MOTOR CYCLING - NORTH WEST 200: Alastair McCooklooks ahead to one of the great motorbike festivals and profiles Robert Dunlop, the flagbearer for a fabulous road-racing dynasty.
THE ANNUAL running of the North West 200, the unrivalled highlight of the Irish motorcycle road-racing season, takes place on Saturday.
The event annually attracts over 150,000 fans, who pack the 8.9-mile closed public-roads circuit that links Coleraine with the north coast seaside towns of Portrush and Portstewart and is one of the fastest race tracks in Europe.
The setting is dramatic, and very, very fast. The circuit is roughly triangular and includes three long, bumpy straights where bikes have reached speeds of over 200mph.
In between there are two of the most frightening corners in road racing, Mathers Cross and Cromore, both negotiated at sensational speed.
On the coast road that links Portrush and Portstewart speeds nudge past 160mph as they ride shoulder to shoulder between the kerbs with the cliff tops only feet away to the right and the Atlantic ocean booming below.
The entire length of the 8.9-mile circuit that the fast men lap in a whisker over four minutes and 20 seconds is lined with houses, kerbs, grass banks, walls, trees and lampposts. There are no soft landings at the North West 200.
Generation after generation of racing heroes, men like Stanley Woods, Ernie Lyons, Artie Bell, Tom Herron and Joey Dunlop, have made the heart beat a little faster and claimed their places among the immortal names of the sport.
The modern-day road racers, like those who came before them, will stake everything in their quest for glory, for their own place in the history books.
Robert Dunlop's first North West 200 victory came in 1986, and in the years since then he has brought his total number of wins on the Triangle circuit to 15.
He is in his early 40s now, with strands of grey running through the hair that was once jet black. He is small, almost frail, and the legacy of the injuries his slight frame has suffered is clear to see.
He is the most successful rider in the history of Ireland's biggest race. Robert Dunlop is the North West 200's favourite son.
Robert Dunlop made his road racing debut in 1979, following in the footsteps of his by then already famous elder brother, Joey.
In the following years the Dunlops would carve a special place in the affections of the legions of fans who adored them but always compared the achievements of one to those of the other. The two were very different.
Joey, famously laid back, turning up in the race paddock with minutes to spare before a race in a scruffy fleece and jeans and then producing a devastating performance on the track.
Robert, immaculately turned out, always available to the press, polite and precise while his brother remained a man of few words who never lost his broad North Antrim accent and avoided journalists like the plague.
The crowds adored Joey Dunlop as success followed success in a career that was the stuff of legend.
While Joey willingly helped his younger brother with the use of bikes, leathers, helmets and advice, he also cast a long shadow and it took Robert years to emerge from it and establish himself as a first-class road racer in his own right.
By 1994 Robert Dunlop was at the top of his game. Career highlights included a successful spell as a works rider with the JPS Norton team and a British 125cc title.
At the North West 200 that year he ran rampant, taking an emphatic hat-trick of victories.
Robert Dunlop had the world at his feet, but what happened next left his world in ruins.
During the 1994 Formula One TT, held a few weeks after the North West 200, the rear wheel on his RC45 Honda Superbike broke up and collapsed as he accelerated through the main street in Ballaugh village.
He was thrown like a rag doll into a stone wall at over 130mph.
His injuries were almost overwhelming and have required over 20 operations to mend the broken bones, nerves, muscle and tissue that were severed and ripped apart.
People said he was finished, that he would never recover, would never be able to overcome the psychological impact of what had happened. But he did come back, broken but unbowed.
Less than two years after the crash that wasn't his fault but almost finished him, Robert Dunlop made his comeback at the 1996 Cookstown 100 road races in County Tyrone.
In the early days of his return race organisers were reluctant to take the risk of letting Dunlop haul his broken body onto a racing bike and cut loose on their race tracks. They said he wasn't fit and denied him entries. Dunlop immediately mounted and won a tenacious legal battle that saved his career.
"I don't feel sorry for myself," he says. "I was a good rider but I don't think I had reached my peak. I could look back and say if that hadn't happened I could have been this, I could have been that. But things happen in life. There are a lot of people a lot worse off than me; there are children dying of hunger. I have nothing to complain about."
Still bearing the scars of his big crash he was soon winning again. By 1998 he was back on the Isle of Man to claim an emotional victory in the Ultra Lightweight TT. Life was good again.
Joey Dunlop's death after a racing crash in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on July 2nd, 2000, was a devastating blow. People expected Robert would pack in racing after Joey's death.
Opinion was that for his family's sake he should stop. But he didn't.
On the track the Dunlops were fierce rivals but off it they remained close allies. He mourned in private but kept on doing what he loved.
"People don't realise how passionate I am about my racing," he told me. "It's not a sport for me; it's my whole life; it's all I know and have ever done."
That passion that drove Robert Dunlop on through the hard times was rewarded with his 15th North West 200 win in 2006. In front of his delirious fans Dunlop snatched victory in the final yards of the 125cc race.
It was just like the old days again. Except the man whose words of congratulations would have meant most to Robert was not there any more.
