Stuart Barker - Joey Dunlop: The Definitive Biography

First published in the UK by John Blake Publishing an imprint of Bonnier Books UK

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First published in hardback in 2021

Hardback ISBN: 978-1-78946-505-1

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-78946-506-8

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-78946-505-7

Audio ISBN: 978-1-78946-509-9

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Text copyright Stuart Barker 2021

The right of Stuart Barker to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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John Blake Publishing is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK

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For Joey

BY CARL FOGARTY, MBE

SEVEN-TIMES WORLD CHAMPION, TT WINNER, AND FORMER OUTRIGHT TT LAP RECORD HOLDER

Its an honour to be asked to write the foreword for this book because Joey Dunlop was a bit of a hero to me when I was younger, and I didnt have many heroes. All my best childhood memories are of being on the Isle of Man for the TT and the Southern 100 races and Joey was always around and always seemed to be winning. I was at those races with my dad whom, obviously, I wanted to win but there was just something about Joey that made you like him his scruffy appearance and the fact that his early bikes always looked like they were going to fall apart and not finish the race, although they somehow always did. So, to go on to effectively become team-mates with Joey in 1988, and to travel around with him, was something very special to me.

I liked Joeys scruffy appearance. I was like that back then, too, and my dad would always have a go at me, telling me I would never get any sponsors or get anywhere unless I tidied myself up, but my response was always, Well, Joey doesnt tidy himself up, does he? There wasnt much my dad could say to that.

I always felt a bit nervous around Joey for some reason, especially in the early days. I was quite shy and was an awkward kind of kid in some ways. I would often stand by the side of Joeys bike while my dad was talking to him, but we were never really introduced properly because I was only twelve or thirteen, so it wasnt until I started racing at the North West 200 and the TT that I got to know Joey a little better.

He was a man of very few words, but I was a bit shy and mumbled a lot myself back then. Joey kept himself to himself and was quite a shy person; he certainly didnt go looking for the spotlight or media attention. I was a bit like that in the early days, but then I became the complete opposite once I started winning world championship races and gained more confidence in myself. I kind of opened up then and completely changed, but Joey always remained the same.

Most of my best Joey memories are from 1988 when we both competed in the TT Formula One world championship and I won my first world title. Joey would drive to the foreign racetracks in his van places as far away as Finland, Portugal and Sicily and he often had just one friend helping him, so that gave me a chance to get to know him better. I remember at Pergusa in Sicily that year, Joey turned up and parked his van next to mine. When he opened the back doors of his van there were tins of baked beans rolling around everywhere and this beautifully prepared Honda RC30 race bike sitting in amongst them all, tied to the side of the van! I put my big awning up and, to my surprise, Joey asked if he could put his bike under it along with mine. He was number 3 and I was number 4 and I looked at the bikes side by side and thought, Wow! Im team-mates with Joey Dunlop! And when he later invited me to have a few drinks in his van, I thought, Fuckin hell! Im drinking with Joey Dunlop and in his own van, too! I felt so cool.

I also shared a garage with him at the final round of the TT Formula One championship at Donington Park that year, and once again I was pinching myself and thinking, Im team-mates with Joey and were proper factory Honda riders! Thats how I saw it in my own head, anyway, even if it wasnt actually the case in reality we were both riding Hondas, but in our own teams.

At the end of the 1988 season, I went over to Northern Ireland for the Neil Robinson Memorial meeting at Kirkistown. After I had won the main race Joey invited us all back to his pub and he got me really pissed. I dont usually drink much but he was making me drink this stuff called poitn (a devastatingly strong home-made brew that can be up to 90% proof). It was fucking horrible. I dont remember a lot about the evening, but I do remember nearly passing out and being carried out by Joey and some others and dumped in the back of my van to sleep it off.

Joey had won the Formula One, the Junior and the Senior TTs that year and had the three huge trophies on display in the pub. They were priceless but there they were, just sat on the floor in a corner of the pub. Before I got too drunk, I was staring at them and reading all the famous names on them when Joey came over and said, Hey, boy, theyre not yours yet youre not getting your hands on them just yet! I told him that one day I would win them and, two years later, my name was on those very same Formula One and Senior trophies. Thats something Im still proud of to this day.

Joey really was something else at the TT. He was so smooth round there and I cant remember ever seeing him getting out of shape. Irish racers have always been fast at the TT because theyre brought up on those kind of road circuits, but Joey always seemed so safe too, just pinpoint accurate, and he knew every part of that circuit like the back of his hand. Knowledge is second to none round the TT course and Joey had more than anyone else.

As to Joey winning the Formula One TT in the year 2000 at the age of forty-eight, that was just mad. I had been injured in April that year and my career was over, so I was sitting at home not feeling too brilliant, mainly because of my head injury. I was always tired and was sleeping a lot, but when I heard the news that Joey had won the Formula One TT, I just thought, Wow, thats fucking fantastic! That is just incredible. It really cheered me up.