This Friday marks ten years since the death of the King Of The Roads, Joey Dunlop OBE (February 25, 1952 – July 2, 2000)
Joey was a world champion motorcyclist from Ballymoney in Northern Ireland, best known for road racing. Referred to throughout the sport as “Joey”, in 2005 he was voted the fifth greatest motorcycling icon ever by Motorcycle News. His achievements include three hat-tricks at the Isle of Man TT meeting (1985, 1988 and 2000), where he won a record 26 races in total. During his career he won the Ulster Grand Prix 24 times. In 1986 he won a fifth consecutive TT Formula One world title.
He was awarded the MBE in 1986 for his services to the sport, and in 1996 he was awarded the OBE for his humanitarian work for children in Romanian orphanages. Dunlop would often load up his race transporter and deliver clothing and food to the trouble spots of Bosnia and Romania. His humanitarian work was done without drawing attention to himself.
Joey Dunlop died in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2000 while leading a 125cc race (he had already won the 750cc and 600cc events). He appeared to lose control of his bike in the wet conditions and was killed instantly on impact with trees. As a mark of respect, the Estonian government’s official website was replaced with a tribute to Dunlop within hours of his death. Northern Ireland television carried live coverage of his funeral. Fifty thousand mourners, including bikers from all parts of Britain and Ireland and people from all backgrounds in N. Ireland, attended the funeral to Garryduff Presbyterian church and his burial in the adjoining graveyard.
Today i travelled to Joeys Bar to take some photographs of his wife Linda.
She had limited time, as most of my shoots do but was so helpful it made it a lot easier for me, as she went away and brought out one of Joeys race helmets !
That famous Yellow Arai helmet, what a thrill for a fan like me who grew up watching Joey on the T.V and being lucky enough to photograph him a few times to see one of these helmets again.
[...] JOEY DUNLOPS WIFE LINDA June 2010 5 [...]