Family Tradition at the Isle of Man

Last week was the annual festival of insane speed on small country roads known as the Isle of Man TT, and Michael Dunlop did the memory of his famous uncle Joey proud. He won four of the feature events, missing by one the incredible 2010 record of Ian Hutchinson.

The major event he missed out on – and in which he was second by only 10 seconds after six laps of the 357 km race – went to genial beer-drinking, meat-pie-loving John McGuinness, who took the Senior event, the last race of the week.

The 40-year-old racer, who’s constantly kidded about his weight and conditioning, says he feels ‘as sharp as ever’ following his sixth victory in the Senior, to put him one victory away from Mike Hailwood’s Senior TT tally of seven victories in the historic race.

Dunlop, who had an incredible week with his four wins, after breaking race and lap records on his way to four wins in the Superbike, Superstock and Supersport races, had no complaints. “It was a good, enjoyable race and John rode lovely so fair play to him. I had him in sight early on and there wasn’t much between us but I got held up a bit by backmarkers, catching them at the wrong times, and I lost a bit of time there and at the pit stops.

“No excuses though, the bike was mint and I’m going home with four wins and a second place so I can’t complain with how my week’s gone.”

All those wins, by the way, went to Hondas, as Dunlop has joined McGuinness on the Honda Legends team, racing together both on the open roads and in World Endurance competition.

McGuinness also ended the 2013 TT as the fastest rider ever around the iconic circuit following a lap at a staggering 131.671mph (211.8 km/h) on his way to third position in the Superbike race.

The other solo race wins went to James Hillier in the Lightweight class on a Kawasaki 650, and Michael Rutter in the TT Zero (electric) class on a MotoCzysz.