Robert Dunlop: Life and Times of a Legend

Robert Dunlop's death in May 2008 shocked the entire road-racing community. The manner of his death, echoing that of his elder brother, Joey, in 2000, seemed a particularly poignant coincidence. Robert Dunlop was a road-racing legend. His first major victory was in the Cookstown 100 250cc race in 1985. Two years later he won the man-of-the-meeting award, taking the 125cc, 350cc and 1000cc races. More victories followed in the succeeding years. But in 1994 Robert had a major accident at the Formula 1 TT in the Isle of Man. Receiving terrible injuries, he was lucky to escape with his life. Most people believed that his career was over, and his long convalescence meant that he did not appear on a race track again until early 1996. He raced on until the end of the 2004 season, fighting the pain and disability left by his injuries. In 2005 he was elected to the Irish Motorcycle Hall of Fame, and then he made a dramatic return to motorcycle racing the following year when he notched a record-breaking fifteenth win at the North West 200 meeting. This book is a celebration of Robert's life and career in more than two hundred photographs, taken at all the major circuits at which he competed: the Isle of Man TT, the Ulster Grand Prix, the North West 200, the Cookstown 100, the Skerries 100 and others. The photographs are augmented by a biographical essay from Jimmy Walker, the distinguished Belfast journalist.