Fifty years ago… the summer of ’76 — the heatwave, petrol at 76 a gallon, Barry Sheene and James Hunt winning world championships on two and four wheels. Punk rock was on its way to shake up the establishment and one J. Dunlop was about to make his debut at the Isle of Man TT races. Bertie Simmonds reports…
Or rather “William Joseph Dunlop” (still known as ‘Joe’ rather than ‘Joey’). He first entered the Isle of Man TT races as a scrawny and scruffy 22-year-old that year. His Manx Grand Prix in 1975 to help Mervyn Robinson (who was married to Joey’s sister Helen) and returned home with the aim of convincing Joey to give the TT a try the following year.
Joey had first raced on the Isle of Man in 1975, but not on the TT course. Instead, he made his Manx debut on the 4.25-mile Billown Circuit during the Southern 100. Although he wasn’t known on the Isle of Man when he made his TT debut in 1976, Joey’s star was already on the rise in his native Northern Ireland, where he had been racing for seven years.
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In 1976 he won the 500cc Irish Championship. He was also unbeaten in every race he entered at Mondello Park in Southern Ireland and took wins at Tandragee, Fore, the Skerries, Aghadowey, Kirkistown and Dundrod. He’d end the year with a ‘Best Rider’ trophy for the season’s efforts.
Turning up at the TT rather late, meant that Joey couldn’t do much in the way of preparation. Instead, he was simply left to his own devices, as he later recalled: “It was wet, and I rode a 250, and I never went into the course before, even in a car, and I didn’t know where to go. I remember coming up to Ballacraine and I didn’t know whether to turn left, right, or go straight ahead.”
Joey would slow down and wait for another rider to pass him, then would follow him for as long as he could before flagging on to another rider. He would also complete lap after lap of the course in a hire car at night.
In the races proper, Joey would take 16th in the Junior 350 race, an event won by Chas Mortimer, and 18th in the Senior. More than good enough to persuade him to return the following year… if you want to read the full story then you need to see Island Racer 2026…
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