Beschreibung:

Sadly, Ireland lost another of its great road-racing heroes two years ago when Robert Dunlop, brother of the late Joey, succumbed to injuries sustained in practising for the North West 200. Born on 25th November 1960, Robert Dunlop learned his craft on short circuits before making his road-racing debut at the Temple 100 in 1979. He celebrated his first visit to road-racing's Isle of Man capital in 1983 with a win in the Manx Grand Prix Newcomers' Race and scored his first TT win in 1989 in the 125cc event riding the machine offered here. For the next few years Robert Dunlop owned the 125 TT, winning in 1990 and 1991 to cement his reputation as one of the finest riders the Ultra Lightweight class has ever seen. He also won the Junior TT in 1991. During the 1980s and early 1990s Robert enjoyed an unprecedented run of success at the Cookstown 100, winning eight times with a triple success in 1987 that netted him the 'Man of the Meeting' award. Following his Macau Grand Prix victory in 1989, Robert Dunlop was signed by the John Player Norton team to contest the Motor Cycle News Supercup Championship and selected road course events in 1990. Riding the rotary Norton, he won twice at the North West 200, took one of the team's three wins in the MCN Supercup and finished 2nd in the F1 TT in the Isle of Man. In 1994 he sustained serious leg injuries in the Isle of Man during practice for the TT when the rear wheel of his Honda RC45 collapsed. Out of action for the rest of the year and all of 1995, he returned to the track at his favourite Cookstown event in April 1996. The legacy of his injuries would restrict Robert to riding 125s from then onwards, and despite not being fully fit, he nevertheless finished 9th at Cookstown in a race won by his brother, Joey. In 1997 he returned to the TT, finishing 3rd in the Ultra Lightweight race and the following year scored a fairytale win in the same event, which would be the last of his five TT victories. Although he had proved that he was able to ride - and win - again, Robert continued to be handicapped by the lingering effects of that Isle of Man crash and in December 2003 announced he would retire from motorcycle racing at the end of the 2004 season. Early in 2005 he announced that he would be having further surgery to improve his leg, and if all went well would return to racing for one last time. He did so towards the end of that same year and in 2006 stormed to a record breaking 15th win at the North West 200. Robert's fatal accident occurred on 15th May 2008 when the engine of his 250 Honda seized and he was thrown from the machine. His sons William and Michael Dunlop were both racing at the North West and the following day Michael scored an emotional win in the 250 race. Robert Dunlop was laid to rest on 15th May 2008 at Garryduff Presbyterian Church next to his brother, Joey. The Honda RS125 we offer was purchased for Robert Dunlop by his sponsor, Andy McMenemy, having previously been raced by Phil McCallen. It was on this machine that Robert made his Isle of Man TT debut in 1989 in the Ultra Lightweight race, which was back on the programme for the first time since 1974. Despite having only one cylinder at his disposal, Robert had no trouble shattering the old 125 lap record of 100.32mph that had been set back in 1968 by Bill Ivy on a Yamaha V4, a measure of just how far motorcycle technology had advanced in the intervening 21 years. Robert broke the old record on his standing start lap and on his final tour circulated at an average speed of 103.02mph to win by 15.8 seconds from Ian Lougher with Carl Fogarty in 3rd place. That same year Robert also won on the little Honda at the Cookstown 100, Killinchy 150, Mid Antrim 150 and Kirkistown Sunflower Trophy meetings. Owned by the current private collector since 1990, the machine is described as in generally good condition, although it has not been run for some time. Spare sets of Marvic alloy and wire-spoked wheels come with this historic