"I enjoy racing, I get a buzz out of it, but what keeps that buzz going is winning races, simple as that.
"If I didn't think I could win I wouldn't go out the door."
That adrenalin buzz has brought Dunlop back to his favourite track one more time. For the first time in 14 years Robert Dunlop is strong and fit enough to ride a screaming new two-stroke 250cc machine as well as the smaller 125cc bike he has raced exclusively and to such devastating effect since 1994.
It is a challenge he relishes.
Among the opposition will be Robert's sons William and Michael, both already winners in the sport that has been their father's life for so long.
They are the next generation to continue the family's racing tradition, and it is down to them to uphold the name Robert and his late brother were so proud of.
The Dunlop boys will ride hard to win what would be the biggest victory of either of their careers so far. But if experience counts and their dad extends his winning run neither will mind too much; they know better than anyone how much he has suffered for his sport.
Robert Dunlop has put his heart and soul into getting back to where he is, at the top level of his sport.
150,000 TO WITNESS FRANTIC ACTION
SINCE 1929 the North West 200 has been the big annual motorcycle road-racing day by the seaside.
The meet has attracted many of road racing's legends, among them Stanley Woods, Artie Bell, Geoff Duke, and Joey Dunlop. Up to the late 1960s it was common for the entry list to include reigning world champions such as Rod Gould, Kel Carruthers and Kent Anderson.
The modern event attracts upward of 150,000 spectators and is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The entry features big names - like Michael Rutter, Guy Martin, Steve Plater and Cameron Donald - usually seen competing in the glamorous British Super Bike championship.
The action can be frantic and close finishes have been a feature in recent years.
The lead-up to race day, Saturday May 17th, is a week-long festival of bike-related events, including displays of vintage machinery and memorabilia, stunt shows, fireworks and an air display.
Race practice takes place tomorrow and Thursday (roads close from 5pm to 9.30pm both days).
Roads close on race day from 10am and the seven-race programme ranges from the awesome superbikes, capable of more than 200mph, to the slower 125cc bikes, still capable of over 130mph. All races are massed starts, upward of 30 riders and machines blasting away at the fall of the starter's flag.
Accommodation is at a premium during the week and if you have yet to book, good luck.
On race day there are prime viewing spots free of charge all around the course, but get there early. Traffic will be heavy and parking can be a headache.
The Coast Road section is particularly popular, as are the sections at Ballysally roundabout, the grass bank at Metropole Corner, Portrush, and the frighteningly fast Mathers Cross and Station Corners.
Most of it is free of charge, though some of the more popular areas, particularly where there is grandstand seating, have an admission fee.
Although there is no charge to enter the circuit, the purchase of a programme is recommended. You will need to buy a ticket if you want to wander around the race paddock and soak up the atmosphere. The best grandstand seats are at the start/finish chicane, and pre-booking for these is strongly recommended.
The course is by the sea so be prepared for all weathers, from glorious sunshine to cloud and rain. And remember motorcycle racing can be dangerous: so stay safe, and obey the marshals all around the course.
Robert Dunlop - the facts
1960:Born in Ballymoney, County Antrim.
1979:Road-racing debut, Temple 100.
Road career highlights
1983:Wins the 350cc Newcomers Manx Grand Prix, finishing ahead of Steve Hislop and Ian Lougher, both destined to be legendary names in road racing.
1986:First International race win, 350cc North West 200.
1989:First Isle of Man TT win, 125cc Ultra Lightweight TT; wins Macau Grand Prix.
1990:Joins the JPS Norton factory team, scores a brace of North West 200 Superbike wins for the team and wins three rounds of the the British Supercup championship; wins 125cc Ultra Lightweight Isle of Man TT.
1991:Wins Ultra Lightweight and Lightweight Races at Isle of Man TT.
1994:Becomes the most successful rider in the history of the North West 200 when scoring his fourth hat-trick of wins at the meeting to bring his total to 14; suffers life- and career-threatening injuries after mechanical failure causes a major crash at the Isle of Man TT.
1996:Makes his comeback from injury at the Cookstown 100
1998:Two weeks after suffering a broken collarbone and broken ankle in a crash at the North West 200, Dunlop returns to the Isle of Man to win the Ultra Lightweight TT. Arrives on crutches at the prizegiving ceremony to a hero's welcome.
2004:Announces his retirement from motorcycle racing. Undergoes further surgery on injuries sustained in his 1994 Isle of Man crash.
2005:Returns to racing. Elected to the Irish Motorcycle Hall of Fame, the first recipient of the distinction.
2006:Scores his 15th North West 200 win after a nailbiting 125cc victory from his arch-rival Michael Wilcox; awarded an honorary degree from the University of Ulster; an honorary degree is also awarded posthumously to Joey
2007:Granted the Freedom of the Borough by Ballymoney Borough Council.
2008:After 14 years struggling to overcome extensive injuries adds a 250cc machine to his racing stable; wins first time out on the new 250cc Honda at the Cookstown 100 in April; aims to win again at the North West 200 and Isle of Man TT.
