I am a writer and web developer coming to the Isle of Man in March to do some pre-TT coverage for http://www.bbc.co.uk/isleofman/ - the BBC's website for the Isle of Man which launched in October 2005.

I want to plan some features around the TT and wondered what you all, as riders and lovers of the TT, would like to see in my coverage.

I have already planned a panoramic tour of the circuit featuring facts and audio commentary of the best spots on the course from a rider's point of view but what would you want to see in my coverage of the TT?

hope its before march the 6th for panoramic mountain shots as some of the mountain road is closed up there from then for two months! for the roadworks at windy corner.

Here are a few ideas:
You may be better to try to get as close to the heart of the TT as you can, try not to be drawn to the usual stereotypes of all the famous corners and such, but why not get down to the personal level.
Perhaps you could get some very low key and in depth interviews with some of the lesser knowns in the paddock, the ones who will not be the winners but to whom the TT means everything.
You could get out there for practice in the little known places and talk to some of the older enthusiasts who have watched the TT since before we were born.
Look for the rural nature of the course, the huge weight of history that haunts so many parts of the island.
Get in the pub at Ramsey and go out the side door and catch the riders as they pass inches away and into Parliament Square.
Grab a glass at Ginger Hall and ask the people each side of you why they are there.
It is people and history that make the TT as well as those fantastic riders.
If you could tap into the reason so many people are there I feel you would have a very rich human story to tell.

That was very good Don, but how could you miss out the Sulby Glen Hotel?
It has to be one of THE places to meet with and talk to enthusiasts of all ages.
Maybe I am biased as I have been usning it as a wteruing hole since th early 1970s.
I also agree wholeheartedky about the rural nature and the haunting...
I now stay in a cottage just up the side road from Sulby Bridge.
To be there at about 7:30 on a May morning during practice week is awesome.
I took a short piece of video panning the entrance to the corner and looking away towards Ginger Hall. This, to a background of silence and bird song.....
A real tonic. Full of ghosts...
I wonder if I should put it somwhere for downloading?


I think talking to the people who go year after year is a good point at which to sart with something like this.....

MV

Don's giving you some sound advice, get around the paddock campsite into a few tents with riff raff and sidecar crews where you will find a genuine warmest welcome and the finest hospiltaity, that's where the heart of the T.T pulsates and the best of company is to be found.

I never used it myself, I was always fortunate enough to be able to afford a really top class hotel and decent garage but if you start there and work your way up you won't go far wrong in finding what the true spirit of the T.T is realy all about, it aint corporate hospitality, eating, drinking and backscratching.

Good luck and enjoy.

You missed all the fun Tom -- the Paddock Hotel is the best on the Island -- or was until the forty-footers moved in and Health & Safety took over!

2 weeks in the tent was magic - as long as it was a big tent :!:

We used a six-berth for the two of us, and still do at Billown in May, where all the old enjoyable atmosphere still exists.

:wink:

Your bang on Larry, I found that out when I gave some sponsorship to Des Founds & Jim Craig a couple of great sidecar boys who always camped in the Paddock Hotel, I had never been near the place before.

If our friend from the BBC wants to know anything of the sportsmanship and camaraderie to be found in the "paddock hotel" he should ignore the fake and superficial TT paddock hotel and instead visit the Manx Grand Prix.

Where he'll meet real people with a common cause helping each other to achieve personal success even if that is just finishing a race.
A place where help, guidance, technical advice, the loan of just about any tool or part and even a shoulder to cry on can always be found.

Of course if the ACU have their way..................................????

You never know Cargo, the real story of the TT might be right here. when we find out the truth about the ACU. A TV expose could be just the thing.

One thing that strikes me about the MGP is the way the locals, even those not interested in the racing, are willing to give up their garages for a couple of weeks to complete strangers. One rider I knew was staying in the house of a MHK, who went away for the fortnight and left him to it. Amazing

