Rob McElnea

Rob McElnea (born 12 December 1959) is a retired motorcycle road racer, who won three Isle of Man TT races, and with a best of fifth overall in Grands Prix.

Rob is married to Susan Lloyd. They have two children together Harrison Robert McElnea and Riley Brooke McElnea.

Having won the Senior Manx Grand Prix in 1980, his TT wins followed in 1983 and 1984, and he won a round of the TT Formula 1 World Championship in 1983, finishing second to Joey Dunlop in the season final standings.^[1][2] He competed for six seasons in 500cc Grand Prix - for Heron Suzuki, Marlboro Yamaha, Pepsi Suzuki and Cabin Honda.^[3] Despite finishing fourth eight times, luck went against him and he never quite secured a podium result. He then finished 5th overall in the Superbike World Championship in 1990,^[4] for Loctite Yamaha. Rob then moved back to domestic competition, winning the British 750cc/TT F1 championship in 1991 with the same team.^[5] His career was ended by injury in 1993.

He then ran the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team in the British Superbike Championship. With Cadbury's Boost sponsorship in the 1990s and rider Niall Mackenzie, the team won three successive championships, 1996-1998. They have been less successful in the 21st century, although Steve Plater, James Haydon and Tommy Hill have won British Superbike races for them. For 2008 they ran Karl Harris.^[6] McElnea also ran the Virgin Mobile Cup series with the prize of a berth in his Superbike Team for upcoming riders ^[7] and, from 2007, a British Supersport Championship team.^[8]

At the end of the 2011 season Rob retired his team who were one of the longest standing Superbike teams in the British Superbike Championship.

Grand Prix career statistics ^[9]

Points system from 1969 to 1987:

Points system from 1988 to 1992:

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References