Eric's Online Diary: guy martin

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Monday, 9 June 2014

TT 2014 - Notes from a Small Island

Thanks to Bill Bryson for the blog title ... Back to the TT for another year, this time without Tom but with Margaret (my long-suffering wife) who is watching for the first time. She enjoys motorcycle racing (well, some of it) and I think she might enjoy the experience.

I was doing a few things differently this year. As usual, I'd feinted at the sight of the price of a Steam Packet crossing (even one from Heysham at 1am) and so the decision was to fly in again. Even air tickets seemed expensive this year and, in a fit of madness, I booked flights from Blackpool airport. The advantages are free parking and a short flight time - what could possibly go wrong?

Flights were £140 each (return) which is a little more than I've paid in the past, but travel costs to the airport are only about £50 in fuel. We'd have paid around £150 in train fares to Gatwick and back, plus £20 taxi to the station.

The free car park was fine until the tide came in ... I'm joking, of course, but it wasn't great - it was a grass field, with long grass and was quite uneven. I went into P2, so perhaps P1 is better. It was also pretty full, although we did find a slot reasonably quickly. The park is about 10 minutes walk from the terminal, which is tiny, has no facilities and charges everyone an airport tax of £10.

Ours was the only flight leaving and we were flying with CityWing, although the carrier was VanAir. After checking a bag in, we went through to the departure lounge, which is quite nice; even nicer was complimentary food and drink. It's a short walk to the plane, which was a small, twin-engine turbo-prop seating 20 people. We sat immediately behind the pilot and co-pilot.

All aboard - all 18 of us - on VanAir to Douglas.

We got a good view of Blackpool Tower and the Pleasure Beach as we took off and 40 minutes later we were in Ronaldsway. We've used the same taxi driver, David Bates (07624 480048), for the past few years. I'd called him the day before and he was there waiting for us.

Taxi to Douglas costs £20 each way. It should be £22, but I got discount because I booked David for the return journey as well.

David knows everything there is to know about the Isle of Man. We were staying at the Empress on the sea front and Dave said it was very nice but people complained that the rooms were small - he was spot on. Our room barely had enough space to walk around the double bed, we had to keep moving the case in order to get through doors and you had to take it in turns to get dressed. The bathroom was quite large and had a good shower. Apart from the size of the rooms, the Empress was very good. It has a nice bar with a sea view if you can get a table in the conservatory and there's a decent restaurant. We ate there a couple of nights, David said the food was OK (and it was - no need for Trip Advisor, just ask David).

We arrived at about 7pm on Friday night, so the roads were closed for practice. We dumped the bags and headed straight to the bottom of Bray Hill, which was quite busy, watched a few bikes go past and then headed back down into town for some food and our first visit to Bushy's beer tent. Fish and chips were good, but Bushy's was rammed. The Miss Wet T-Shirt competition is now on every night and it starts at 9pm, so perhaps the crowd was packed in ready for that.

We were going to watch from Creg ny Ba on Saturday and the hotel very quickly arranged a taxi for us. David said we'd get a better service if we booked it through the hotel as drivers needed the business from hotels at quieter times and couldn't afford to upset them.

The new grandstand at Cregg ny Ba

It was a £10 ride up to the Creg and because Margaret was with me this year, I'd splashed out on grandstand seats at £25 each. Tom and I had seen the grandstand last year; we'd tried to sneak in but had been asked to leave and ended up on the wall 100 metres down the road. It looked like a good spot, but actually wasn't ideal - you were further away from the bikes and depending where your seat was in the grandstand, you could either see the bikes coming down to the corner or accelerating away.

There are more stands around the TT now (more commercial stands, not the home-made things you get at Hillberry or Braddan Bridge). They seat more and charge more, but at least they don't look as if they'll fall down any minute. This year, the pub at the Creg was closed during racing and a big food and beer tent put up behind it. I guess it was a good idea as there was much more room to serve loads of people quickly. You couldn't move in the pub last year and the toilets were not a pleasant sight.

The Superbike TT and Sidecar Race 1 were both pretty dramatic. Michael Dunlop set lap records on the first and second laps and then controlled the race, sitting on a safe lead. Guy Martin was riding better than I've ever seen him, but he couldn't match Dunlop's pace - no-one could. Well, no-one except Bruce Anstey, who broke the lap record on the last lap. It was a valiant effort, but too late to change the outcome. Anstey was the first person to break the 132mph barrier, which is an incredible average speed. It would have been slightly faster, but he outbraked himself coming down to Creg and almost ended up in the pub.

