The most unhinged racing left on the planet..

[Skid_Marc_]

It's the week of the annual Isle of Man TT

 

[Deb]

 

[Skid_Marc_]

Here is, what appears to be, the official Youtube channel for the event, providing daily updates. Qualifying 1 wrapped up yesterday with all the top runners AVERAGING 125-130mph around the island roads!

 

[Skid_Marc_]

Here is a full on-board lap around the 37.73 mile circuit.

 

[Deb]

Here is, what appears to be, the official Youtube channel for the event, providing daily updates. Qualifying 1 wrapped up yesterday with all the top runners AVERAGING 125-130mph around the island roads!

What is that weird two person motorcycle thing?

 

[Skid_Marc_]

That's sidecar racing. As with all things racing, it started as just a traditional motorcycle with a standard sidecar, but someone figured out that the passenger in the sidecar could shift their weight around to help the handling, and now it has evolved to a co-rider crawling all over the bike providing ballast as-needed in the corners, and tucking down by the rear-wheel at high speeds to keep it planted.

Here is an on-board from 2022 of Ben and Tom Birchell's view of the IoMTT.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

 

[Skid_Marc_]

All side-car events have been abandoned for this weekend's TT following two crashes, in the category, on Wednesday. One rider in serious-but-stable condition, one with "multiple injuries", and two reported as; “Although they have fractures and a head injury, they are sedated at the minute, there is no risk to their lives.”

https://talksport.com/motorsport/4291877/isle-of-man-tt-sidecar-race-scrapped-schedule/

While the article doesn't go into further nuance behind the reason for abandoning the class, some on social media are speculating that the abandonment isn't based on the accidents, or who was involved, but what they deemed was the cause of the accident; wind. High winds on the island this week put the heavily-bodied side cars at a higher risk of blow-over if they catch air, and the winds are expected to continue throughout the weekend.

 

[Deb]

View attachment 5977

Really makes you wonder if this race should stop:/

 

[Skid_Marc_]

In the history of the Isle of Man TT, there has been something like 3 events without a fatal accident. It is considered an "accepted risk" of competing at the event. You could disagree, that's fair, but also a week ago you probably didn't know this event existed..

Note that the fatality came in sport bike division, a division that also featured an accident that injured two spectators at the first day of practice. There have been ZERO talks of abandoning any of the bike divisions.

There is something else going on with the sidecars, specifically. Something the event organizers, teams, and commentators aren't willing to comment on, which is leaving a lot of people to just wildly speculate. Some feel that they are trying to intentionally push sidecar, specifically, out.

Is it "fair"? Is it "smart"? I don't know enough to have an opinion on it.

 

[Deb]

Actually, I've known it existed for quite a while. Jeeve79, who made me my really awesome little pony Nightmare Moon paint while we still had a B2O league, told me about it. He really likes motor bike racing, not so much iRacing I didn't know about those sidecars though, sounds like the winds there have a lot of impact on them.

 

[Skid_Marc_]

That's cool! That was terribly worded to single you out like that, I apologize. My point, however, is that I am not sure I want to live in a world where anything that poses such a risk to life and limb is automatically banned, just because it makes people outside their world, or "casual observers", uncomfortable. I have a hard time watching sprint cars, scuba divers, cave divers, or space launches/re-entries.

For comparison, Isle of Man TT's death-rate, 1.62%, is about on par with Mt. Everest's, ~1.2% and way below K2's ~9.5%.