Jon Ekerold Last king of a wild frontier
With pure road racing and the TT now experiencing a huge resurgence and extensive media coverage worldwide, it is perhaps hard to imagine that it was all so different in the 1980s.
The top Grand Prix racers of the day shunned circuits like the Isle of Man and Ulster Grand Prix, but were more than happy to take in the big money Dutch and Belgian street circuit meetings such as Sint-Joris-Ten-Distel, Chimay and Mettet.
The TT, post-Hailwood comeback, had been in something of a free fall, with only the TT formula classes carrying world status, largely only contested by the works UK based teams and riders, albeit in a sporadic series with Ulster’s Dundrod, Holland’s Assen and Vila Real in Portugal hosting the early incarnations of what ended up becoming the forerunner to World Superbike racing.
Grand Prix racers who would race on The Island were few and far between with only a smattering of riders such as Alex George, Jeff Sayle and Dennis Ireland among the notable exceptions. The main bulk of talent came from the mainland UK and pure road racing mecca Northern Ireland. Although the organisers regularly scoured the Grand Prix paddocks of Europe in an attempt to lure riders to add prestige to the event, which by the 1980s boasted over £253,000 in prize money and individual start payments – it was still a hard sell to have a Grand Prix rider commit to at least two weeks on the Isle of Man.
Some star riders eventually tempted included Dale Singleton, Boet Van Dulmen and Keith Huewen who at least came over the Irish sea to try the event, and by their own admission pick up a pay cheque.
One rider, however, standing head and shoulders above all his Grand Prix counterparts at this time was Jon Ekerold.
Ekerold, a renowned hard riding, no nonsense rider already relished racing on the shorter road circuits in Europe and