There have been some excellent ideas already from Don and others. Try and get to interview some of the genuine enthusiastic road racers, who, as Don says, have competed at the TT for many years, and give up a great deal to do so, with no chance of ever climbing the steps of a TT rostrum. This breed may not be around much longer, if the ACU have their way, so grab the opportunity while you can!
There are many interesting people who are unseen and unheard who make up the fabric of both the TT and MGP. Get out to one of the pubs on the course and mix with the fans and talk to them. I stopped at the Creg with a blown engine during the last practice session of 2002. Although I was obviously depressed, I sat and watched the rest of the session on a roasting hot summers evening, as the sun slowly set like a ball of fire down behind Greeba Mountain, and the sounds and smells of the TT all around me, the sound of bikes on full noise down towards Brandish, a myriad of conversations in different accents, excellent rock music on the loud speakers, and the smells of food, beer, racing fuel and sun cream. Magical!
I know a man who is almost 80 now, he marshalled at the TT and MGP for over 50 years, and as a schoolboy, was in the auditions for "No Limit". I used to work with him on the Highway Board, and his job every year was setting up the sun warning lamps at Union Mills, Kirk Michael and wherever else they were required. He could tell you many an interesting yarn, and there are many others like him still around.
Have a chat with Ken Sprayson, he runs a FREE welding service for competitors in the paddock, and has done so since 1958! There are many other engineering workshops on the Island who are dedicated to doing jobs to keep riders machines' running during the two weeks; Phinik, Ballaconley, Steve Moynihan, Steam Packet and many more. Other small businesses are tied up doing spray jobs or repairing fibreglass fairings after practice crashes; making graphics and decals to satisfy last minute sponsors' requirements. Have a chat with one or two of the Douglas Scout Troops who will be on duty on the TT scoreboard on race days; The Joey Dunlop Foundation, who will be based this year in the Hailwood Centre behind the TT Grandstand--talk to them about their plans, plus there are lots of other local charities and church committees who raise much needed funds during the TT and the Manx.
Just as I said about the magic of the sunset on a Manx summer evening, and having a beer after practice out on the course somewhere, what about getting up very early in the morning, film the sunrise over Onchan Head at the north end of Douglas Bay, the fishing boats heading out to sea as the seacat or Ben-My-Chree comes in around 5.30am with another load of bikes and fans. Then you would be certain to catch a few words with bikers setting off from their digs around 6am for an early morning lap around the TT course on quiet roads.
Try to catch up with some of the long-serving fans that have been coming to the TT for many years. Every year now, the IOM Government, through Dept of Tourism & Leisure has a "prizegiving" ceremony to certain individuals who are nominated for an award, and some of them have been coming every year for well over 50 years. In fact, there are many people on the Island who can remember watching the TT races as youngsters in the 1920's, when the heroes were names like Woods, Handley, Guthrie, Bennett and Simpson. Lots of older Manx people could relate wonderful stories of the TT in years gone by.
I could go on and on, but I've suggested a few ideas. If you do go around the pubs on the circuit, I could suggest one or two not to bother with, as they are not TT supporters, but if you talk to people, you will soon be given good advice.
Finally, Cargo, I fully agree with your suggestion, but for now this gentleman's project is the TT. Hopefully if it turns out a success, he would be enthusiastic about returning to the Manx sometime, for a similar exercise?

Oh, yes, Barry...can't wait to be back....
Ian Huntly is another fan worth talking to, and Lars Schwarz, who has been coming from Scandinavia for so many years to race sidecars.
Bill Snelling came to do the manx and never went home...
The Southern100 and the amazing team who run it...
Several programmes worth, really..

come visit team tapken this year anyones welcome .the paddock is the only true place to meet the likes of us lot ,this year will be my 50th start so everybody come and have anatter you might even get a cuppa and abutty thats what us chair lads and lasses are like ,well there are a certain few that arent but ithink we all know who they are. roll on may

Yes (you have to say this very slowly to get the effect...) talk to the bloke from Stoke...

if any one comes from our neck of the woods bring some fresh oat cakes

Your oat cakes and mine are totally different...I ordered oat cakes once in Stoke, and was surprised at what I got! Lovely, though.

around stoke and surrounding areas there must be 40 + oat cake shops and the recipe is a closely guard ed secret the only trouble is they are addictive used to bring a couple of dozen over every time at tt time for an x stokey who was a officer in the prison .

Is that a clue to where the team spend TT time?

here's a thought...when they've finished building that new nick up at Jurby, maybe they could let us have the old one as TT accomodation...be ready in time for 2007??

once spent 2 nights in the cells drunk and disordely over there never again !!the bloody food was aweful.there again it was a long time ago now a completly reformed character .

Teehee...a true sidecar legend..I have very fond memories of once, back in the eighties, setting off from my wee tent in the cow pat field at the Southern100, about 8 in the morning...wending my way to Castletown for a shower and then some breakfast.
As I passed the garden with the peas foolishly planted close to the back wall...heehee...I heard a funny noise..sort of OHOHOHooooooh...groaning sort of noise....I crossed the road and found a well known sidecar driver in the ditch.
He was not well at all, and had just wakened up after an interesting evening in the Ship,,,well...among other places...and he wondered precisely where he was, and where the b******s he thought were his friends, might be...