Inside the Isle of Man TT:
Founded in 1907, the overall
winner of the first event
was Charlie Collier riding a
Matchless motorcycle in a time
of 4 hours, 8 minutes and 8
seconds at an average race
speed of 38.21 mph.
The Snaefell Mountain Course
over which the TT races are run
is the world’s oldest motorcycle
racing circuit still in use.
The TT was part of the FIM
Motorcycle Grand Prix World
Championship from 1949–1976,
and was the home of the British
Grand Prix.
TT stands for Tourist Trophy
Pre-war, the Isle of Man
TT Races was seen as the
preserve of British, Irish and
Commonwealth competitors.
This stranglehold was first
broken by Omobono Tenni as
the first foreign winner in 1937.
throttle is on the right, but I’m
racing against the best guys
in BSB, your brother is racing
against the best guys in WSBK
and Marquez is racing against
the best guys in MotoGP. It just
depends on what sort of category
you are in, in what year and on
what bike. The circumstances
dictate whether you go flying to
the top or come crashing the
other way.
So: BSB 2014. You have
mentioned in the past that
it frustrates you that the
champion is not decided over
74 | FreestyleXtreme.com
the full season. Obviously there
will be other race winners, but
already it looks like it could
come down to a showdown
fight between yourself and
Shane “Shakey” Byrne for the
Championship. How do you see
it panning out?
I think it’s common with most
riders that they get frustrated with
the way the Championship is, but
I kind of sympathise with the fact
that BSB has such a big following
and it draws a lot of people so
there must be something in
the mechanism that’s working.
It’s difficult to question it, but
as a rider it’s hard to gauge
how well you’ll do in different
circumstances you know. All that
aside, so far in the year it’s going
- not perfectly to plan - but very
close and I agree: I feel that it is
going to come down to me and
Shakey.
Last year it was Shakey, Alex and
myself on the podium at most
of the rounds, so it’s sort of set
itself up for that pattern again this
year. Unfortunately I had a sh**ty
showing of myself and the team
at the last shoot out rounds, apart