A GUESSING GAME | Bikesportnz

The BikesportNZ.com photo archive is a treasure trove of classic old snaps.

We have decided that each week we are going to run an archive photo or two – a bit of a guessing game for you. See if you can answer the questions about BOTH photos.

We’ll offer you a few clues, but we also want to keep you guessing.

Check back and we’ll give you the answers next week, along with our next “Who’s that?” feature photos.

Crown Kiwi – EVS – 100%

Plus, we have a sponsor for the feature. Thanks to Crown Kiwi, EVS and 100% apparel and accessories, we can offer a small prize each week – a tee-shirt or a cap – to the first respondent with the correct answers.

Last week’s quiz was obviously just a little too tough because we had not one single correct answer.

Clues for photo above:

This photo was taken at the opening round of the New Zealand Motocross Championships at QEII Park near Wellington, at some time in the 1980s. This week we want you to identify just three of the four riders pictured, the men with bikes displaying letter D, No.6, letter M and No.1. If you can name all four, that will be so much more impressive but not a requirement for this little quiz.

But we do also need you to answer the questions about the photo below.

Clues for photo below:

This photo shows a 600cc Suzuki rider in the 1990s. Don’t be fooled by the leathers, they were not originally his but belonged to Kiwi superbike star Simon Crafar. This rider still competes today and is regarded as one of New Zealand’s top superbike stars.

Last week’s characters revealed:

The main photo displayed last week was taken in the 1980s during the New Zealand Motocross Championships that year. It was a very muddy meeting held on the hills above Porirua. We asked you to try and identify all four riders pictured, bikes numbered 10, 20, 11 and 40.

The riders, shown here competing in the 1986 New Zealand Motocross Championships, were Australian Vaughan Style (No.10), Tokoroa’s Greg Atkins (No.20), Auckland’s Tony Cooksley (No.11) and the then Palmerston North rider Simon Meade (No.40).

Style finished runner-up in the 250cc nationals that year, behind fellow Aussie Craig Dack. Best of the resident Kiwis was Taranaki’s David Furze, who took the third step on the podium, while flashy American visitor Frankie Brundage finished fourth.

The second photo was taken at Manfeild in 1994. It shows one of the world’s greatest motorcycle road racers ever … the late, great Joey Dunlop of course!

The quietly-spoken Ulsterman raced in New Zealand in the 1994-95 season and endeared himself to the Kiwi motorcycling community with his modest, down-to-earth, easy-going nature.

BikesportNZ.com was fortunate to have been able to interview Joey Dunlop back in 1994 … and just as well we taped the interview because his broad Irish accent was very hard to understand.

We also asked if you could name two of his close relatives who were prominent in motorcycling news last week. Well done to those who named two of Dunlop’s nephews, William and Michael Dunlop, who contested the big annual Isle of Man event last week.

William finished ninth overall and Michael fourth overall in the battle for the 2012 Joey Dunlop TT Championship Trophy.

William Dunlop, aged 26 (born 23 July, 1985), and his 24-year-old brother Michael (born 10 March, 1988) are sons of the late Robert Dunlop, Joey Dunlop’s brother.

But it is Joey Dunlop who most people will regard as the greatest Isle of Man legend.

With an astonishing career total of 26 wins at the Isle of Man, Joey Dunlop’s exploits were indeed legendary. He was seemingly indestructible.

Sadly, however, in July 2000, that proved not to be so.

The then 48-year-old Dunlop, MBE and OBE, crashed in extremely wet conditions as he raced a 10km circuit, on public roads in Tallin, the capital city of the former Soviet state of Estonia. He was killed instantly.

Dunlop began his race career in at the age of 17, in 1969. He was a magical performer at the Isle of Man TT event, where he won 26 TT titles, the first in 1977 and the last three in June this year.

Part-time publican of the Railway Tavern in Ballymoney, on the northern coast of Ireland, Dunlop also won five Formula 1 world championships between 1980 and 1988.

He was 30 when he took his first Formula 1 crown from New Zealand’s Graeme Crosby.

By the way, the 2012 Joey Dunlop TT Championship Trophy was won by John McGuinness with expatriate Kiwi Bruce Anstey finishing overall runner-up.

Well done to those who emailed us with their answers last week, but, as we discovered, it stumped everyone.

Email your answers to this week’s quiz to contest@bikesportnz.com

Note: Be careful to answer the questions being asked. We may ask for a time, a place, an event or ask for one or several of the individuals in the two photos to be identified.

Here is a video clip of Joey Dunlop when he was in New Zealand in 1994:

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