1985, Vila Real

Joey Dunlop at the signalman's bend

In 1985, Vila Real received for the third time (1982, 1984 and 1985) a scoring event for the FIM Tourist Trophy World Championship.

This event took place together with the National Championship. About this event, Joey Dunlop's authorized biography (Mac McDiarmid foreword by Bob McMillan) says: "The Vila Real race, held in truly crippling temperatures, implied, moreover, an unfortunate episode with water. By the end of the race, the pits looked like a field hospital, with drivers collapsing in various stages of exhaustion from the heat. As a result of this situation, the race management decided not to oblige the pilots to take another lap (about 7 km), authorizing them to return to the pits after the final flag, in the opposite direction to the race!!!... For this reason, after receiving the final checkered flag, Joey reversed direction and headed for his pit, meanwhile the Portuguese rider Manuel João, who had entered the pits before the checkered flag, left it in a desperate attempt to try to qualify. . For one horrible moment, he thought it could go very wrong. Because of this episode, Barry Symmons (Team HONDA director), as a warning, threw a bottle of water at the Portuguese pilot, hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to fall. João got up on his feet, ran back and, helped by his crew people, kicked his attacker. Attempts to disqualify Joey were thwarted when video evidence backed up Symmons' desperate attitude. After, in defense of his rider, being kicked that resulted in several bruises and three broken ribs, Barry regretfully said: - I think Joey realized that I defended his interest heart and soul."

ADV

In the TT1 (or Formula 1) 51 riders attended, the vast majority foreigners to compete for the 36 places available for the starting grid. In practice Graeme McGregor imposed his speed on Joey Dunlop who was followed by Andy McGladdery. Manuel João (28th position) and André Cunha (35th position) were the only Portuguese to qualify for the race. Before the start of the race, there was a funny episode with several pilots refusing to line up because they had been robbed at the campsite, calmed down and the race started. Joey Dunlop won after a big fight with McGladdery (who retired on lap 11) followed by Graeme McGregor and Mick Grant. Trevor Nation also discussed the top positions at the beginning of the race, however, he had problems with the gearbox selector being forced to go to the pits, being irreparably late and finishing in 23rd position. Joey Dunlop set the fastest lap of the race and his team was also the fastest to refuel. André Cunha was in 25th and Manuel João in 28th. In the classifications presented below, when analyzing the average of the winner of TT1, it should be noted that this race had a stop for refueling. In TT2 (or Formula 2) the favoritism went to Tony Rutter who had won the two previous editions of the race in this class (1982 and 1984), however in practice Gary Padgett prevailed over Brian Reid, leaving Rutter in third position. Joe Domingues (24th out of 28 qualified riders) was the only Portuguese to earn the right to be on the starting grid. In the race, Rutter was the first leader, however at the end of the race Brian Reid prevailed, followed by Rutter and Padgett. This race was marked by great disputes, in the first part of the race, the top ten discussed the positions inch by inch. At the end of the race, Rutter would pass out from exhaustion and heat. Joe Domingues was in 17th place.

In the National Championship, the scarcity of participants meant that the five classes in dispute were grouped together in order to hold only two races. So the 250cc raced together with the Classes 1 and 2 of the Superprodução. In practice: in general and in 250cc, José Pereira was the fastest by a large margin, in Class 2 of Superproduction Manuel João took first place and in Class 1 the fastest was André Cunha. The race was a solitary ride by José Pereira who won without giving any chances, Alexandre Laranjeira and Sande e Silva were respectively the 2nd and 3rd classified in the general and 250cc class having crossed the finish line, more than a minute from Pereira. Manuel João was fourth overall and first in Class 2 Superproduction while André Cunha was 6th overall having won Class 1. It should be noted the speed shown by José Pereira with the YAMAHA TZ 250cc, he made times worthy of the fastest of any of the classes (TT1 and TT2) of the World Championship. In the 80cc, the Seniors and Juniors raced together. José Ferreira was the fastest in training followed by Sande e Silva, among the Juniors, Jorge Dias was superior to his opponents. In the race, José Ferreira led from start to finish, followed closely by Sande e Silva, with Manuel Duarte in third position. Among the Juniors, Vitor Pereira defeated Jorge Dias. Costa Paulo (son), rider from Vila Real, withdrew. Classification: