Trip To Tallinn - Part 1. I am very much aware that there is a growing feeling, even amongst bike fans, that it is perhaps time that the tributes to Joey Dunlop were drawn to a close and that we should all start to look forward. I do have a certain amount of sympathy with this opinion, and certainly agree that we should start looking to the future.
This article, however, makes no apologies for wallowing in Joey Dunlop nostalgia, memories and tributes, and describes my time spent with a number of people who knew and raced with him, so I would advise anyone who feels they don't want to read any more material of this nature to click off this page immediately.
My decision to travel to Tallinn for this year's race meeting was very much a personal one. It was borne of my admiration for Joey Dunlop, and the sense of shock and disbelief which I still feel that he is no longer with us. I wanted to see the place where Joey enjoyed racing so much, and to meet some of the people with whom he enjoyed such good times in Eastern Europe over the later years of his career.
I also wanted to see for myself the scene of his tragic accident and to try to understand what went wrong. Joey Dunlop was, and will always remain, my greatest hero. I find it hard, now, to believe that I actually used to admire professional footballers, a breed which I now largely despise. Joey was everything the average professional footballer is not - he had no interest in money, fame or publicity of any kind.
He was just one of the lads who was in racing, certainly over recent years, purely for the love of the sport. I would imagine he could relate to, and feel more at ease with, say, Joe Bloggs at number 62 in the Lightweight than with the supposed 'stars' - yet he was the greatest star of them all.
