History made: Michael Dunlop becomes new Isle of Man TT record holder with 27 wins
‘‘I’m no better than Joey’’
“We should have been 28 [wins] and after sheer disappointment from the other night I wanted to make up for it,” said Dunlop to TV cameras after the race. “I’ll never be modelled against Joey and I don’t expect or want to be. Everybody’s inspired to be like Joey at the Isle of Man, and just to have another win is the tip of the top. It was a personal thing I wanted to break. I’ve broken a lot of records in my lifetime but that’s the one I wanted.”
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Nobody can beat a Dunlop, except another Dunlop.
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4 in a week, 29 total, pretty amazing! Should have been 5/30. And this is a guy who builds his own bikes with no factory support and massive budgets competing against the big factory teams! Lost his dad, brother and uncle to the sport. This is a true legend!
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Pretty soon:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/sport/motorcycling/michael-dunlop-among-entries-for-third-round-of-irrc-at-imatra-in-finland-4682807
Last time (2022) he had all the time technical problems (time trials and the races) with borrowed a bike that was put together in a hurry. Now he is coming with his own bikes and own technicians.
Pit area (En) = varikko (Fin)
‘’‘The public has free access to the pit area and thus people have the opportunity to see the pit action up close and talk to the race riders’'.
I do not know is that very common (out there, in the big world)?
Last year Peter Hickaman was the third in the first race (Superbike)
And the second in the 2. race (Superbike)
But the weather was pretty bad (raining a lot). Other than that, he could have won the 2. race (as became more familiar with the track).
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The Imatra Circle 2024 Road Racing has now ended and we are in our cabin for the last night. Tomorrow is a long ride home.
Overall, the event was ok. The sad thing was the weather. It basically ruined most of the races today (Sunday) and also caused problems for the Friday (qualifying) and Saturday races.
Anyway… Erno Kostamo (Fin) won all the Superbike races (3). Two Superbike races were canceled due to weather. He has now won the last 10 Superbike races at Imatra. Agostini won 16 times at Imatra (in the 1960s and 1970s, when the race was part of the GP series).
Joni Lehtiranta (Fin) won 3 Supersport races and Adam Mclean (Eng) 1 race (Lehtiranta rode out the track). One Supersport race was suspended due to weather (rain).
Pekka Päivärinta (Fin) & Adam Christie (Eng) won the sidecar race on Saturday. Sunday’s race was cancelled again.
In addition, two retro bike races were held.
Michael Dunlop? I could imagine that he is not very happy about his visit to Finland. He rode to first place in the Open class Superbikes Qualification and became second in the first Open class Superbike race behind Erno Kostamo, He was mainly 4th and 3rd during the race; respectively. It was his first full race at Imatra.
The IRRC Series Superbikes Qualifications finished before it really started (right after the first 1 - 2 laps and he simply didn’t have time to put in any good laps and ended up 7th at the start. The 1. shortened IRRC Superbike race didn’t go too well either and he finished 5th or 6th on Saturday.
The 2. Open class Superbike race was canceled (on Sunday); where he would have started again from 1st place.
In the 2nd IRRC serie Superbike race (10 laps) he same way needed to start from 7th place (on Sunday), but with a great start immediately rose to the 3rd place and then to the 2nd place after the first two laps, but then the race was stopped (red flag => thunder, lightning and heavy rain ). The whole race was restarted (shortened to 6 laps). This time he didn’t start so well and for some reason his race ended in the first lap.
The last Suberbike race (King of Imatra); the race Hickman wanted to win a year ago … was cancelled again.
A few pictures will come later. It’s not easy to photograph the bikes when they go by you at 150 - 200 km/h :), but I did my best 
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Those Daytonas are such sweet machines 
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Still one thing to add (as thinking the topic of this thread) … Michael Dunlop rode the new lap record in Imatra (1:50.584 seconds). The old one was from year 2018 (Danny Webb 1:50.616 => 158,2km/h). So the speed was there. I hope he will to come to Imatra another time. His uncle, Joyel Dunlop, won in Imatra 1986.
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BTW: How many recognized man in 11 and in 12 photos (in red-white race suit)?
Yes, he was The One and Only Giacomo Agostini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Agostini
The bike had fanny sound (this yellow t-shirt man was his mechanic):
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