Roads: 2023 Isle of Man TT schedule confirmed

The schedule for the 2023 Isle of Man TT has been confirmed by the Department for Enterprise with the road racing event getting underway on Monday 29 May.

The Bank Holiday Monday start date will include a full day of qualifying sessions, with the 2023 TT running through until Saturday 10 June. The first race of the event will take place on Saturday June 3.

2023 sees an all-new programme of 10 races, including two weekends of action. The blue riband Senior TT will move from its Friday slot to a Saturday, completing the event on June 3. It’s the first time that the TT will host races across two weekends.

The two extra races are a second Superstock race and a second Supertwins race. Like this year, the entire event will be shown live on the TT+ streaming service.

The 2023 race schedule:

June 3 – Monster energy Supersport Race One / 3Wheeling.Media Sidecar Race One

June 4 – RST Superbike TT

June 6 – RL360 Superstock Race One / Bennetts Supertwin Race One

June 7 – Monster Energy Supersport Race Two / 3Wheeling.Media Sidecar Race Two

June 9 – RL360 Superstock Race Two / Bennetts Supertwin Race Two

June 10 – Milwaukee Senior TT

The Isle of Man Government has also confirmed that although the Senior Race Day has been moved, Friday 9 June will remain as a Bank Holiday, which shall be known as the ‘TT Bank Holiday’.

It’s hoped that the new 10-race will schedule will drive the long-term sustainability of the event, bringing several benefits with it:

• Increasing overall visitor numbers and economic benefit by creating two long weekend options for visiting fans, most of whom prioritise time off work when deciding to attend events.
• Filing the accommodation capacity towards the end of the racing programme that will in turn give visitors greater flexibility and further benefit accommodation providers where currently over 65% of fans have left before the Senior TT.
• Reducing the duration of races days, lessoning the impact on residents as well as reducing the demand on volunteers and officials, including marshals, teams and competitors.
• Improved offering for race fans with more racing and both feature Superbike Races positioned in prime viewing times (weekend afternoons).

The Department for Enterprise held two separate public consultations on the proposed changes to the TT, following extensive research.

This research revealed that the existing TT schedule, the Island’s travel capacity, the Island’s accommodation infrastructure, costs factored against current economic climate, and the changing habits of customers are no longer compatible and do not meet the needs of the event’s customers,” Lawrie Hooper, MHK, Minster for Enterprise explained.

“Taking into consideration these clear challenges identified in the research and bearing in mind the overarching TT strategy, the new schedule for 2023 is a proactive step towards supporting visitor growth and offers clear benefits to local businesses and the economy. The Island’s current TT capacity is limited to around 28,000 visitors at any one time, with the current visitor curve highlighting infrastructure pressures on the middle weekend.

“In its simplest form, the new schedule aims to sustain current visitor numbers whilst also promoting growth. We expect this new schedule to encourage new visitor patterns and capitalise on capacity, driving an additional 50,000 bed nights over time, which would represent an additional spend on the Island of £6million.”