The Isle of Man TT is set to start on Saturday with practice on the Mountain course and pre-TT race practice tomorrow at the Southern 100 course at Billown. Since I depart tomorrow night for my first TT fortnight, here`s a little introduction.
The Isle of Man TT is a two week long festival of motorcycling in the middle of the Irish Sea. One week of practice follows one week of racing.
Having started in 1907 the Isle of Man TT has grown into one of the worlds last remaining challenges with its undulating 37.75 mile (~64 km) long road course, winding around houses, stone walls, trees, lampposts, climbing over a mountain and finally returning to start finish line. The lowest catagory, the 650cc Supertwins lap record currently stands at 18min 43.955secs which equates an average speed of 120.848 mph (~194 km/h) on the lap. The 1000cc record though, stands at 16min 53.929secs which equals 133.962 mph (215.591 km/h) and was set last year. It was the first sub 17min lap in the history of the TT. During a Supertwin race the course gets lapped 4 times. In the superbike races, there are two of them, the course gets lapped six times, which equates about 3 times a MotoGP race distance, including refuelling and tire changes.
One of the specialities of the TT is that it isn't shown live. If you are lucky you find some Johnny Commons webcam but that's about it.
The only way to follow the action live is through Manxradio AM online and a live timing app you have to subscribe to. Manxradio AM online can be found at
http://www.manxradio.com/. Just click the Listen live button on top of the page and select the AM player. Manxradio also can be reached through various radio platforms such as TuneIn Radio. The live timing app can be found at
http://ttlive.iomtt.com/ and you can also launch Manxradio from there.
The schedule for the TT fortnight is at follows but can be found at
https://www.iomtt.com/TT-Info/Qualifyin ... edule.aspx , too. Please note, that all times listed are the local UTC+1 times.
Practice schedule:
Saturday 27th May
- 18.20 Solo Newcomers’ Speed Controlled Lap
18.25 Sidecar Newcomers’ Speed Controlled Lap
18.40 to 20.50 Supersport / Lightweight TT / Newcomers (all solo classes) practice
Monday 29th May
- 18.20 to 19.45 Superbike/Superstock/Supersport/Newcomers (All Classes except Lightweight) Qualifying
19.50 to 20.50 Sidecars
Tuesday 30th May
- 18.20 to 19.20 Superbike/Superstock/Supersport/Newcomers (All Classes except Lightweight) Qualifying
19.20 to 19.50 Supersport/Lightweight TT/ Newcomers (all Solo classes) Qualifying
19.55 to 20.50 Sidecars
Wednesday 31st May
- 18.20 to 19.40 Superbike/Superstock/Supersport/Newcomers (All Classes except Lightweight) Qualifying
19.45 to 20.40 Sidecars
20.40 to 20.50 TT Zero 1 lap practice
Thursday 1st June
- 18.20 to 19.10 Superbike/Superstock/Supersport/Newcomers (All Classes except Lightweight) Qualifying
19.10 to 19.35 Supersport/Lightweight TT/ Newcomers (all Solo classes) Qualifying
19.40 to 20.40 Sidecars
20.40 to 20.50 TT Zero 1 lap practice
Friday 2nd June
- 18.20 to 19.40 Superbike/Superstock/Supersport/Newcomers (All Classes except Lightweight) Qualifying
19.45 to 20.40 Sidecars
20.40 to 20.50 TT Zero 1 lap practice
Race Day Practices
Saturday 3rd June
- 15.35 Supersport/Superstock/Lightweight TT Qualifying (2 laps)
16.10 TT Zero Qualifying (1 lap)
Monday 5th June
- 12.30 Sidecar TT Qualifying (2 laps)
16.05 Lightweight TT Qualifying (1 lap)
16.20 TT Zero Qualifying (1 lap)
Tuesday 6th June (alternate race day)
- 14.15 Sidecar TT Qualifying (2 laps)
15.40 Lightweight TT Qualifying (1 lap)
15.55 TT Zero Qualifying (1 lap)
Wednesday 7th June
- 12.25 Sidecar TT Qualifying (1 lap)
15.40 Senior TT Qualifying (1 lap)
Thursday 8th June (alternate race day)
- 14.10 Sidecar TT Qualifying (1 lap)
15.25 Senior TT Qualifying (1 lap)
Race Days :
Saturday 3rd June
- 11.00 TT Superbike Race (6 laps)
14.00 TT Sidecar Race 1 (3 laps)
Monday 5th June
- 10.45 TT Supersport Race 1 (4 laps)
14.15 TT Superstock (4 laps)
Wednesday 7th June
- 10.45 TT Supersport Race 2 (4 laps)
13.45 TT Lightweight Race (4 laps)
16.25 TT Zero Race (1 lap)
Friday 9th June
- 10.30 TT Sidecar Race 2 (3 laps)
12.45 Senior TT Race (6 laps)
My photographic exploits there can be found through the Roadrunners Photography link in my signature, which is
https://www.facebook.com/wileephotos/
Have fun while following the TT. Here's for a safe incident free fortnight !
Cheers,
Andy