Everyone is entitled to their opinion, perhaps Mark should check TT miles per fatality over short circuit miles ( remember where Norman Brown met his untimely end), and the number of deaths from mountaineering, horse riding and especially angling.

Strangely I have never heard of a bull paying to enter a bullfight, and I am sure the Christians did not have to do six qualifying fights then pay for their own transport and accommodation to entertain the Romans. Dogsbody

Sounds very much like he's been taking windy walks with that other self inflated expert Mat "Mouth" Oxley and very definitely not seen the return gained on committing all you have as you head off down Bray Hill - particularly the lads like myself and my mates - we knew they weren't going to win but would have a damn good try at living a little while we had the chance, well more than a little, living life like no other.

In ONE racing day, three races, the riders travels more than one lap around the earth at the Equator. 80 riders, 3 races, 4 laps and 60 km = 57 600 km all together.
One lap around the Equator is about 40 076 km. How many practice laps are made and there are 4 race days. Surprised that there are accidents???

There are a lot of things in this world that need banning long before the TT.

obviously this is the wrong place to mention banning any road race
but i agree with the above theres plenty of things to ban before the tt
also every one that rides the tt has the option toshut off the gas and turn off at st ninians if they dont want to risk everything
we all know and accept the tt is very dangerous thats part of the atraction

Very strange! All these years writing about Bikes and he still doesn't get it.

Aging hack writes sensationalist piece about banning TT to raise personal profile.  Hardly a new phenomena.


Put it in the same basket as all the other 'leveraging off the TT profile' nonsense we've had to look at over the years.  Anyone remember the 'INSERT NAME - talks to MCN about TT comeback' headlines we used to get every year (usually about the time of the Motorcycle show)?

Its an easy target and guaranteed to raise emotions. But its all been said many times before. Whats the point?

Sam

I remember back when "Wee Stevie" Hislop (one of his mechanics called him that) got Joeys bikes - 89 if I'm thinking correctly, and the talk was then, that if anyone was knocking on the door of lapping at 120mph - they'd have to ride it like a short circuit -- and same mechanic "He'll either win or kill himsel" . Well, history shows "Wee Stevie" did a pretty fine job that year, not only breaking the lap record - shattering it, at 121.34mph ---- and lived to tell the tale. How things have changed since 1989 - with there being little chance of being anywhere in the top 3, without a 130+ lap or two these days. Heady times indeed - and hardly reflected by any huge improvements of the course - more about the machinery/tyres being able to cope with such mind blowing averages. 1989 was a hugely black year for fatalities, with 5 during the TT - including my friend Phil Hogg, and 3 during the Manx - RIP all.
So - after reading the 'knee jerk' article by this 'journalist' - I of course think back to MO's scathing words - from back when. At least he was a TT rider, and had an inside perspective of what it actually takes to win a race here.
We all hate criticism - especially when it is just based on prejudices + statistics - not actual experience, and this guy clearly hasn't a clue about why the TT is still growing from strength to strength. As long as there are "Everest's' to conquer - mankind will keep trying, and the IOM just happens to be a little bigger (challenge) than Everest -- and  that makes it all the more appealing for those skilled enough to even contemplate scaling the heady heights of the mountain course.
As for my first words - regarding having to ride it like a short circuit -- well, if you don't fancy doing that - don't sign up here!
Roll on the Classic races & TT 18, I think we're safe enough!

Whatever induced or inspired Oxley to print that MCN edition with IIRC the IoM silhouette with a load of burial crosses on it is something beyond any redemption for me especially and more so coming from a TT winner. Why bother taking all the plaudits and then slag the event off later when the worst possible outcome for competitors is known before you get on the ferry ? - not the actions or thinking i've ever seen with anybody else involved with any part of road racing.

It strikes me that Williams's "Spectators go for the perverse thrill of seeing living beings maimed and killed" comment is likely to reflect his own prior morbid fascination with the TT. I certainly don't know anybody who loves the event that shares his own assertion(s) - although there are doubtless a few inhumane idiots about who probably do. Perhaps he's on some desperate mission to salve his own tortured conscience? Whatever his reason is, I wish he'd kept his opinions to himself: especially after the long career he spent peddling the thrills & spills of motorcycling. Perhaps when it comes to hypocrisy, politeness is the most acceptable - and indeed preferable - form it should take...