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Report: A round on the Isle of Man It doesn’t get any faster – the crazy motorcycle race on the island

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It doesn’t get any faster – a lap on the Isle of Man and its 66 kilometer long course.

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TT trainer Richard Quayle.

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Richard “Milky” Quayle during his TT outing in 2002.

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Top drivers manage the 66-kilometer “Mountain Course” in well under 18 minutes.

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Ballagarey is a very fast right turn with a sneaky curb on the inside at the apex.

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Ryan Farquar in Compression on Bray Hill. The chassis hits the ground through here in sixth gear.

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Ballacrye is the biggest jump in TT. This is where John McGuinness comes in to land.

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When something goes wrong, the only thing that helps is luck or a few air cushions along the countless walls.

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Quarry Bends: technically demanding, the right rhythm decides.

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The house canyon by Kirk Michael: If you hit the line, you can go full throttle.

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Nowhere else is a superbike race more like an air show.

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The left-right at Guthrie’s Memorial decides whether to win or lose.

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Like here GP driver Bradley Smith, Richard Quayle shows the newcomers every corner of the TT circuit.

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Report: Isle of Man

Report: A round on the Isle of Man
It doesn’t get any faster – the crazy motorcycle race on the island

Content of

TT-Riding coach Milky Quayle gave PS tuition in things “Road racing” on the fastest racetrack in the world. After that, the world is a different one: An uncomprehending shake of the head turns into infinite respect.

Uwe Seitz

05/22/2012

Here it feels like shooting over the edge of the world. ”The broad grin underscores the almost hysterical enthusiasm in the voice. Suddenly he becomes silent. No more smiling. His eyes follow the road over the hilltop into the unknown.

Richard Quayle, called Milky, sits in his mind on his 1000 and sweeps down Bray Hill. In a flying lap, this means sixth gear turned out. First aimed at the palm tree on the right in the front yard as a reference point. Then immediately push the bike with force to the left in the direction of the Christmas tree on the sidewalk – let go of the gas! Full compression. Boom! The fairing keel and the exhaust hit the asphalt.

Milky shrugs briefly to shake off this daydream. The grin returns suddenly. “That’s just awesome!” We are sitting in a Smart and have only just begun our first lap of the 60.66 kilometer long Mountain Course, the Tourist Trophy race track on the Isle of Man. But -Milky has long been in his element. For the red-haired Manx-Man, as the islanders proudly call themselves, the TT is everything. He was born here, dreamed of driving here as a boy and was the last local to win a TT race in 2002.

But then he had this terrible high-speed crash. That was the moment to stop. But the TT has not let go of him. Today, the 39-year-old with the eternal rascal face teaches newcomers how to ski the fastest slope in the world as quickly as possible. Nowhere is there as much high-speed content as you can reach such average speeds as on the Isle of Man. The previous record is over 211 km / h. In MotoGP everything over 170 km / h is already damn fast. “This year there will be a new record,” Milky is certain.

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To Ballacraine

Bray Hill, a few meters after the start, is the first important piece on the lap. For Milky, however, three positions are the key to very fast times. Ballagarey – a brutally fast corner at the very beginning, Quarry Bends – a wild series of corners in the difficult section up to Sulby, and Guthrie’s Memorial – a hairy corner on the way up into the mountains. Hundreds more are added on an almost perfect lap. A total of 260 curves await the driver. “It’s a lot more complex than memorizing curves,” explains Quayle.

The TT is a long-distance race – the senior TT race consists of six laps. In addition, the driver fights against himself and the course alone, because the start is done individually every ten seconds. Hang on to you, wait, wait for the right moment, all the tricks of normal races on normal racetracks – that doesn’t work with the TT. It’s all about maximum concentration and full attack as soon as the marshal takes his hand off his shoulder at the Grand Stand in Douglas.

Then there are a lot of trees waiting to bathe everything in dim light, the bright sun again and again, windy corners and millions of insects. “I’ll never forget the smell of dead critters in the vents on my helmet,” laughs Quayle.

But the most difficult thing is of course the course itself. Walls, fences and high curbs directly on the track, different levels of grip, sloping road sections, thousands of bumps in the most impossible places and violent jumps. Every piece has its own characteristics, and Milky really knows them all.

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When something goes wrong, the only thing that helps is luck or a few air cushions along the countless walls.

