What is the world’s craziest race? If you answered the Indy 500, a Triple Deca Ultra-triathlon, or the Red Bull Air Race championship, you’d be wrong. If you answered hundreds of motorcycle riders blazing around a self-governing British Crown dependency in a 37.73-mile course at speeds of almost 200 mph for the Isle of Man Time Trial, you’d be right.
The TT is back for 2023 and is currently taking place through next weekend. The race sees multiple fatalities every single year, 256 over its 115-year history, and after a record-equaling six riders perished last year, the morality of holding the race has been put in question.
New safety measures are in place for 2023, but the reality is that a motorcycle accident at an average of 130 mph on a public road course will often only yield one result.
Still, there is no spectacle in racing quite like watching superbikes fly through small towns and the British countryside.
It’s easy to see why the Isle of Man Time Trial is so popular, but until it can improve its atrocious safety record, the incredible spectacle will always be clouded by a bloody lens.
Comments