Fans of road racing star John McGuinness will be first in line to enter the latest prize draw from the Joey Dunlop Foundation.
The charity, which operates disabled holiday accommodation at Braddan Bridge, has traditionally offered a Honda CBR600 as the star prize in its annual draw.
But this year they have gone upmarket with a CBR1000 Fireblade. Moreover, it is to be kitted out in a special Guinness paint job and will boast a celebrity first owner.
Joey Dunlop Foundation chairman Kevin Quirk said: ‘It’s a special limited edition bike with a paint scheme designed to look like a pint of Guinness and then as an added bonus we are going to register it initially in John McGuinness’s name so he shows on the log book as the bike’s first owner.’
Tickets for the prize draw will be on sale through the year at various bike-related events in the UK as well as in the Isle of Man at the TT and Manx Grand Prix, among others.
‘Clive Padgett, whose firm supplies the bike, came up with the idea last year,’ Mr Quirk added.
He said the idea germinated when they were selling tickets at the TT last year for the 2011 prize draw bike - a CBR600 in the Honda TT Legends team colours as ridden by McGuinness.
‘John happened to be walking past our stand and he shouted “look after my bike, won’t you boys”.
‘Suddenly, after that we got a rush of ticket sales,’ he added.
The prize draw for the bike will, as usual, take place at the annual JDF dinner in November when the owner of the winning ticket will be contacted on the spot by one of the dinner’s celebrity guests. Last year’s winner received their call from former World Superbike rider Pierfrancesco Chili who was among the special guests attending the event.’
The disabled holiday accommodation at Braddan Bridge was opened during TT 2010 on Mad Sunday by Joey Dunlop’s, widow, Linda and John McGuinness.
The house which has three self contained flats is enjoying growing populalarity with bookings for this year already up on last year.
‘We are seeing a strong demand and everything seems to be going really well,’ Mr Quirk said.
‘There is clearly a strong demand for places and we are getting more and more enquiries. The ultimate ambition will be to extend the house in two or three years’ time.’