Brazilian Rafael Paschoalin from São Paulo was not so lucky. He got out of control coming into the corner, did massive a massive rolling stoppie into the barrier and went flying over the hay bales to land among the picnic tables in front of the pub. It was hilarious, but we stopped laughing when he wasn't moving. Fortunately, he was only knocked senseless and was soon on his feet to a round of applause.

I was pleased for Dunlop, it was a brave decision to leave Honda (presumably because he wasn't being paid as much as McGuinness) and I was glad to see BMW's first TT win in 75 years. That's something of a contentious statement as people will point out that sidecars powered by BMW engines have won many times and also single-cylinder supermono machines (which had formed the lightweight class) were also BMW (Rotax) powered.

The sidecar race saw the lead change hands several times before Conrad Harrison came home for his first TT win. His son, Dean, was riding in solo events and he rode really well all week, finally winning the Lightweight TT on Friday. It's the first time a father and son have won TT races in the same week.

I'd got a card from the taxi driver on the way up (TeleCabs – 01624 670266) and called them in the hope of getting a ride back to Douglas on the back road. They were really good and were with us in about 20 minutes. While we were waiting, we got talking to a couple of blokes who asked if they could share the cab. It meant a £20 fare was halved, so we said: fine.

They were an interesting pair. They lived in Anglesey and had come across with four mates, one of whom owns a large sailing yacht, which they bring over each year. It had taken them nine hours to sail from Anglesey and they were now moored in Douglas Harbour, sleeping on the yacht. That's one way to avoid high hotel prices and the Steam packet rip-off. The chap said the wind was against them, so they'd put the back sail up to stabilise the boat and run across for eight hours on the engine. The wind had then been more favourable and they'd put the sails up. He said it was wonderful when the yacht was surging forward in complete silence fully wind powered.

Inside Bushy's beer tent.

After the racing, we had a quickie in Bushy's and then went to Papparazzi for a meal. I'd wanted Margaret to see the restaurant as we'd eaten in there every year and always had a good time. The old chap who gave us a lecture about stress wasn't there and nor was the old woman who takes your money. We got talking with the chief waiter and he told me they were all Maltese, I'd just assumed they were Italians.

Sunday is Mad Sunday, but we were on foot, so the maddest it got was crossing before the green man came on as we walked up the hill towards Nobles Park and the Paddock for a bit of celeb spotting. Last year, we'd seen Guy Martin and John McGuinness, but we were a little early in the day for most teams and many of the shutters were still down on the garages.

We did see a weary-looking Michael Rutter with his scruffy little dog. An old woman was taking a picture of her husband with Rutter and I asked her if she wanted me to take it so she could be in the shot. "No thanks," she said, "I don't go in for all this hero worship rubbish."

I thought that was a bit mean in front of Michael, but he took it in good part.

Bruce Anstey's lap-record-setting tyres.

We saw Gary Johnson, Bruce Anstey's tyres from his record-breaking lap and Michael Dunlop working hard with fans. I've always considered him to be a grumpy character, but despite being in an obvious hurry, he never refused an autograph or to pose for a picture. One family thought they'd missed their chance, but Dunlop came back for a photo before dashing back into hospitality. They were so pleased. I'm starting to warm towards Michael Dunlop.

In previous years, there's been a Monster Energy stunt show on the promenade in front of the Villa Marina, but this year it was missing (and so was the Okells beer tent). I'd hoped to show Margaret the stunt show, she would have enjoyed it.

On Monday, we'd decided to watch from Hillberry, so we set off pretty early to get a good position and stocked up with goodies from the Spar shop on the way. The walk doesn't seem as far as it did the first time I did it (with Tom a couple of years ago) and I thought there were not many people about. The reason was because racing had been delayed and no-one was quite sure that it was going to happen due to low cloud on the mountain section.

We sat from 9.30am until around 1.30pm before the racing started. It should have been Supersport and Superstock, but the Superstock was postponed until Tuesday because they wouldn't have been able to get the roads open in time for people to get home from work. People on the Isle of Man put up with a lot of inconvenience because the TT is so important to the island's tourist industry - but there are limits.

