ISLE OF MAN TT 2010 - III

Thursday- Rescheduled Supersport Race 2 & Sidecar Race 2.

Finally on Thursday we get the Supersport and Sidecar races from the day before. Once again we're first at Ramsey hairpin. This time we are prepared with barbecue, meat and utensils with us. Today there is no waiting for the races. We are greeted with a cool but mostly sunny day so after a day of being teased by the weather we finally hear the howl of 600cc's of hate echoing through the streets into the town of Ramsey and finally up the hill to the hairpin.

A hairpin on a racetrack is usually a predictable thing as far as the surface goes. But this is not a race track like any other. The lead up into the corner is covered with a tall tree canopy with some damp patches remaining from yesterday's rain. And then the surface has a pronounced line in the asphalt all the way around the corner that leaves the riders with few different options for tackling the corner. Some go very wide and avoid going close in. Others brush their knee on the stone wall. Either is impressive and both its own merits to the riders.

Just as impressive sight is of the riders winding up the hill as the track curves off to the right toward the Waterworks. The riders give it the berries heading up there so you hear the screaming engines up the hill echoing off the trees and the rocks as they disappear out of sight but can be heard for quite a while.

Between races we time our barbecue so our smoke isn't there to distract the riders and tuck into a hearty lunch of snag sangas. This makes everyone very jealous and wish that they'd thought of the same idea. We should have taken some more up and sold them; we could have paid for our holiday that way I reckon. Once again the sidecars delight and terrify the spectators. Whenever they race you'll always hear someone say "No bloody way you'd get me on one of them". And I'd agree.

After the day's racing they need to clear the roads for them to be opened back again. They have made the Mountain Section only one way for the duration of the TT to cut the accidents down. A guy I know from a UK bike forum, Chris, who is a Manx local, offered to take us for a lap in his car. We'd arranged to meet at the Hairpin when the roads opened. Not five minutes after the roads had opened some knucklehead had an accident and the road needed to be closed again. So Chris met us in Ramsey and took us around the coast road around to the start line for a lap proper.

Now Chris is a born and bred Manxman so he knows the roads well. He also knows where the cops sit on race week and is keen to flog the bejesus out of his 73HP Citroen C3. We overtake some unnecessarily slow riders near Ballycrane. The back part of the circuit is very much a rural road lined with many stonewalls, trees, houses, farms, and small villages. Some of the bigger trees and the lampposts on the track have padding around them. But then next to that is a stone wall or a house. I'm sure that the protection is more for the object than anything else.

Just after Quarterbridge there had been an accident, so we headed back to The Raven for a pint and to watch a few of the spectators give the jump over the bridge a go. Soon we were back on the road. Threading our way through Parliament Square in Ramsay you wonder how they do this at such speeds. We went up the hill past our viewing position for the last two days and onto the Mountain section.

Err, normally the bikes are coming from the other direction. And jumping the bridge.

This section has no speed limit. And it's now one way. You can ride the proper lines and not have to worry about opposite direction traffic. Next time I come back here, and I fucking will don't worry about that, I will bring a motorcycle. Chris's car is underpowered at the best of times but with four blokes in it, even more so. But still we are held up by this gentleman on a R6. After the struggle up the hill where the car is overtaken by the several bikes. Mr R6 takes an age and a good long straight before deciding to overtake us. Chris is keen on keeping his speed up with as little braking as possible but Mr R6 decides that braking everywhere is a good idea. Corner after corner Mr R6 slows us down.

Chris is screaming at him to hurry up. I'm screaming at him to use some proper lines and stop riding like an arseclown. We overtake Mr R6 at the death defying speed of 75 mph near the Bungalow. I hope he remembers this day and sells his motorcycle. If there was a speed limit, we wouldn't be breaking it by a lot for us to overtake him.

We quickly put a gap between us and Mr R6 and get a good run over the rest of the Mountain. Down near Creg-Ny-Baa is where the speed limit ends. I remind Chris not to get too carried away at the pub and accidentally plough into the assembled bikes out the front. I didn't feel like being beaten to death with the fuel tank from a GSXR K2. Neither did Chris luckily. Down the next fast section down the Governor's Bridge and back to the campsite. Not quite a sub twenty minute lap but still a good way to get some idea of how the track goes.

Friday – Senior Race. TT Zero

The big day. This is one they want to win. Hutchinson himself said that if he didn't win this his four previous wins would count for nothing. There is a real buzz in the air today. The medical choppers take off like they always do. A good sign that racing will get underway today. The riders for the parade lap assemble down on the pit straight. Lorenzo and Capirossi do their laps, Lorenzo doing wheelies most of the way. A large field of classic bikes take off. All manner of British twins, Japanese two-strokes, Italian triples and everything in between fire their way around the course. The acrid smell of a two stroke and the sight of a racer in a pudding bowl type helmet riding a motorcycle much older than I am is a hell of a great experience. And the sound of the MV Agusta 500s blasting through the Manx countryside is what the apocalypse will sound like, I am sure.

If you hear a sound like and MV 500 and there are no motorcycles about, get ready for the Reckoning.

The Senior race kicks off under sunny skies and Guy Martin is on it. I mention to Matty that he will either win it or bin it today. Sadly, during the race Guy comes unstuck. At first they red flagged the race, then we didn't know how it was. They deduced that it must have been Guy as he hadn't made it to the next commentary position. Race control announced that a fire truck was needed on track for a fire. A quiet hush fell over the crowd along the Glencrutchery Road. Colin, who was in the paddock, told me later that you could hear nothing but the wind in the leaves for twenty minutes until they told us that Guy was conscious and was being taken to hospital.

Bloodnut bides his time

The rescheduled race was to be a four lap affair. More tension mounted than before the original race. The guys and girls were on it for this race. But again Hutchinson took the win. I think the whole crowd, no matter who they supported at the beginning of the race, were willing Hutchie to get home in the end. It was a real privilege to witness a rider on such a winning streak at the hardest track in the world.

Next past was the TT Zero race. Interesting idea, piss poor racing. The MotoCzysz bike beat the pants of the other bikes, a lot of which didn't finish the race. The final lap by race bike of the TT was a ride past by the Suzuki GSVR by Australia's own Cam Donald. I've heard them before but the guttural howl of the Suzuki could be heard much, much further away than the loudest of any of the other bikes. Cam even hit 202 mph on his lap, and his time would have been good enough for a top twenty finish. Not bad for a bike he's never ridden before.

So all that was left to do is a few beers down on the Prom and debrief over the weeks events with Colin, Matty and Woody. It was the first TT for all of us. We'd all been blown away by what we had seen. Between us we'd all seen other types of racing from different parts of the world. Before the trip we were calling it a once in a lifetime trip. Not anymore, this is too good for only one visit. We'd seen world champions and MotoGP race winners, past and present, mingle and pay respects to the TT gladiators.

Nothing can compare to the TT. It might sound like a cliché but it doesn't deserve to be.

Nothing can compare at all. We shall return.