THE ISLE OF MAN TT RACES (3)

RACE WEEK IS HERE

After Saturdays Racing and Sundays Unique and Wonderful Madness, Monday dawns with a bit of an anticlimax.


ANDY AND ME PREPPING THE RACE BIKES

However, after yet another full Manx Breakfast we are ready to see more racing.

We have noticed that the clock shows 9.00 am instead 4.30 am and we feel that we have missed the best part of the day already. The sun is high in the sky and there is a new bustle that was not evident in Practice Week.

THE RACE WEEK FANS ARE HERE

This is a new influx, a new breed of bikers who have yet to be introduced to the wonders of practice. They will be told about it and we hope they will join us for the full fortnight next year !

Today we are going to a vantage point out on the course, so we take waterproofs in case the weather changes suddenly......We ride out to a great-for-spectating place called CRONK-Y-VODDEE, a long undulating straight about 11 miles out. We can park in the field on the outside of the course, near the "Institute" and look over the waist-high fence.

Over the road is a house which used to be a church

This is the house I want when I retire !!

Photograph taken
from rear of house

Once the race is underway it takes about 5 minutes before we can hear the first machines approaching--They are seen at the beginning of the straight, coming out of Lambfell having climbed the Sarahs Cottage hill, being chased by a helicopter which is filming the race for one video company or another.

Man and machine howl past and disappear towards the 11th. Milestone, a tight right- and then a tight left-hand series of bends.

Even though we are stuck out here on the course, we can follow what is developing because of the continuous chit-chat emanating from dozens of portable radios.Most people have a portable radio and every single one is tuned to RADIO TT !!..........

The race continues and it seems no time until the leaders are back with us again with that helicopter in chase mode..

Having seen the first days racing from the grandstand, we can now visualise what is happening back in "pit lane" as riders call in for fuel etc.

Again, the race is over very quickly, this time the gap between the leaders going through has been extended because we are only one third round and they had to do another 26 miles to take the flag...

Iain Duffus after the Formula One was stopped--He is composing himself to set off for the second time at a restart

At the T.T., the winner
does NOT do a lap of honour !!

We have a breather and eat our lunch which is not hotel-prepared doggy bags like in the "olden days", but holdalls and backpacks full of huge Baps purchased from shops in Douglas or from the farm counter here at Cronk-y-Voddee. We can have beer from a can, water or lemonade from a bottle, or a plastic cupful of strong tea. It has certainly changed since those early days--we even have to wait in a queue to get out of the field.

Some of us stay to watch the next race but others decide to go to another vantage spot (so easy to do since each spot is joined by a series of entwining roads on the outside of the course.) If you have parked on the INSIDE of the course you can go over the mountain to vantage spots on the east side, such as Brandywell, or the Bungalow.

You will certainly find it more interesting to watch two races from one spot so you can compare speeds and lines and these will be very different today--

However there are SO many good spots to watch the races so you have both options open to you.

Today, it is the SIDECARS next on the list, and sure enough, the racing is fast and furious as these projectiles scream along the straight past us with two men on a motorised teatray going almost as fast as the solo machines.

When the Sidecar race is completed this afternoon, the first race day of the second week of the TT festival is over......

So much still to see !!!!

In the evening is the presentation of trophys and prizes at the VILLA MARINA--a very good evenings entertainment at which you will see the riders in ordinary clothing with their families, friends and mechanics.

AFTER THAT, IT IS MORE FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD,YET ANOTHER VISIT TO A PUB OR TWO, AND ANOTHER LATE NIGHT.

Cards produced by Castrol in 1956--This series includes Reg Armstrong, Jack Brett, Bob McIntyre, Geoff Duke, Bill Lomas and John Surtees plus many more not shown here..Part of my really big collection of badges, stickers and the like, including annual sets of TT Supporters Club pins and ACU Benevolent Fund pins
COLLECTORS CARDS AND BADGES
FROM
THE VAST COLLECTION
THE RAMSEY SPRINT

The Ramsey Sprint is always worth seeing because it depends heavily on the public participating in the "RUN WHAT YER BRUNG" Class..Yes you can have a go but do not bleat to your local motorcycle shop when you get home when you realise your clutch is not working so good !!

It is a great day out in the north end of the Island, because many other rallies start from, and / or finish in RAMSEY....There are sideshows and Jumbles--And, of course, this is also the day the RED ARROWS do their awesome display over Ramsey then repeat it over Douglas later on.

Red Arrows over Douglas Bay

JUST LOOK AT THOSE CROWDS ON THE PROM !

THEN IT'S WEDNESDAYS RACING AND THEN IT'S FRIDAY

THIS WEEK GOES OVER MUCH FASTER THAN PRACTICE WEEK BECAUSE WE ARE NOT GETTING UP AS EARLY AS LAST WEEK......IT ALL BECOMES ONE BIG BLUR AS WE DO THE ROUNDS OF EVERYTHING AVAILABLE......

Sitting on Francesca Giordanas Bill Smith Yamaha, ready to go up to the start of practicing, very early morning--the sunglasses were on to hide the bags under my eyes (see below)
STATEMENT-- "THE EARLY MORNINGS, THE LATE NIGHTS, ALL THAT EATING AND DRINKING, THE PARTYING AND THE LACK OF SLEEP DO NOT SEEM TO AFFECT YOU" (-HE LIED)
(The body can take a lot of stick, can't it !)
Roger was later to star in the ill-fated soap opera ELDORADO-----Anneke subsequently waved her excellently formed posterior in the air, in the air, in TREASURE HUNT which was almost as ill-fated as Eldorado----However I enjoyed meeting them at the TT and getting their autographs etc---Roger was a good laugh and Anneke was a lot of fun !!

DID HE WIN OR NOT ?

Roger Walker and Anneke Rice
in a 1984 Childrens TV version of
"NO LIMIT"

whos that with ANNEKA RICE ?
Yes,this is me
showing Anneka the sights

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Yes this is the ferry going back to Liverpool almost empty to pick up hordes of impatient fans waiting on the dockside

Ship going back to Liverpool for even MORE fans

 



E-mail ian.huntly@ttfan.co.uk or iantt@superbiking.co.uk

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