We were able to get a seat right at the front near the road, so the racing was good. They have resurfaced the road since last year and seem to have created a bigger dip than was there previously. It's right in front of the apex and throws the bikes off line if they hit it wrong. Gary Johnson won on a Triumph, so no Japanese success in solos in two races - extraordinary! I was pleased to see a Triumph win and it sounded fantastic. Johnson rode really well.

Sadly, the Supersport race saw the first of two fatalities during racing. Bob Price from Stroud, who was still racing at 65 years, died in a crash. He wasn't a front runner and was using the TT as practice and testing for the Manx later in the year. The second fatality came on Tuesday when Karl Harris was killed on lap two of the Superstock race. Bob Price went by with hardly a ripple, but Harris' death caused massive shock. He's a former European Superstock champion, British Supersport champion and has ridden for top teams in British Superbike racing. He's the biggest name to die at the TT since David Jefferies.

We watched the Superstock from the bottom of Bray Hill and went across to the inside of the track, where you can see the bikes coming down the hill and feel really close to them as they pass you by. This was Margaret's favourite viewing spot and we were good and early so that we could get a position right against the barrier, but racing was once again delayed. This time it was a road accident somewhere on the road out from Douglas. You see people riding like complete idiots all week, so it's hardly surprising there are so many accidents. This must have been fatal or fairly serious because the police took well over an hour before the road could be opened (and then closed for racing). Bray Hill is a good place to watch, but there are no facilities to either buy food and drink, or go to the toilet. You need forward planning and a strong bladder. Michael Dunlop once again dominated the race on a stock BMW and to illustrate the fickle nature of success, Gary Johnson, who had won the Supersport the day before, crashed just after Ramsey hairpin and broke several bones. That was his TT over.

Wednesday was our last day on the island, but our flight was at 4pm, so we didn't need to leave for the airport until about 2.30pm. We decided to watch from St Ninian's where you can get a view of the start and then a bit of the crossroads. The people at the church provide a really good service - chairs are £1 each and you can get really nice refreshments at a good price. There are also toilets in the church hall.

The electric bikes were first off and this was something of a foregone conclusion. Mugen were well ahead of a depleted field, with no competition from four-time champs Motoczysz due to the owner being ill, and the only question was whether McGuinness or Anstey would win. In the end, it was McGuinness who triumphed with a lap of 115.598mph. Only last year, the organisers were offering £10,000 for the first 100mph lap, so it shows the progress of this technology.

It's a shame more bikes can't make the grid and, at present, there's too much of a gap between Mugen and the rest. The organisers should stick with it though, it's interesting to see the bikes develop.

On conventional machinery - Supersport race two - Michael Dunlop was once again triumphant, this time on his own private Honda CBR600.

Later in the week, Dunlop would take his fourth victory, riding the BMW Superbike to first place in the Senior. It was a great week for Dunlop and for BMW.

Our journey home was very good. The plane was bang on time, we were at Blackpool before you knew it and the journey home took four hours and 15 minutes from take off until we were back home.

Saturday, 7 June 2014

TT 2014 - will Michael Dunlop become the greatest TT racer of all time?

I have to be honest, I haven't been Michael Dunlop's biggest fan. He's a bit of a whinger, nothing is ever right, the world is always against him and he never seems to have much joy in him - even after a win.

Think Carl Fogarty with an Irish accent.

Last year, I didn't want him to do a clean sweep of wins. I wanted Ian Hutchinson to keep that record to himself and I wanted John McGuinness to win more races, so I was delighted when Dunlop, who had looked unstoppable, was beaten by McGuinness in the Senior.

For 2014, Dunlop walked out on Honda, presumably because he felt he wasn't getting the deal that he should. It looked as if he wouldn't have a ride and would miss this year's TT, but then BMW came in with an offer and he became a works rider for them with the TT as the big target.

Judging by the moans and complaints at the NW200, to say nothing of a spat with his brother William, Michael's character was unreformed.

It's odd that I dislike this trait in Dunlop, because in many ways, he's exactly like Carl Fogarty used to be in his heyday. Nothing was ever quite right for Foggy, he never seemed to enjoy his wins and the world was always against him as well. Oddly, I didn't mind Foggy's constant moans; it wasn't exactly endearing, but it was part of the man.

You should never jump to conclusions about people you don't know (Michael is probably very kind to his dog) and, guess what, I'm warming towards the guy.

Why? Well, in the first instance, he's a hell of a rider. What separates road racers from track racers is hard to say; it's a different technique. Apart from anything, on track, if you fall off, chances are you won't be hurt and riders suffer falls all the time. On roads, you don't want to fall off; if you do, you'll be lucky to escape unhurt.

