Ducati Sporting Club UK > Sport > Race > TT, leave it alone or time for the nanny state to act?

[bradders]

problem for the locals is this IS the ecomoy for many. If they kill it off, what could replace it? Who would go there - especially as they would then blanket 60mph speed limits too (I reckon) - that dont do there now? If the TT dies, so does IOM economy, so I cant see that happening until they have something to replace it, cowes week type thing may help????

[Gizmo]

All sport carries risks, mountain climbing and big ocean yacht racing are very similar in risk to true road racing but no-one tries to ban them.

The IOM is unique now and would never get off the ground if you wrote the format onto a clean sheet of paper and took it to the authorties for approval, - so you want to have a few hundred motorcycles travelling at 170 MPH plus through towns and villages where people live and its going to run for 2 weeks??.

No matter how you try and improve safety, one look at any on board footage would convince you its impossible, you'd need miles of air fence and removal of miles of trees and dry stone walls.

I'd agree riders have a choice and don't have to go BUT most riders are sponsored and its their sponsors who may choose to push a rider to attend purely for commercial reasons. Companies do use IOM results in advertising, maybe this needs to be considered and reduced.

Its a dinosaur of an event and will gradually lose its appeal, remove the commercial side and it'll go a lot quicker. Personally I'll be glad when it does but not if it ends up being banned.

[ducv2]

Its called freedom of choice, and we still have it (just). Why stop with the TT?, plenty of other things to ban/interfere with. Do you not think that the powers that be interfere in our lives enough??

[Ray]

IMHO no one goes to the IOM with the thought that they might not make it back at the forefront of their mind, if they did they wouldn't do it? They don't spend a lot of time thinking what if?? If they did they wouldn't be doing it?

Everyone has their own "risk calculator". the answer that comes out, "do it or don't do it" is just different for different people as far as risk taking goes. The only problem comes when an unexpected factor comes into play, that could be a rabbit crossing the road on the TT course, it could be Pi55ed up driver running a red light when you are on you way home.

You only have to look at the rise in "adrenalin" sports in recent years, bungee jumping, base jumping, and the like to see that while some would have us remove the opportunity for risk taking from our lives others are being just as creative at finding new ways to up the risk factor.

Tourist trip to peak of Everest anyone?

I know a few who have decided they have "beaten the odds" and gotten away with it for so long and made a decsion to pack an activity in and move on to something new. That's just the factors that produce a decision in their head changing so the do it answer changes to don't do it.

The TT is a challenge that some cannot resist, like a mountain "it's there" so it has to be climbed. if it goes, what's next??


Ray

[Edited on 13-6-2005 by Ray]

[chris.p]

QUOTE No matter how you try and improve safety, one look at any on board footage would convince you its impossible, you'd need miles of air fence and removal of miles of trees and dry stone walls.


Add airfences, run off etc & the riders will try to go faster still.


Chris

[Ian]

a lot of words about freedom of choice and they know the score, -as long as that is the case, ok run it, but it was not long ago when riders were very obliged to go there, - read some of James Whitham’s report on the year of many deaths including Mez Mellor; those boys were forced to muscle ill handling powerful bikes around on poor tyres. That is not freedom of choice, and if that ever returns, scrap it.

If you look now at who runs well, I would say that whilst they are clearly great riders they are not able to earn the big money at racing "safe" tracks, - perhaps Rutter is the exception. - Oh and Irish road races have to be worse, they are races not time trials on road circuits, - scary stuff.

I also think that whilst some of the "white coats" and “chalk boards” are nice, they are out of place with 21st century racing, the setup is too casual, marshals should be posted on both sides of the road and told not to cross whilst racing is on. The year David Jefferies died the bikes still did not have oil catch tanks. Whilst I agree that air fencing would be out of place on all of the circuit there is a case for taking away some of the risk in places, - or at least helping. I fear that perhaps the event is run by people opposed to change.