Respect for the IOM TT

I am sorry, but I am so angry I feel I must bring to your attention what I feel is the most astonishing and disgusting piece of so called journalism I have ever made the mistake of reading. It is from the Mail on Sunday supplement 22nd June.

I believe tha article was alleged to be a road test of an KTM RC8 and a 690 enduro, but I was so disgusted that I stopped reading after the first two paras which read as follows, “Summer for me starts with the Isle of Man TT, where for one week only, the worlds biggest nutters gather on a tiny island to thrash the hell out of the worlds fastest bikes. Seriously, if you missed it the other week, get down next year and watch them duelling with each other around those rainy Manx roads before smashing into a wall at 160mph. Thats what I call sport. The best part of the whole TT is right at the end, after all the races, when the pro riders are limping home. That’s when the hungover amateur bikers take their machines around the 35-mile course with no speed limits or traffic. It’s known as Mad Sunday – or at the local hospital, ‘Donor Day'”.

Now I have been to approximately 40 TTs and MGPs so feel qualified to comment, at least on the innacuracies of the piece, i.e. Actually lasts two weeks, Mad Sunday not actually at the end, track actually 37 3/4 miles, actually there are speed limits and traffic on Mad Sunday, etc etc. However, what I would really like to ask the writer, is how he think’s McGuinnes and Co would feel about being described as nutters who limp home after their annual thrash, and how the friends and families of those riders who have given their lives or been seriously injured on the island would feel about being described as thrashing nutters who smash their bikes into walls for his love of the ‘sport’.

He may also like to tell us where he got the ‘Donor Day’ comment from, if indeed he has ever been to ‘The Island’ or even knows the name of that magnificant facility which is Nobles. I have lost a lot of friends and aquaintances on The Island over the years, none of whom would have had it any other way, but this assasination of their loss of life is frankly unforgiveable.

The least this newspaper could do is to ensure that this despicable individual is forced to give a full and unreserved apology to the many friends and families of all those who have ever raced on the course, as this article is as damaging to those who continue to race as it is to those heroes who have been killed or injured during their quest to master the course, not to thrash around it like a group of nutters. The other thing he should do, is if indeed he has ever been to the TT, not to bother going again. If you decide to print this letter please ask the Mail for their comments as indeed I will be.