Isle of Man TT

[Westheim]

A new all-time lap record (136.358mph) has been set for Isle of Man TT races on the Snaefell Mountain course (there's your first red flag) by certified madman and white knight in shining armor (you can be both at the same time) Peter Hickman on his BMW. Yes, on. Not in.

Luckily for us mere mortals, not destined to experience this level of greatness first-hand, there is video proof.

A word of advice - if you're of the squeamish, beta-male sort that gets nervous from watching a guy zip past houses, hedges, trees, walls, and, btw, absolutely unprotected spectators at 200mph, you may want to pass on. Maybe there's some gardening you can do.

Most astonishing to the uneducated onlooker might be that Mr. Hickman possesses a rather pedestrian track record while racing on purpose-built race tracks. Well thankfully, the TT course is anything but that. Watch out for sheep. And the curbs. Of the sidewalks.

This year's TT events saw one fatal accident, which is to say it was a slow day at the office. It was the 28th straight year in which races were actually held on the Isle of Man (events were cancelled in 2020-21 for COVID and in 2001 because of a foot-and-mouth disease epidemic) that there was at least one fatality. In total there were approximately (counts slightly vary) *144* fatalities (137 of them riders) since the last death-free season in 1982 - the only one after WW2.

So yeah, at least Mr. Hickman at least doesn't get pestered by life insurance agents. That's the price you pay for extending the collective horizon of human experience, of pushing the boundaries of what is possible and living to tell about it.

I honestly have no idea how this madness is still continuing in the present day.

[rudel.dietrich]

It is for sure the world's most dangerous sport that is still allowed to go on. But I do find myself fascinated by it.

[Syd Thrift]

Honestly for such a dangerous event it’s kind of boring TBH. Oh boy, competing against time. It’d be more fun if they were running and instead of racing against time they were racing against a hungry grizzly bear with a taste for human flesh. Or maybe they could create one of those triple foot armor monsters that are on their flag. Nah, the eating would be more fun than stomping.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Honestly for such a dangerous event it’s kind of boring TBH. Oh boy, competing against time. It’d be more fun if they were running and instead of racing against time they were racing against a hungry grizzly bear with a taste for human flesh. Or maybe they could create one of those triple foot armor monsters that are on their flag. Nah, the eating would be more fun than stomping.

I'll say a prayer for your therapist tonight. Lol.

That video is insane. The speed. And the fact people are sitting on the side of the road like they can't get hit

[Syd Thrift]

If this doesn’t put a little fear into your heart then mister you’re a better man than I.

[dsvitak]

I watched the entire video, and almost threw up. Pretty intense stuff, with headphones and a widescreen monitor.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

It is for sure the world's most dangerous sport that is still allowed to go on. But I do find myself fascinated by it.

There's still bullfighting. Google gives you a variety of answers as to how many matadors are killed annually, but apparently the truth might be somewhere in the neighborhood of five, and thus just in line with TT races.

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

If this doesn’t put a little fear into your heart then mister you’re a better man than I.

You can't get those bespoke triple thongs at Walmart.

Originally Posted by dsvitak

I watched the entire video, and almost threw up. Pretty intense stuff, with headphones and a widescreen monitor.

Thankfully I put the squeamish beta-male warning up there.

[Syd Thrift]

Having watched the video now, the motocross aspect does give it that “why is this happening” 1960s F1 feeling. Like I’m reminded of old Spa in particular where there were just big old death buildings on the side of the road. Or, I mean, Le Mans in the “wow there are a lot of people leaning on those railings” sense.

Maybe they could make this more exciting for the childrens by having like a pizza baker twirling some dough into a new pizza pie and he walks out in front of you and you have to dodge him (maybe give him a fun catch phrase like “MAMA MIA”) as well as that falling disc of pizza dough.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Having watched the video now, the motocross aspect does give it that “why is this happening” 1960s F1 feeling. Like I’m reminded of old Spa in particular where there were just big old death buildings on the side of the road.

Oh if it had been only that...

On lap 20 Chris Bristow, driving a year-old Cooper for the British Racing Partnership, went off line at Malmedy while battling for sixth place with the Ferrari of Mairesse. Bristow lost control, crashing into a four-foot high embankment and was thrown from his car, and landed on a barbed wire which beheaded him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_Belgian_Grand_Prix

[Syd Thrift]

Yeah I don't think anyone crashed into the death buildings during the long history of the long track at Spa; it was just, um, "part of the charm". That and that whole "hey, let's make big old banked tracks so cars can go even faaaster wait why are there so many fatalities" thing, especially at Monza, where there used to be a velodrome-type addition to the track (which still exists!) but also there was a "track", if you can call it that, in Berlin that was basically just several miles of a straightaway with a heavily banked 180 degree turn at each end (I think one of the grandstands for that still exists and of course the road itself is still very much in use).

But hey, this does have some of that feel to it, especially with the danger of bikes. I was a little surprised to see the guy with the camera on him going quickly enough that he actually passed a rider in front of him...

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

also there was a "track", if you can call it that, in Berlin that was basically just several miles of a straightaway with a heavily banked 180 degree turn at each end (I think one of the grandstands for that still exists and of course the road itself is still very much in use).

But hey, this does have some of that feel to it, especially with the danger of bikes. I was a little surprised to see the guy with the camera on him going quickly enough that he actually passed a rider in front of him...

That was the AVUS, built as a trial road after WW1. It's part of an autobahn today (sans banked corners). It held a few German GPs, the last in 1959, when Jean Behra had an accident in one of the banked turns, which did not have any sort of wall or fence on the top, and was flung head-first into a flagpost. Formula 1 went back to the much safer (uhm) Nurburgring after that, but the AVUS was actually used for racing (in a shortened version) well into the 90s (not without more fatal accidents, though).

About Spa and Masta especially, there's this story:

Another particularly gruesome story comes from the 1972 24-hour touring car race.[9] During one of his pit stops at night, Hans-Joachim Stuck shouted to his co-driver Jochen Mass over the noise from the cars that he should "look out for body parts at the Masta Kink". Mass arrived there expecting to see pieces from cars all over the road but was appalled to discover it was in fact the remains of a marshal.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circui...-Francorchamps

Now, I actually doubt that this story is true. Stuck and Mass are both German, and "body parts" would only relate to human remains in German, not car parts.

[Westheim]

Pikes Peak looks really sane in comparison

Mind the gap.

Looks like Pikes Peak rather recently discontinued their motorcycle classes (after a fatality of course), but if the course has corners named "Bottomless Pit", I wouldn't want to go off in a *car* either.

[Westheim]

Hey-hey, no fatal accidents were reported for this year's Isle of Man TT, first time since 2012. Just the odd crippling injury here or there.

But don't celebrate too soon - for the first fatality-free Manx racing season since 1982 they still have to get through the Manx GP in the summer.

[Cobra Mgr]

I've looked @ the vids.

Insanity.

[CONN CHRIS]

What a crazy event. I love the rando people walking into the frame and out on the peperipherals. I think I would soil myself in the few seconds that it would take to turn into a fireball if I tried this.

[Ty Cobb]

That makes my head spin, just watching! Anyone who says that this isn’t a sport needs to get out there and see what kind of skill this takes. I am truly amazed.