I was channel hopping tonight and on my travels came across the Isle of Man TT on ITV4. I'd heard of it before but didn't really know anything about it, except for the fact that they race motorbikes on public roads at high speeds. Although I like watching motor sports I've never really got into watching bikes. This had me hooked though. Turns out the race I saw was for 600cc machines and there are a number of races across the week for different types/size of bike.
These guys raced through towns and villages, past houses and between stone walls at very high speeds. On parts of the circuit where they reach the highest speeds the helicopter filming the action was left behind. The circuit is 37 and three quarter miles long and the racers complete a lap in under 18 minutes. That's pretty damn quick!
At the end of the first lap it started to rain. Coming into a village called Union Mills one rider had a bit of a slide and following on just behind a Scottish chap called Keith Amor fell. He was lucky. The layout of the road meant he slid to a stop safely, his bike however was moving faster and slid along the floor into the crash barrier outside the Spar shop before spinning back into the road. The conditions meant that the race was stopped.
The TV only showed highlights so I don't know how long they waited, but the race re-started and the riders (including Keith Amor) gave it their all once again. The winner, Gary Johnson, covered the four lap (150 mile) race at an average speed of 123.8mph. That's average speed, through towns and round hairpins on normal roads. In fact all of the top six finishers averaged over 120mph for the race distance. With no run off areas and no room for error, that takes some serious bravery and skill.
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