– David v Goliath
How a privateer nearly beat HRC
This year marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most memorable Seniors in TT history when Bob Jackson was denied victory by a stubborn fuel cap on his privateer Kawasaki as he took on the might of Honda in an epic David versus Goliath battle. The final day of TT fortnight had started well for Honda. With top brass out in force on the island to mark the manufacturer’s 40 years of TT racing, Jim Moodie delivered the company’s 100th Mountain Course victory in the Production TT on a Sanyo Fireblade. Nothing less than another Honda win was expected in that afternoon’s Senior, with Ian Simpson, the winner of the Formula One race, and Michael Rutter on a pair of factory-prepared RC45s. Jackson admitted he didn’t feel particularly confident when he surveyed the strength of his rivals. Neither Joey Dunlop nor Phillip McCallen were in the Senior field in 1998 as both Irishmen were still recovering from injuries. But James Courtney (Honda), Simon Beck (Kawasaki), Jim Moodie (Honda), David Jefferies (Yamaha) and a youthful John McGuinness (Honda) offered plenty of opposition. “I’ll be happy to the first privateer home,” Jackson recalls thinking on the start line. The 43-year-old was riding a Kawasaki ZX-7R for the Northern Irish McAdoo team. Jackson was already starting off on the back foot as he hadn’t raced in the Formula One event. Winston McAdoo, the team owner, holds strong religious beliefs and withdrew his machine when poor weather forced the race to switch from Saturday to Sunday. Both Jackson and the McAdoo team knew they would struggle against the Hondas in the six-lap Senior so they tried to balance things out by making just one pit stop instead of two.
“We had the maximum 32-litre tank which was the biggest allowed in the Senior back then,” explains Jackson.
“We were only allowed a 24-litre tank in other races but I had tried the bigger tank the year before and had worried about running out of fuel but we had plenty left, so I was confident we would be ok.”
The Cumbrian didn’t use the bigger tank in practice in case it gave the game away. Jackson says his ZX-7R was a basic road based bike, running Maxton suspension but no quick release swingarm, which would make for a slow wheel change. So the plan was to use the same tyre for the six laps. Setting off at No5, by the end of the first lap Jackson was caught on the road by Jim Moodie, who had set off 20 seconds behind him. The Hondas started No3 and No4, and
‘I HIT MY KNEE ON THE KERB AT GREEBA CASTLE AND HAD TO TELL MYSELF TO SETTLE DOWN’
it was Rutter who led from Simpson with Moodie third at the end of the opening lap. Jackson, running at No5, was struggling with his heavier fuel load and lay sixth, 35 seconds behind Rutter.
As the Hondas pulled into the pits at the end of lap two, Jackson went straight through. He was now the leader on the road and in the race, enjoying a healthy 28-second advantage by Glen Helen. The penny had dropped as to what Jackson and the McAdoo team were up to and suddenly the race no longer seemed the Honda gala performance it had been expected to be.
A slow puncture in his front tyre put Rutter out of contention, and Jackson’s pace saw him add another three seconds to his lead over Simpson before he pitted at the end of lap three in what would be his one and only stop.
“I changed helmets as the mechanics filled the tank,” recalls Jackson.
“It was all nice and relaxed until they went to lock the cap and the thing wouldn’t shut.”
The seconds ticked by as another mechanic tried, without success, to budge the errant lid. Someone ran off to fetch a spare and Bob threw his hands in the air as the McAdoo family watched in total frustration from the grandstand. “We knew we were in with a chance of winning with the one stop idea,” says Jason McAdoo, Winston’s son. “Everything was going to plan until the lads in the pit couldn’t get the tank cap on again. It was overfilled and the tank had pressurised, meaning the cap couldn’t go on. Eventually Bob’s brother, Tom stuck a rag in to soak up some fuel and it went on straight away.”
“I was really mad as I started to chase the lead again,” says Jackson. “Going over Crosby the engine cut out and I thought my race was run, but it fired back into life. Then I hit my knee on the kerb at Greeba Castle and had to tell myself to settle down.”
At Glen Helen, Simpson led by just one second from Moodie. Jackson was sixth, his half minute lead turned into a 52-second deficit by that pit stop.
All was not yet lost because Simpson would have to pit again. Going into the final lap the Scotsman’s lead over Jackson had been cut to just 4.4 seconds. At Glen Helen it was down to three and by Ramsey the Kawasaki privateer was just 0.3 of a second behind. Unfortunately, Jackson wasn’t fully aware of the race order and how small a gap there was between himself and a famous victory on the Mountain Course. Simpson was receiving better signals and when he got a P1 +0 board on the last lap he pushed hard over the mountain on what would be his fastest lap of the race at 122.57mph. Jackson’s final lap was his quickest ever around the Mountain course at 122.65mph, but it wasn’t enough to win as he trailed in a frustrating 3.7 seconds behind the Honda. Jackson and the McAdoo team had given it their best shot but the David and Goliath battle hadn’t quite gone to script. “Bob eventually finished second to Ian Simpson by just two seconds and we’d lost 45 seconds in the pitstop. We were gutted!” recalls Jason McAdoo. Jackson, meanwhile, remains more philosophical: “Coming second in the Senior was an excellent result but if I had concentrated more on the opening lap and hadn’t lost all that time in the pits I reckon I would have won by a minute! “And, incredibly, there was still a litre of fuel left in the tank!”