A fella on my campsite said he first started going in 1991 and he said in his opinion in the couple of years after the foot and mouth crisis the event was truly on it's backside, the sad death of DJ made it even worse as at the time he was the star, McGuinness and Anstey were yet to become the TT stars they have become, Lougher wasn't exactly a young man either, 2003 was also the last we saw of Scots pair Iain Duffus and Jim Moodie and this fella said he didn't really see any future for the TT. However he says from 2004 onwards a new wave of stars began to arrive then with the rise of things like Youtube, social media and the documentary film it's given rise to a new era in the TT and a highly competitive one at that, sure it might be a different feel to other TT attendees that have been going over the years but sometimes change is necessary and I agree with this fella.

Over the last 10 years or so I know people who have taken an interest in motorcycling and racing because of the TT, sure it will attract the wrong crowd but then wherever there is a big crowd there will always be a portion of wronguns in that crowd whether it's at the TT, Glastonbury, a world title fight or an FA Cup Final. I've only been attending the TT and the Manx since 2014 but I can safely say apart from one instance when some loon almost caused me to crash, I've never had an issue with anyone in my time going over.

Good post antg.

The TT has evolved and survived some difficult years.

The only real bugbear i have is that the new race guide part of the program has no part to write the winners in. Not the biggest complaint there's ever been.

I like the classes, I like the organization, I like the atmosphere, I like the fact that when I roll off the ferry I've got the biggest, best racetrack in the world at my feet that I can watch freely and ride after the roads open, I like the history, the past and future names.

I'll be there year on year... This year was my 30th TT and it never feels old.

Having said that.... The classic TT certainly has the feel of TT 's of old... It's great for us lads that recall the 80's and 90's when we were young and daft. For a long weekend at the end of August I'm 20 odd again, rolling off the ferry on my oil cooled gixxer with loud fieldsheer leathers and an excited grin.

My first visit to the IOM was to the 1985 MGP to spanner for someone, I continued every year from then on at the MGP but didn't visit the TT until another lad I was spannering for moved up from the MGP to the TT some 10 years later in 1995.

I must admit after all the excited anticipation I found my first TT in 1995 to be very underwhelming, it was just another MGP with a sprinkling of 'stars' and that continued to be the case for a number of years, it was a shadow of what I had seen on the old footage from the 60's and 70's

Senior race day in particular was a huge anti-climax, arriving in the morning to put the bike through scrutineering to find the paddock half empty, and the remaining teams with awnings down and trucks turned to face the gate for a quick getaway after the race, it really was a case of 'will the last senior finisher please close the gates to the park'

I just couldn't understand at the time how it had been allowed to get to this, and why something wasn't being done about it, my first question back in 1995 was where are the TT crews? by then we had many sky channels popping up such as 'men and motors' and many others, but none seemed to be interested or even aware of the TT.

Now I've been as critical as many others about the regime that appeared over the next 10 years to 'run the event' but to be honest it desperately needed a makeover, what needed doing was easy to see, and it wasn't going to be particularly hard to do, now whether it needed an entire and expensive department to achieve these things has been the subject of many a discussion over the years, and is not one for this thread, but the fact is the TT did need someone to get a hold of it and take it forward before it slid into oblivion, and they do appear to have achieved that.

It will need to continue evolving, it has to, but it's future now looks a lot healthier than it did back in 1995, it will have more challenges ahead, not least the variable climate versus ever increasing speeds and power outputs of the bikes, but lets hope it can be made to work for a good while into the future.

Great stuff fellas - enjoyed reading it all.

I agree that the makeover was needed and appears to have worked. Its fantastic to watch the stars of tomorrow gradually building up their speeds. Davey Todd and Jamie Coward are two notables in a similar way to Peter Hickman was a few years back. Mike Booth and Paul Jordan were also pretty quick this time round too.

Some of the changes this year have been ultimately OK (the new live timing for example started rubbish but was actually quite usuable at the end) while others have been a disaster (Radio TT changes).

The government are however spending a lot of cash on their personnel. The Director of Motorsport commands a salary of up to £90k (see here for published payscales and payband 38 https://hr.gov.im/media/1040/ntnsp-pay-a...n-2019.pdf ) fire in a few more and the wage bill for the civil servants alone must be close to £500k.
I'm not going to suggest that they don't work for their cash, but they're putting on an event in which riders risk their lives to entertain the public and many are kipping in the back of vans down in the paddock. This largesse and the £1500 a pop for a lap in a car aren't good bedfellows for the poor privateers.

The bit of government work I think is poor is their customer engagement. All you guys are the customers. It's your tourist pound that is the target. Events should be based around your wants and needs and then sponsorship fits in accordingly. They seem to be too focused on the sponsors and branding etc and are forgetting who the customer is. If you guys stopped coming, the event would die quite quickly. This year, the Radio TT change was al about their corporate sponsors and the changes were made with little or no customer engagement - sadly this is the norm for IOM Gov.

(13-06-2019, 11:42 AM)Alfie Noakes Wrote: That's the period early 90's+ I was talking about Sam when the Senior race grid was made up with 250's and 600's(not detracting at all from those riders) as well as the bigger cc bikes and it's a big part of why the race page in the program was blank, the organisers didn't know who would be available apart from maybe the bigger teams at the end of race week due to accident/mechanical attrition, from hands/eyes on experience as a rider the paddock area was nowhere near as busy as it is these days on Senior race day, the popular spectator areas were busy but away from them the island was relatively quiet compared to today towards the end of race week.

Sorry mate, but thats just not true. The program was not blank because the organisers  did not know who was available due to accident/mechanical breakdown, and even if it was, how is that any different than today? It was blank for the reason I gave in my post about it. FACT!
As for the Senior being made up with 250s/600s, I have just pulled the Senior entry for 2000 ( first one I found) there were 85 entrys, ( printed the night before remember, how many entrys this year?) Of those, 13 were 600s, and 9 were 250s, 25% of the field. Adrian Archibald qualified third on a 600 Honda, Bruce Anstey was the first 250 in 21st.
I know which Senior race I would rather see now

70 entries originally this year I think, obviously there was a few missing come race day for various reasons.