“Did you see the two little terracotta dogs on the wall on the left? This is exactly where you have to be after the curve. ”Here we are in Appledean. Goarslia is about to come, a very fast series of corners under thick trees. “Also important here: slowly in, quickly out.” Milky steers the Smart into oncoming traffic. “Don’t brake too hard, actually just cut off the gas. Driving TT means no ultra-hard braking maneuvers, no large lean angles, but driving gently and taking the speed with you. But the most important thing: turn in late – mostly – anyway. The apex comes late in 90 percent of the corners. “

Milky tilts his head to the right, hums in fifth gear, imitates applying the gas again at the apex and shifts acoustically into sixth. “Now the bump is coming.” He counts aloud: “21.22, now!” And indeed: -In an instant the Smart kneels for a moment. “It takes years before you can do this at full throttle.”

We are already driving towards Ballacraine, one of the few places to Kirk Michael, where we shift down to second gear and brake decisively. “With the drivers the corner is also called Balla-cry, it makes us cry.”

We pass Ballaspur, a very fast left-right combination, immediately afterwards. Milky got it here back then. In the left he was a little early, his shoulder caught on the wall. It tore him off the handlebars. Sitting upright and unbraked, he slammed into the wall of the next right-hand bend. Does he mind if he comes by? “No,” he says curtly as we drive through Ballaspur. Then he glances briefly at the fateful wall. “Bitch,” he hisses and grins. But he is covering up his real feelings. You can tell that this is the end of a phase of life.

Then Milky frantically comments on the next passage. Laural Bank is an idyllic series of curves in a narrow valley. But Milky has no eye for the mossy slopes and the brook. “Be careful in the last bend, keep straight to the first delineator and get in. The knee is not so low, otherwise you will get stuck on the curb. And be careful: the parting comes, for once, very early here. “

In Glen Helen it goes through nasty curves up a hill. This is an extremely physically demanding piece, which especially the strong drivers like the 17-time TT winner John McGuinness take very quickly, because they can fight the 1000s down accordingly. In addition, the right side of the road falls outwards in the left-hand curves. The danger of highsiders is very high there. A TT crack must be familiar with precisely these qualities – before, in and after every corner, on every straight. “The thought is always: what’s next? And all information has to be in the head. “

After Glen Helen, the area opens up and you can look down the road for a good part. “I always tell the newcomers to breathe particularly deeply here, because with Glen-Helen there is no time to breathe.”

This section with the superbikes is damn fast. From here you drive a high proportion of full throttle to the small town of Kirk Michael. But even there there are specialists who don’t take their foot off the gas: “I recently watched an onboard lap with Cameron Donald. He went through the canyons without flicking the throttle, ”said Milky, impressed by the Australian, who has already won the TT twice.
About Kirk Michael

When we reach the entrance of Kirk Michael with the sharp right turn, Milky Quayle points to an empty lot on the inside. “Real estate freaks wanted to build an apartment building here last year, but that would have made the curve a lot more dangerous. So the island government rejected the building application. “

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Ballacrye is the biggest jump in TT. This is where John McGuinness comes in to land.

So you also know from the official side what you have in the Tourist Trophy. Up to 90,000 pounds a year are spent on the TT for road safety and road repairs alone. The TT organization reports directly to the island’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, making Milky something of a racing official.

“Rhencullen is a lousy thing.” There is a bump lurking right at the exit of the curve, which makes the bikes take off. Therefore, the riders have to get the motorcycle upright quickly and bring it very close to the outside wall, where they can jump the least. With Alpine Cottage it’s the other way around. The jump at almost 240 km / h is right in front of the turn-in point. In everyday life these are quite harmless kinks, but in TT mode it turns into frighteningly sharp turns.

After the famous second-gear jump at Ballaugh Bridge, we soon reach Quarry Bends, which Milky considers to be one of the crucial but also most dangerous parts of the route. The fast corners alternate cleanly in one direction. “When you catch them really well, it’s like playing the drums,” he says. “You turn up the gas in the rhythm with which you throw the bike, always open and a little bit, otherwise the thing won’t go to the other side.” Once, he quickly explains, everything was right with the CBR 900 RR in 1997 or 98 , but afterwards the footrests were bent due to the use of force.

There is a long straight in Sulby, the next town. There you can keep an eye out for competitors. “It’s a great feeling when you see you in front of you and know that you have made good time. But it’s damn depressing when nobody is in sight. ”Milky also always had a relative with a pit board here. In total there were three spread over the route. “The drivers take care of such things themselves. Everyone has to decide for themselves where the display is important to them and where they can make up time.”

According to Sulby, the bumps and bumps are inflationary. Even in the car in normal traffic you are shaken up vigorously. How is that supposed to work with over 260 things?

