Throwback Thursday: Joey Dunlop Leading in Formula 1 TT Action at Assen
Larry Lawrence | September 7, 2017
Joey Dunlop leads Anders Andersson (2), Fred Merkel (4) and Roger Marshall (11) during the Dutch round of the Formula 1 TT Championship at Assen in 1987. Formula 1 TT, originally formed to provide a rules structure for the Isle of Man TT after the event was taken off the Grand Prix calendar after 1976. The series eventually gained FIM World Championship status and reached a zenith in the mid-1980s.
Dunlop won the Formula 1 TT Championship five years in a row during the heyday of the series, but in 1987 it was Italian Virginio Ferrari, riding a factory Bimota, who halted Dunlop’s F1TT streak. That year Ferrari won by just three points over factory Honda’s Dunlop. Suzuki’s Paul Iddon was third, just six points out of the championship.
The series continued on through 1990, with Carl Fogarty winning the championship in its final three seasons, but the F1TT was overshadowed by World Superbike and the manufacturers began putting more money in that series and Formula 1 TT ended after the 1990 season.
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