This builds a different tolerance of risk. Track racers will be much closer to the limit, road racers will give themselves a safety margin (a small one, but still a margin). There are other differences, track is more stop/start, it's more intense, but it's also shorter and tracks are easier to learn.

I was staggered, last year, to see the intensity Michael Dunlop brought to the TT. He was riding the course 101 per cent, like a circuit racer. Mark Marquez probably loses the front 20 times a race and brings it up on his knee; seeing Dunlop do that on the Isle of Man was incredible, doing that on the mountain section where the tram tracks cross the road at the Bungalow was unbelievable.

I admired the commitment, but I've always considered Dunlop to be a bit of a nutter and I expected his TT success to be short and spectacular, I didn't think anyone could push that hard at the TT and stay on board, but he did and he did.

Turning the BMW into a TT winner was no easy task. It's a fast bike, but (by all accounts) not as easy to ride as the Honda and has no previous data to help your set-up. It's not won a World Superbike championship, despite hiring the best riders, and in BSB it's a steady top 10 finisher, rarely sniffing the podium.

In some respects that might take the pressure off Dunlop, but he's certainly on a big bonus to win and he's got all of the BMW factory looking at his riding (those that weren't actually on the Isle of Man helping him). He said this week that if he won the Senior TT, the bike would be shipped straight back to Munich and put in the BMW museum alongside Georg Meier's supercharged flat-twin, which won in 1939 - 75 years ago. Dunlop said he'd never had a bike put in a museum before and the significance of a win clearly wasn't lost on him.

For this year's TT, the intensity he brought to his riding in 2013 was back again. In the Superbike TT, he took an early lead and never let it slip. He broke the lap record on the first and second laps but then he did the sensible thing, sat on his lead and brought the bike home. Bruce Ansty broke the lap record again on the final lap (the first 132mph lap) but Dunlop didn't seem too concerned - he'd won the race and that was what he was there to do.

Guy Martin was second and he rode as well as I've ever seen him, but he had no answer to Dunlop.

Gary Johnson's popular win on the Triumph in the first Supersport race meant there would be no clean sweep for Dunlop, but he went on to win the Superstock, Supersport race two and the Senior. He now has 11 wins and he's still only 25, the same age as this year's top rookie, Peter Hickman (who did a fantastic 129.104mph lap incidentally).

That win in the Senior was achieved in the knowledge that his brother William had crashed, but without knowing how he was. In a week when two riders have died, that must have been in his mind.

Michael Dunlop is still taciturn, he still seems to take little pleasure in his success and he's still complaining. So why am I warming towards him?

His committed style continues from last year. I'm still not sure that he isn't pushing too far, but now I'm starting to think that it's supreme talent, not recklessness, that's bringing him success. Indeed, this year, it was other riders - like Guy Martin, Bruce Anstey (and William Dunlop) - who had big moments, while Michael seemed very solid.

I like the fact that he's hands-on when it comes to his machinery. It shows a rider who understands mechanical issues and is therefore able to say what's wrong when he's on the bike and something doesn't feel right; or he's able to ride around a fault (sometimes). Michael builds his own Supersport bikes (Hondas) and, although his freedom to get a socket set out and start dismantling the BMW is very limited, he is able to have a big input. During practice week, he swapped from Metzeler tyres to Dunlops - a massive decision that could only be taken by someone with intimate understanding of a bike's handling dynamics. His uncle (Joey Dunlop) was famous for always working on his own machines. Honda did give him 125cc and 250cc two-strokes and left him to it, but they didn't allow him to work on the factory four-stroke engines. It's the same with Michael; BMW doesn't have a two-stroke it can offer to keep him quiet, so his Supersport Honda fulfils that purpose. When it comes to the Superbike, it's a full-on factory WSB engine (better than the guys in British Superbikes get) and Michael isn't able to work on that. The engine technician is a woman, one of only three people qualified to work on the engine, and she was flown in from Germany.

Michael Dunlop isn't the first rider to be somewhat taciturn and introspective. Mick Doohan press conferences would not have challenged a reporter's shorthand skills and Casey Stoner was considered a miserable git because he never had anything to say. When a rider wins a great race, you want them to share your joy and pleasure having witnessed it. If they don't appear happy and then have a long list of moans about the bike, the track, the other riders, it deflates your happy mood.

