop by a second, by the Bungalow Dunlop had clawed back the advantage to lead by two seconds.
That is when Cull holed an expansion chamber, he pressed on as hard as he could, but it all ended in tears or rather flames, as the sweet sounding Honda triple caught fire on the run from the Creg.
Joey wasn't pressed hard again, or could we would have seen the first 120mph lap a year early?
Lap records didn't seem to bother him, at the TT only race wins mattered, now thirteen to his credit, only one behind Mike Hailwood, and another treble win in a week.

 

 

 

 

The World SuperBike crash at Brands Hatch in April put paid to any hope of Joey riding in the 1989 TT.
He still managed a lap though, but only as pillion to Honda UK boss Bob Mcmillan.
"Terrifying! that was the first time I'd ever been a pillion passenger. " is how he described it.
The fans waved and cheered him round, Yer Maun would be back......

 

 

 

 

GO T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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