Big Read: 'The man who changed the TT'

There were a lot of Irish teams coming over and saying, ‘Aye, your man’s crazy’ and we used to get that a lot,
because nobody on the road racing scene had seen a bike with proper horsepower,” says former V&M
Yamaha boss, Jack Valentine.

“Even at the TT, David was coming out of corners leaving big black lines, just power spinning the tyres… they had never seen it. They said he was just crazy.”

Valentine had signed David Jefferies to ride one of the new Yamaha YZF-R1s in 1999 and, like everyone else, he was stunned at the blinding pace Jefferies was able to set on what was just a modified road bike.

In fact, the burly Yorkshireman was so fast, some felt he was out of control and a liability to himself and others. He wasn’t…