NorthWest200 road race 2008

[dabore84]

I watched the live stream on bbc NI. very exciting race. I've only watched super stock and super bikes.

 

And then that tragedy of Robert Dunlop... RIP.

[Martin Barrett]

I caught some of the highlights last night but

 

The whole event will then be covered by two hour-long highlights shows on BBC1 Northern Ireland. These programmes will also be availble behind the red button UK-wide (unfortunately this service is not available on Freeview).

You can catch them on Sunday, 18th May at 10.20pm & on Monday, 19th May at 9.00pm.

So those of you with prolevision don't have to scroll up through the adult channels (thats not why I missed most of last nights show) to find BBC1NI, So thats what what I'm doing tonight

[belfastguzzi]

I caught some of the highlights last night but

 

 

So those of you with prolevision don't have to scroll up through the adult channels (thats not why I missed most of last nights show) to find BBC1NI, So thats what what I'm doing tonight

Thanks Martin. You've reminded that I need to get home to watch this – I was going to start into something else at work here. I think there will be a feature on the life of Robert Dunlop in tonight's programme. I must record it.

 

Oh, apparently there is something on UTV right now, 8.00pm: probably on Robert Dunlop(?). If you can get UTV. Must go.

 

Michael Dunlop after that 250 win:

[belfastguzzi]

I caught some of the highlights last night but

 

 

So those of you with prolevision don't have to scroll up through the adult channels (thats not why I missed most of last nights show) to find BBC1NI, So thats what what I'm doing tonight

There's this too:

There will also be an hour-and-a-half long highlights programme on Sunday, 25th May, showing on Network BBC2

 

And the easy way to watch again is via the web on BBC iplayer, but you neeed to catch it in the next few days before it's taken off.

 

Robert Dunlop tribute.

>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00...on_pid=b00bymzp

Well worth watching. Good archive footage. If someone with a PC can record this and transfer to a dvd, let me know. I can't record it as BBC's Mac version of iplayer doesn't have the record facility.

 

Highlights part 1 (1 hour)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b00...on_pid=b00bfnrp

 

Highlights part 2 shown tonight, should be there soon.

Superstock was 'exciting'. 5 abreast on the road; on the dirt; over the grass hump...

[belfastguzzi]

Highlights of the races are on plain ordinary Great British tv on Sunday (25th May)

 

BBC2 12 noon

[belfastguzzi]

It's worth posting these two newspaper pieces from last week, because of the sympathetic, understanding perspective.

 

 

 

A family grieves, while legions honour a hero

 

It is at once the most optimistic and the most useless word in the language.

If Robert Dunlop had quit after his horrendous crash on the Isle of Man in 1994.

 

Or if he had kept his promise to retire in 2003, rather than return to the road the year after.

 

If his engine had not seized at 160mph on Thursday night and if Darren Burns had not been so hot on his heels that he had no time to avoid him as he lay on the road.

 

If. If all these things had happened, yesterday would have been a perfect day for Robert Dunlop.

 

He would have awakened with Louise in their Ballymoney home and pulled back the curtains to reveal the endless blue sky and puffy white clouds of a glorious May day.

 

And then they would have driven the few miles down the road to the little Presbyterian church at Garryduff, then gone out for Sunday lunch to celebrate with his son a double victory in the North West 200 on Saturday: Michael's first and Robert's 16th.

 

But none of those ifs happened and instead of standing with his son in the warm sun, Robert went to Garryduff instead to lie with his brother in the cold earth.

 

Yesterday afternoon the grass around Joey's grave whispered in the warm breeze as they came in their thousands to pay their respects, until the Ballymoney-to-Dunloy road was thick with people as far as the eye could see.

 

In the fields, on all sides, the chrome of motorcycles and the roofs of parked cars glittered for miles.

 

Just before 4pm, a pair of dark cars arrived and disgorged First Minister Ian Paisley, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley Jnr, a keen biker himself and one of the last people to speak to Robert before he died.

 

The funeral was due to start on the hour, but the crowds lining the road were so dense that it was 45 minutes later that the cortege finally hove into view.

 

A week ago, Louise Dunlop would have come to this church as Robert's wife. Yesterday she stepped out of a car as his widow, her face etched with pain as, barely able to stand with grief, she walked between the serried ranks of Ballymoney's councillors in all their finery, honouring the man who had been a freeman of the borough.

 

Behind her came May, the mother of Joey and Robert, her expression one of disbelief that she had now lost two of her three sons.

 

At last the simple church was full and ready to receive the body of Robert Dunlop, carried by his sisters Margaret and Helen and his sons William, Michael and Daniel, to the sound of the pipes of Billy Wade.

 

Behind them walked Robert's other sisters, Linda and Virginia, and Jim, now the last of the three Dunlop brothers and the only one who had retired from road racing while he still could.

 

The first to speak, Barry Symmons of Honda, said: "Robert couldn't be doing with all this sombre stuff. He'd prefer a few jokes and although I don't have any jokes today, I do have a story about how he arrived late for a meeting once, as usual, and someone said: 'Robert, in true Dunlop fashion, you'll be late for your own funeral'.

And he was.

 

“Motorcyclists are individual, free-thinking men and Robert was one of that family, so many of whom have turned up here today to honour their hero.

 

“And he was a hero. Not like the people who think being in Hello is important, or ignorant, overpaid footballers whose only example is starting fights, spitting and swearing.

 

“No, I’m talking about heroes like Robert’s son Michael, who raced to victory yesterday, less than two days after his dad died.”

 

Liam Beckett, Robert’s mechanic, produced that rarest of sounds at a funeral – laughter – with tales of he and Robert searching frantically for a suit in Macau after Robert won the road race there.

 

“He was more thrilled at having to get a medium jacket than he was at winning the race. ‘I’m a big man in Macau, LB’, he said.

 

“Another time he was in hospital in Italy after crashing in Monza, but he was desperate to get home so I started throwing clothes from his wardrobe into a duffel bag.

 

“The fella in the next bed, who was in an even worse state than Robert, started having a fit until it turned out what he was saying was that it was his clothes I was taking.”

 

He sat down and soloist Anne Smith took his place to sing Fleetwood Mac’s Songbird.

 

I listened outside on the grass, standing beside a headstone to Martha Anderson of Garryduff, who had died in 1882, aged 65; her husband John, who had gone in 1905 at 90; their son-in-law William James, in 1931 at 76, and his daughter-in-law Isobel, in 1985, at 79.

 

At least, I thought, they had been spared to die peacefully in their beds of old age.

 

Others, like Joey and Robert, had gone from life in the twinkling of an eye, in the time it takes for a tyre to lose its footing on a west Estonian road, or an engine to seize on the way to Mather’s Cross.

 

That is the knife edge that road racers live on, the risk of instant death that makes life all the sweeter.

 

And its loss all the more poignant for the many thousands of men and women who stood with their heads bowed outside Garryduff church yesterday and then, as the shadows lengthened towards evening, put on their helmets and rode home.

 

Glad to be alive and only sorry that they were leaving behind two of their kind, brothers who had once shone in the sun and now lay together in the cold, dark earth.

 

 

Funeral

 

There couldn't have been a more fitting tribute to Ulster racing legend Robert Dunlop than the feast exhilarating action served up at an emotional north coast on Saturday, topped by fairytale victory by son Michael in the 250 race.

In the wake of Robert's tragic death on Thursday night, the organisers called on riders, fans and officials to pull together to ensure the 2008 event was remembered as a fitting tribute to most successful rider ever to grace the high-speed Triangle circuit - and they didn't disappoint.

The road racing fraternity is often referred to as 'one big family' and never was this more apparent than on Saturday morning when news of the courageous decision taken by William Dunlop and his brother Michael left the watching masses in awe of the determination of Robert's two sons to give their hero father the perfect send off.

As the two-strokes machines left the starting grid on the warm-up lap and fans around the course spotted the two young Ballymoney riders out on the circuit, the tears began to well up.

Unfortunately for William, his machine expired and he was unable to start the four-lap race - but Michael rose to the occasion to claim a heart-wrenching maiden victory on the very circuit that was so often the theatre in which Robert performed his greatest feats.

Fighting back the tears, the 20-year-old said he hoped his dad "was proud of me." He revealed that he only decided to race on Saturday as a gesture of support to William, who had committed himself to taking part in the 250 event the previous day.

"I couldn't let William go out there and race on his own," Michael said. "It's great for a Dunlop to win. I wanted to do it for my dad and I did it.

"I found myself at the front and on the last lap I thought 'there's no point in stopping now.' I had my spot picked out and it worked," he added.

"I'm so proud and I want to thank everyone for their support. My dad was the best around here," he said.

The Ballymoney rider beat last year's winner, Christian Elkin, to the chequered flag, but the Macclesfield man was gracious in defeat and paid a glowing tribute to his rival.

"He was riding with his heart and you have t give it to him for riding out there after what happened to his father. We were both riding hard, but he got the better of me and fair play to him."

Isle of Man TT master, John McGuinness, finished third and he too acknowledged the bravery of the young Dunlop.

"My bike was good and the race could have gone either way. All three of us were riding hard but it was fantastic for Michael Dunlop to get the win and he thoroughly deserved it.

"Seeing all those fans waving their programmes all the way around the circuit is something that will stay in my mind forever."

Thousands attended Robert's funeral in Ballymoney yesterday afternoon.