The Joey Dunlop Foundation charity will be holding its annual dinner at the Empress Hotel in Douglas in January with a host of TT stars as special guests.

Foundation chairman Kevin Quirk said the theme for this year’s event was The Young Pretenders, and true to the theme, the main speaker will be Ramsey rider Conor Cummins, recently signed up to ride with McGuinness for Honda at TT 2014.

Fellow speakers will be TT Lightweight race runner-up Dean Harrison, Ivan Linton, Dan and Ryan Kneen plus Dean’s father Conrad.

Highlight for the evening will be the annual tombola draw to win a Honda Demon Vimto Fireblade, for which the charity has been selling tickets at all the major events during 2013. Traditionally the winner is contacted with the news at the meal as soon as the draw is made.

The 2014 prize bike (to be drawn at the annual meal in early 2015) is to be a John McGuinness replica Honda CBR600 ‘with a few extras’.


‘According to Clive Padgett, it looks like John’s race bike,’ Mr Quirk said.

Tickets for the meal on January 11 are still available at £35 per person by contacting Mr Quirk on 677741.

Traditionally the charity has organised the annual Joey Dunlop memorial lap on the anniversary of Joey’s death in July however next year the lap is to be run on Tuesday August 26 during the Manx Grand Prix. It starts at 6.30pm from the pit lane and parc ferme.

As usual there will be commemorative T-shirts on sale and the police will control traffic at all main junctions as far as Ballacraine. The event is expected to attract more than the usual 500 riders by taking advantage of the Joey Dunlop theme for next year’s Classic TT which runs alongside the Manx Grand Prix. The house offers disabled accommodation for all island visitors.



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