1986, Vila Real

Neil Robinson

For the fourth time, the second in a row, in 1986, Vila Real hosted an FIM TOURIST TROPHY event, this time only the largest class (TT1) was part of the Portuguese event. During the same event, a National Speed Championship (CNV) race also took place, as usual. In CNV the squad reached the lowest level in recent history, for that reason, the five classes in dispute were grouped in just two races. In the 80cc, Juniors raced together with Seniors. The Vilareal riders present in this race (Costa Paulo (father), Costa Paulo (son) and Manuel Conceição ("mireko") all withdrew with technical problems. In the race, José Ferreira, as in the previous year, won, despite a bad start, after a big fight with Alexandre Laranjeira and Manuel Duarte who would also suffer technical problems, so Rui Vieira was the runner-up followed by Avelino Arvela. Among the Juniors, Sérgio Baptista was the winner. In the race destined for 250cc and SUPERPRODUCTION (Classes 1 and 2), José Pereira (250cc), as in the previous year, showed a clear superiority, however, gearbox problems prevented him from achieving a victory that seemed assured. Overall, Alexandre Laranjeira was first (also winning the SP Class 2), André Cunha was second (winning the 250cc) and José Santos was third (first in the SP Class 1).

PUB

The main dish (the international TT1 race) had, once again, a high number of participants. In training, Joey Dunlop prevailed over Graeme McGregor and Neil Robinson. Pedro Baptista qualified in 29th place on the starting grid. In the race, Neil Robinson gave great retort to Joey Dunlop until he had problems with the fairing that caused him to lose a lot of time during refueling, delaying him hopelessly. Opting not to refuel, Paul Iddon came to command the race, however Dunlop managed to regain first position, leaving Iddon in second and Anders Andersson in third position. Pedro Baptista, the only Portuguese representative in this race, withdrew prematurely. It should be noted that Neil Robinson, who had a great performance in this edition, would die in an accident, in September of the same year, during training for a race in Olivers Mount's, Scarborough, West Yorkshire.