CLOSE CALLS. Once upon a time, Joey Dunlop astride his souped up Honda Britain machine came roaring around a bend in the Isle of Man TT races at a speed approaching 150 miles an hour and spied an elderly marshal bending down, in the middle of the road, to pick up a piece of paper.
"I went around like a bullet. If he'd moved, I would have buried him," recalls Dunlop. "I didn't even get the chance to slow up. He never even saw me"
Life is like that for the kings of the road. Dangerous Dunlop, one of the living legends of Irish sport, knows all about it. Every time he whizzes around the Manx roads, his mind subconsciously remembers friends, like Mark Farmer, who died in pursuit of TT glory.
This week, the 44 year old Ballymoney man watched that tragic spot every time he sped past on his own quest for further glory. And, while Dunlop was forced to accept the runners up spot behind fellow Ulsterman Philip McCallen in yesterday's `blue riband' Senior event, his earlier wins in the 125 and Lightweight classes bringing his career total of Isle of Man TT wins to a record 21 ensures him a permanent place in the annals of the sport.
Ever since entering his first race on a Tiger Cub as a teenager, Dunlop has been to the fore of road racing. Twenty seven years at the top. Five times Formula One world champion. Twenty one times a TT winner, the most successful ever in the history of the famed Isle of Man tests. Still winning, still enjoying the thrill of battle.
He's had his share of close calls. Like Brands Hatch, in 1989. They said he would never race again after that one. Broken legs and broken wrists don't tell the full story. When they flew him home to Belfast, the medics had to "re break" his wrist to get it to bend and work again.
"I still have to work on my wrist right to this day... but they say once I stop working on it, it will seize up and go solid."
They said he would never race again, back then.
When Dunlop won the Ulster Grand Prix the following year, in 1990, he punched the air as he cross the finishing line. The first time ever he raised his fist.
Joey was back!
He's been winning races ever since, the latest entries to the curriculum vitae being delivered in the Isle of Man TTs over the past few days. It is his favourite place. In a recent interview, he told Road Racing Ireland. "I think I would probably go back to the TT even for a couple of years after I stop all the other road races.... I've actually started to enjoy racing was the TT like never before."
Dunlop, however, has no intentions of retiring from the sport he loves just yet. There are more races to be won more things to achieve.
Ironically, the scariest moment of all for Joey Dunlop came away from the road, when his boat went down in Strangford Lough some years ago. His instincts, as usual, came to the fore.
But there is a life away from the track, one of them being his charity work. Dunlop who keeps a red bible on his shelf in the garage has led mercy missions to Bosnia and Russia, driving truckloads of provisions to those far less fortunate.
When he made his second trip to Bosnia last year he did so without a map, remembering every twist and turn from his first visit. Just like on a raceway. Yet, he jokes. "I could sit down and go through every single bend on the Isle of Man in my head, but telephone numbers are different. I can't even remember my own phone number at times."
Such mercy missions show the other side of Joey Dunlop. But, as events in the Isle of Man TT races this week confirmed, it is for his road racing exploits that the Ballymoney man continues to find a special place in the hearts of all sports fans, not just in Ireland, but across Britain and around the world.
