Dunlop’s time to shine | TT star enjoys balcony moment at Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Isle of Man TT took centre stage at last weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, with thousands of onlookers treated to a ‘balcony moment’ celebrating the record-breaking achievements of Michael Dunlop.

The Northern Irish rider has the most wins around the 37.73-mile Mountain Course, having taken his tally to 29 this year. He appeared on the balcony of Goodwood House during the Saturday of the four-day motorsport event, answering a series of questions in front of an applauding crowd before being joined for photos by 23-time winner John McGuinness, and 14-time victor Peter Hickman.

“This is an honour,” Dunlop said. “What they’ve done today, it’s obviously something that will stick in my memory forever and I’m just so grateful to the Goodwood people for everything they’ve done.

“To be the most successful person round the Isle of Man, it’s a goal I’ve been chasing for 12 years now and this year we were able to make it.”

On top of celebrating the roads, this year’s Festival of Speed marked 75 years of Grand Prix motorcycle racing – with past world champions taking to the 1.16-mile hill climb course on a series of landmark two- and four-stroke competition motorcycles.

This included 2000 world champion Kenny Roberts Junior who told MCN: “We’ve been looking forward to it all year, I’m thankful to be back. It’s being around likeminded people, and everybody’s here enjoying it, and nobody’s forced to be here.

“It’s not a high pressure situation, and everybody’s on a vacation, and we get to experience motorsport and see people we haven’t seen for quite a long time,” he added. “It’s like a big adult Disneyland.”

Roberts Jr. was joined by his father and three-time 500GP champion Kenny Roberts as well as names such as Randy Mamola, Mick Doohan, Freddie Spencer, and Kevin Schwantz.

Schwantz himself said: “It’s always nice to come back and see just how many fans there are of the cars and the bikes, and all the riders that come over to do stuff.” The 1993 world champion was sadly unable to ride due to recent shoulder replacement surgery, but remained in good spirits.

“To see three or four of my bikes rolling around and all the fans… it’s a really special weekend,” he continued. “Just being here as kind of a spectator has been pretty entertaining.”

Goodwood chose Two Wheels for Life as their official charity partner for 2024. The group aim to improve the quality of healthcare in some of the remotest parts of Africa by supplying motorcycles for the delivery of medical supplies, vaccines, and healthcare workers.

“The Duke of Richmond (FoS founder) came to Valencia MotoGP two years ago, to invite Dorna and MotoGP and we met him, and he invited us then to be the charity for 2024,” co-founder, Andrea Coleman explained. “I’m incredibly pleased and proud to be involved with what is an iconic part of motorsport for four wheels and two wheels.”

Coleman continued: “In the work that we do in Africa we use two and four wheels. We run and manage motorcycles, but we also run and manage ambulances to get healthcare and women to hospital and so on. That uniting of two and four wheels is exciting for us.”