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Dominique Méliand, Team Manager of Suzuki Endurance Team: "Tourist Trophy is a great question of philosophy. It will always be a big philosophical question."
Scary is not it?
A bit anyway so, I find
I think it's a little like circus games
It touches the tarmac here. When I see the paint on the track, he has to miss bits of fairing somewhere.
The Tourist Trophy, the pinnacle of motorsport, the capital of the road race, the only place for Heroes as they say over there!
Rossi, Lorenzo, Capirossi, MotoGP gods themselves recognize that here on this road 60 km long closed, swallowed more than 210 km / h average between houses, trees and fields, no cheating!
However, the TT is more than two hundred people killed since its birth 103 years
So the TT?
I am impressed.
So the TT? Great slaughter organized or ultimate space of freedom for the knights of modern times?
The least we can say is that Man and its Tourist Trophy and are unique.
To start with, Man is a lost island off Liverpool.
So frankly, we do not come here randomly.
Especially when, in early June, the island is invaded by 50,000 bikers.
The emblem of Man is a tripod that can be found everywhere. Its meaning is that, whatever is the position which it fells, it always land on their feet!
What a program
Here, no one comes to show because this is the place trend. OK, there is some show on the grid with some pin-up.
But it is above all a passion for sport in English way, that prevails.
Because mechanics is always noble and celebrated
It is even one of the few places in the world, where the sidecar is essential to the show!
Here, we make its predictions, we listen carefully Radio TT, we discuss, we note the positions and the results better than during horse racing.
Passion just does not age. We still shaking!
What concept of danger the spectators have? Maybe no. The important thing is to live it fully, closer to the event, preferably both legs over the embankment.
In fact, among the spectators, the acceptance of danger is almost as strong as implied in pilots.
Why?
Just because the audience there has an experience outside the norm, outside the realm being forced on us constantly!
"It makes you dream or you find it scary? "
"Both if you want. Scary because you tell yourself that the slightest blip, that's it, it's a catastrophe. "
It's also dream, this is both touchable, palpable and very nearly unaffordable because it seems unrealistic.
And the fact is that when a motorcycle comes flat out in sixth gear,at more than 300 km / h, there is first the sound of air being torn!
Then, there is the movement of air when the motorcycle passes beside you.
The next split second, all of this, there remain only traces of fairings on the ground and a curious feeling of absence, vacuum atmosphere, accompanied by odors.
Like the one of Avgas petrol remaining in suspension, those engines overheated or burned fairings have scraped the asphalt too!
Only the leaves that swirl about themselves betray this frozen moment and divine.
The scene has just taken place two or three yards away at most against a good hundred meters on a conventional circuit.
In TT, the show is unique, as here in Sulby Bridge where, in the midst of the spectators, and halfway through the track, a mechanic does not spare himself really to warn riders of their position or their race behind!
For the pit straight, the riders do see that every 60 km or every 18 minutes only for the best!
Before departure, there reigns a huge tension, surreal. Everyone knows the issues, nobody has the right to make mistakes.
Whether they be mechanics who spend their time checking everything constantly, or riders who try to escape the stress in their own way, often in isolation, as here with Keith Amor and Guy Martin
A minute before the start sounds a foghorn.
In one lane, each waiting to rush every ten seconds, cold tires, flat out in sixth gear, in the bottom of the descent of Bray Hill.
Because honestly, if it's easy to imagine the tenth of the pleasure that these drivers must take to ride back on a country road,
it is more difficult to understand what persuades them to sign their entry form and not running to save before getting on the bike.
Marc Granié, french rider: "I enjoy. Agostini said that this circuit was very dangerous but it was the circuit where he took most pleasure in the world to ride. So I'm happy.
It does not answer my question if it's serious or not to race here?
It requires reflection.
All this makes you wonder why is this race unique!
The TT is a week of races. Six races made of Supersport, Superbike, Superstock and Senior categories.
1450 km of race swallowed at more than 200 km / h average, not including 1000 km of testing the week before races.
So, it's not one but three bikes that must be set up to perfection.
Because a Superbike set incorrectly is a nightmare here!
No other track in the world is so demanding.
60 km, over 300 curves that must be memorized to perfection, including the bumps.
Can you pretend to know every bump and every curve of the track?
Yes completely. There is a risk of devolution but you must konw the track by heart. It's even intuitive. We know, it comes together.”
Here, there is no place to relax, breathe on the bike.
The straight line is the worst of all, you have to hang on. Last year, with the bike very quickly that I had, It took me eight laps to fully open the throttle in straight lines.Here, the only place where you can relax is fast corners.
Follow a rider can be a real factor in devolution.
About overcoming another rider, it becomes downright dangerous and a clever calculation. All without losing the thread of its own trajectory.
In the TT, he harder morally remains to be immediatly to the top. "If you do not throw yourself, with cold tires, to the bottom of the sixth in descent of Bray Hill for snapping a time to over 130 mph input game, no chance of winning" tells Steve Platter.
Other time of unmatched intensity of the TT, the number of refueling, every two laps out the six in Superbike and Senior categories.
The pit lane is narrow!
Once in front of his rig, the limited flow of fuel filler pipe allows everyone to work in a calm, concentration and safety of the driver.
Stress, precipitation must be eliminated, under penalty of crucial mistakes like this driver
who's going back in the race without any protection because of a polishing too supported the fairing of his motorcycle.
But can we really talk about safety here, at the TT?
Because if there is no parade in front of a crash more than 200 road, we must recognize that everyone is very caring the riders.
In the paddock, perfection is a must and the mechanics even remove the thin layer of paraffin from the tyres.
Yet there are other elements from the pilots themselves that contribute to safety.
Starting with extreme humility they have towards this race.
The rider who comes here should have the humility to accept to be slow. You can not come here and pretend to make immediate good lap times
It is true that it seems hard to believe, however, all the riders have an extreme awareness of the dangers of this race.
Many riders admit that the TT should be a short moment in their riding career. They fear, more than in any other motorcycle competition, the race that you be too much and fatal.
So that'sclear. For us, the Tourist Trophy is a big boys race that takes place between consenting big boys even if:
"TT is a great question of philosophy. "