Avon Tyres has helped Isle of Man sidecar legend Dave Molyneux take his tally of TT victories to 14. Molyneux and passenger Daniel Sayle took Suzuki’s first three-wheeled victory ever on the Island. The victory on his A&J Racing Suzuki outfit also marked 20 years since Molyneux’s first sidecar victory on the island back in 1989.
The Manxman said: “The Avons worked brilliantly and were a pleasure to use. I was delighted to use Avons this year, as I’ve not used them since 1993 when I won on them. In fact my first race win at the TT in 1989 was on Avons too! The guys at BMTR put together the tyres and we picked some good compounds. It was a hard race, but we achieved what we set out to do. We had some trouble with the engine tuning but we ended up doing things ourselves, and it held together so it’s nice that we also managed to be the first bike to complete the race distance in under 59 minutes with laps over 115mph: we’re happy with that!”
The race win put Molyneux third on the all-time TT winners list jointly with Mike Hailwood, while from the chair, this was Sayle’s fourth Isle of Man win. Sadly they could not make it a double celebration as the second three-lap sidecar race was red-flagged after a race incident and was not be re-scheduled.
The Isle of Man TT races are a gruelling test of man and machine. Since 1907 the Island has played host to the annual event, which sees solo and sidecar classes tackle the notorious 37.73-mile circuit.
Avon Tyres, a Cooper Tire & Rubber Company brand, has a long and distinguished history in motorcycle racing on two and three wheels. We manufactured our first motorcycle tyre in 1911 and since then champions such as Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Barry Sheene have used and won on Avon. More recently Avon riders have won 13 Supersport and four Production class championships, as well as Isle of Man TT victories on both three and two wheels.
