TT RACER: LIFE OF A PRIVATEER
When Bruce called and asked if I'd tell my TT story, I wasn't that keen. I'm a nobody who's been incredibly lucky to be good enough to do some amazing things on motorbikes, while achieving very average results. My TT story is very similar, so what I can offer is a peep through the keyhole into the lives of privateers taking on the monumental task that is getting to the Isle of Man TT, and to tell a few stories along the way. I will try to keep this as short as I can, but obviously there's a bit to tell, so go make yourself a brew, sit back, and hopefully you'll enjoy this one.
I've heard many people rubbish TT riders with throwaway comments like ‘it's the place for failed short circuit racers’ or ‘only idiots without a brain cell would do the TT’. Well, funnily enough, I couldn't disagree any more. Taking on that place takes some different minerals, and it actually requires a pretty switched-on individual. Could you memorise almost 38 miles of track and more than 230 corners, most of which are blind entries? I have the same respect for the first person across the line as I do for the last, and I don't think this is something that can be understood until you've set off down Bray Hill after a tap on the shoulder.
The TT has always been in my blood. My grandparents lived on the circuit in Kirk Michael when I was growing up, so many of our holidays were spent there for the TT or the Manx. The racing was a huge part of why Grandpa wanted to live there, plus the fact he fell in love with that beautiful little island and everything it has to offer its residents. I often think about what he would have said if he'd have been alive to watch me race round there.
When I started racing bikes back in 2004, my dad always said he wouldn't support me going racing on the roads, so the thought of me being a TT racer wasn't on the radar and never crossed my mind until 2014. I'd had a couple of seasons out of racing at BSB, took a step back from that world, bought downhill mountain bikes, didn't really get a buzz out of that, tried enduro, and motorcross, but that didn't really do it for me, and I even bought a jet ski. I live in the middle of the north of England, nowhere near the coast… so you can imagine how much that got used. My point being, I spent a long time trying to fill a void in my life.
The idea of the Manx Grand Prix was mentioned by some friends whose classic bikes I'd ridden a few times. I thought, ‘yeah, bollox to it, I'm 26 years old, I always had a love for the place, I'm funding my own racing and life, why not go take a look.’ In case you don't know, the Manx Grand Prix, or MGP, is an event in August and around the same circuit, but it's classed more as an amateur event, whereas the TT is seen as professional.
I booked a flight and wentposition on the bike, and the bloke knew where he was going, so the lines were very useful.
