The people in Race Control (and Manx Radio) are using an actual program connected directly to the results database server at the Grandstand so as soon as a bike crosses the timing loop in the road, it takes about 1 second for the times to display on the screens.

What I expect is happening is that the data from the results server at the Grandstand is being sent to Dukes Web Server (which is located in the UK) as a stream of data and then having to be processed again. I was watching the race using the TT Live Dashboard yesterday and as the leaders crossed the Start/Finish line, it was taking about 10 seconds or so for the dashboard to update. Not bad.....