“When I saw him, I knew he had the talent to become one of the TT greats. The rest is history”. Our chat with Jack Valentine starts off with these true words about David Jefferies, one of the riders whose Valentine has been team manager, if not the greatest.
David Jefferies on the V&M Yamaha in Macau (PH: Macau GP press)
Jack Valentine, born in Oldham in 1953 and former Drag Racing rider, founded the V&M squad in 1982 alongside the tuning guru Steve Mellor. In 1990, when Valentine decided to quit his career as a rider, the two started to grow the V&M name working on the engines of Carl Fogarty, James Whitham and Robert McElnea. Then, Valentine and Mellor established V&M as an high profile team with a good partnership with Honda UK. This was interrupted in 1999 when Valentine opted for Yamahas and the rising star David Jefferies: a really successful bet.
Jack, you started working with Jefferies in 1999 with Yamaha, a low budget team compared with the “colossus” Honda. And you won straight away. I bet you remember very well the taste of that Formula 1 victory!
Yes that’s correct, we were looking for a new challenge and had long been admirers of DJ’s riding skills on not the best of machinery. We noted his very fast lap times in the 1998 Senior TT on his own R1 and knew then he had the talent to become one of the TT greats. The rest is history, we knew what we had to do to beat the Hondas and built him a bike with nearly 30 bhp more than a factory RC45 and let David do the rest. He stopped 17 years of consecutive factory Honda victory’s in the F1 race.
Was Dave a natural talented rider or did he build his skills and speed over the years, in your opinion?
Without doubt he was a natural talent who loved riding any type of motorcycle, however he built his TT experience up slowly starting by riding a nearly stock CBR600.
Three years of success for DJ and V&M followed that sensational 1999 TT both in the road races and in the British Superstock Championship. Even if Jefferies’ career could have been far more brilliant without the difficulties and “hostilities” in BSB and his premature death in Crosby, during an afternoon practice session of 2003 Tourist Trophy, slipping on someone else’s oil. At 31 years old, “Big Dave” had a lot of trophies under his belt: 9 TT wins in 6 editions, many victories at Scarborough, North West 200, Ulster GP and Macau GP, 2 British Superstock Championships, first rider over the 125 mph barrier on the Isle of Man (his best lap was then 127.29 mph in 2002), first rider ever to win 3 TT races in one edition, and many more.
Jack Valentine (ph: motorcyclenews.com)
Jack, why David never get the chance to have a competitive British Superbike ride? Was it really just for his size?
I think so, however if we’d had the budget at that time I’d have loved to have given him the chance.
How was working with Jefferies, described by many both professional and funny?
Yes he was both, one thing I remember was we were at the North West, where we had a workshop and the press came over to do some interviews. I told DJ the time, but the press turned up a little early, so I called him to let him know. “No problem I’m setting off now” he said hopping on board his KTM Supermoto. He had to travel approximately 8 miles from the paddock out in to the country. About 5 minutes later I could hear the KTM at high speed coming through the country lanes nearby and said to the press he’s here. Then to their amazement he came into view at the top of a long driveway “flat out” scattering them everywhere as he slammed the bike into a massive front wheel “stoppy” at about 80 mph. Calmly hopped off the bike as if that was the normal thing to do and said “Right who wants the interview?”. So funny!
Great! David had and still has a lot of fans around the world, but at the time many Joey Dunlop’s supporters criticized Dave for his “dangerous” riding style. How did you take his defence?
Easy. For a start what road racing had never seen was a rider leaving “darkies” out of nearly every turn. I think a lot of people thought he was showing off or riding beyond his limits. Not the case, with the horsepower and DJ’s riding ability this was just natural. Now as bikes have become more powerful nearly everyone is doing it. Even on Superstockers.
Ulster GP 1999, an epic battle between David and Joey, with David setting the pole position as a newcomer and winning the first Superbike Race, while Joey won the second. How was David before the start of the races? Was he sure to beat the “King of the Mountain”? And how was the relationship between David and Joey?
Joey Dunlop and David Jefferies
David was just his normal self on a new circuit enjoying himself. The UGP is the fastest circuit in the world so David could easily use his horsepower advantage on the faster sections and Joey all his experience on the more technical parts. It was a close race which when David knew he could not get by Joey safely through the last sector, so he rolled it off and wheelied over the line for the crowd. His relationship with Joey was one of respect and I believe that David’s successes gave Joey a renewed motivation that he could still win International Road Races at the highest level.
How did you take the news of David signing for TAS Racing in 2002?
It was disappointing to lose David but it was down to Yamaha not coming up with a budget to keep him. You’ve got to remember he was on top of his game and the star of road racing and earned his living doing it. Suzuki and TAS knew this and also David knew the GSXR was strong having been beaten by it the previous year in British Superstock. There were no hard feelings and everything was done professionally and we remained friends with both him and his family.
Valentine has worked with a number of talents like DJ himself, as well as Iain Duffus, Jim Moodie, the late Craig Jones and more recently John Hopkins. He founded Valmoto in 2003 together with his wife Doris from the ashes of V&M; he has been part of Crescent Suzuki and in 2013 he managed to bring the great MV Agusta back at the TT, first with Gary Johnson and then with Peter Hickman on the beautiful “Trooper by Iron Maiden”. For 2016 TT he had already planned to work with Billy Redmayne, who instead prematurely died at Scarborough. This year Jack will cover the role of team manager for Bournemouth Kawasaki JG Speedfit, with James Hillier for the roads.
What is your best memory of your career so far?
There are so many but winning the 1999 F1 TT stands out because it made history and I believe changed the TT for the better in the years afterwards. Another was winning the Supersport TT with Bruce Anstey on the Triumph, 28 years after they had last competed and also winning the Manufacturers Team award as well. Both these will go down in history.
Do you think it was more difficult at that time to find sponsors for pure road racing or nowadays?
Finding sponsors is just as hard now as it was then, it’s all down to budget in the end but as we proved in 1999 you still need passion and a good team around you and you can still get the job done.
Which is the rider you had the best working relationship with?
I honestly get on with most. I like riders who want to ride for me and the team I’m managing and who are there not just for the money. That comes later once they become successful. Some riders can be very demanding which is OK as long as if the team give them what they are requesting they respond with results. DJ was very easy to work with.