MotoX from Sulby

“It’s like motocross on superbikes,” laughs Milky. From here on, the riders have to grab the bike by the horns. At the same time, a lot of top speed is announced again. The best take the motorcycle on the rear wheel and ride like crossers over washboards. “Knowing the route is important because anyone who keeps turning the gas on and off because he doesn’t know exactly where he is can make the motorcycle even more uneasy. Falls are then preprogrammed. “

Behind Ramsey it is finally level but also technical again. The hairpin is the slowest part of the route. Then it goes up into the mountains in third and fourth gear. Once again it gets very tricky, because Water Works is a series of curves with different radii. While the first two on the right can be driven at half throttle like a single curve in third gear, the second on the right is significantly slower. But it is the third and last one that has it all: “Before you have to take off the accelerator, you have to take another gear down and the pace has to be right before the curve,” explains Milky.

Water Works is a prime example of the fact that the TT course has little to do with a normal racetrack. “You cannot brake into the curve here. That would be too close to the absolute limit. Every driver leaves a little play. And Water Works in particular is so wavy that if you are still on the brakes when turning, you lose your front wheel and hit the wall. “

Gooseneck after Terra Bends, on the other hand, goes in the second with careful braking. Guthrie’s Memorial is already lurking with three left turns that are almost driven as one. The final right then requires absolute precision. The covering falls off towards the outside. “It is better not to drive too diagonally and carefully accelerate again, otherwise the front wheel will be gone.”

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Ryan Farquar in Compression on Bray Hill. The chassis hits the ground through here in sixth gear.

To the mountains

Up in the mountains the track is finally open and the drivers can see very far. Most of the curves and special spots are also easy to see. “Sometimes up here you catch yourself wandering your mind,” says Milky. “All the tension from the first part of the route falls away here. That can be fatal, because the piece over Sneafell Mountain back to Douglas is still tough and there are still a few laps to go. “

Milky keeps stopping. We get out of the car and let our eyes wander down the street. You can guess how fast superbikes can be up here when the easy turns are made with only light pressure on the handlebars and minimal weight shift. There is hardly any braking, at most the gas is turned off. “That’s what the boxes are made for,” says Milky. “They want to convert all their power into speed and not be brutally slowed down again after fourth gear. Superbikes are perfect TT bikes. “

Landmarks are very difficult to find up here. A marshal’s house here, a sign there, a special fence post or an arrow on the road – every bend has its own signal for the racers and it is better not to confuse any at 280 km / h.

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Richard “Milky” Quayle during his TT outing in 2002.

Back to Douglas

We stop again at Windy Corner, but when we get out, a strong wind almost blows us over on this sunny day. This long right has earned the name. “The wind likes to come from both sides. You have to be very careful that you are not simply undermined at this speed. “

Milky trudges through the marshy grass towards three large black sacks. When he reaches it, he turns around and looks into the curve. “It doesn’t work like that.” The Riding Coach also advises those responsible for safety. He doesn’t seem to like this. “If you fall over the front wheel, you will crash into these three balls.” The drivers would prefer to slide unchecked across the muddy meadow. Milky immediately phoned Shaun, the track manager. The next day the bags are gone.

Back in the car, it’s left to Kate’s Cottage down to what is probably the most famous pub on the island near Cregny-Baa. “Here you have to be ready with the brakes very early, because on the one hand the road on the left is terribly bumpy, on the other hand it is better to be able to accelerate early at Creg to get real momentum out to Brandish and thirdly there are enough people sitting around here. You don’t want to make a fool of yourself and fall, even if the consolation beer is there before the ambulance. “

Brandish shortly thereafter is pretty much the part that comes closest to being a normal racetrack. There are curbs, a run-off zone and a non-slip, smooth surface. “It used to be a tight corner, but after the renovation a few years ago, everyone loves it. And it took a lot of time. “

We leave Hillberry, Signpost and the section directly before the home straight, which you can only drive for the TT, behind us. The road in front of the Grand Stand is currently being redone. “That’s exactly why 2012 will bring another lap record, because it was terribly bumpy here and you always had to slowly accelerate. It’s different this time, I guess I’ll be alone here for at least a second, ”says Milky. Then he pulls over to the right, looks from the side with this rascal face and grins: “That was the round. Nice and easy, right? Sulby Bridge – where is the braking point, where is the vertex, anything special? ”When, after a minute of careful consideration, I still don’t know what Sulby Bridge looks like, Milky pats me indulgently on the shoulder:“ Don’t worry, every driver has three years to learn all that. ”I smile:“ No way Milky! ”It’s still totally crazy what the guys are up to here at the TT, but from the driver’s point of view things look very different. This is highly concentrated racing and above all it deserves one thing: respect!

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