Mark Marquez is handsome, happy, always on message and always with a beaming smile. He makes you think he loves his racing and you like him all the more for that. It's the same with Valentino Rossi, who was a breath of fresh air after the dour Doohan years.

I guess Michael Dunlop is one of those men who, if he has nothing to say, prefers to say nothing. When a microphone is shoved under his nose at the end of the race (and there are 10 more waiting behind that one), he doesn't have an easy soundbite to trot out.

Come on Michael, it's not hard: that was fantastic, the bike is brilliant, I want to say thank you to ...

His lack of words and his Foggy-like tendency towards moaning suggest he is a miserable git, but we saw him a couple of times in the pits and he was anything but a grouch. He was trying to go about his business, but fans were round him like wasps on a jam scone. His tactic was to adopt a rugby-style head dip, but it was a waste of time. He seemed painfully shy and embarrassed, but he never once said no (even politely); he didn't smile for the camera-phone, but he posed, signed and took a small step closer to where he needed to be.

I saw him reach the safety of corporate hospitality and manage to get to the other side of the security men. There were not too many people about, but he'd been ambushed four or five times in a 30-yard distance. He was heading for the tent when a man and woman with a small boy shouted "Michael, can we have a picture?" It would have been the easiest thing in the world to have said: "sorry, really late, I have to dash." They would have been disappointed, but couldn't have thought badly of him, but he came back, stepped outside, posed for the picture and then scooted back.

He missed seeing the pleasure and excitement of that small family. Perhaps in 30 years time, that small boy will be able to show his children the picture of him with the great Michael Dunlop - the most successful TT racer of all time.

His uncle Joey holds the record with 26 and he was 48 when he won his final TT. Michael is 25 and already has 11 wins, so the potential is clearly there. He's won eight in the last two years, so he could retire at 35 with 50 wins.

I've no idea if he will break Joey's record or not. The statistics suggest he will, but racing is a fickle business. Look at Ian Hutchinson - wins five TTs in 2011 and then suffers a career-changing crash in a Supersport race at Silverstone, where the gravel trap and run-off is bigger than most TT car parks. Look at Gary Johnson, on top of the world after winning the Supersport TT for Triumph this year; the next day he's in hospital with a broken collarbone and cracked vertebrae.

Who knows what will happen. What I do know is that it will be interesting to watch in the next 10 years.

Footnote: interesting that, when I was looking for images to use with this piece, most of the pictures of Michael Dunlop saw him grinning like a Cheshire cat!

Saturday, 22 June 2013

TT 2013: Closer to the Riders

One of the good things about the TT is that you can get a lot closer to the riders. Certainly, while they are racing (where else but the Isle of Man could you sit six feet from a bike flashing past at 160mph?) but also when they are off their bikes.

Unlike other sportsmen at the top of their game (or even other branches of motorcycle sport) road racers seem to remain “one of us” - accessible and getting on with their job.

It must be hard at times to do that; when you’re in your pit garage trying to discuss a millimetre adjustment to the rake of the front forks and 20 people are leaning over the rail saying “that’s Guy Martin, get a picture, Guy, Guy give us a picture ... and one with the wife.”

As they line up ready to go to the start line, a microphone gets shoved under their chin-strap and they’re asked for a comment. Five minutes later, they’ll be tearing down Bray Hill at 160mph, but now they’re being asked for their views on subjects ranging from their chances today, how well a competitor is riding, will their bike break down again or how dangerous are the damp patches under the conker trees.

Guy Martin deals with this intrusion into his concentration in his own way. Last year, he embarked on a risque joke, then befuddled the commentator by telling him he wanted a spatchcock for his dinner and did he know where you could get one. The interviewer had taken a while to catch on, but was better prepared this year when Martin said his jiggle pin had dropped out in practice.

Martin might have a bit of fun, but there’s tension in his voice. John McGuinness sounds as relaxed as if he’s standing in the pub discussing the race over a pint of lager.

Guy Martin gathers the crowds wherever he goes. His amazing crash in 2010 was captured in the film TT: Closer to the Edge and his quirky ways (borderline autistic) have endeared him to people. We spotted him a couple of times this year even though he was keeping a slightly lower profile. He was at the Villa Marina one evening to watch the Monster energy stunt show on the promenade, but was busy chatting to people rather than watching the show. I guess when you’ve ridden a lap of the TT course at 130mph that afternoon, a couple of French guys pulling wheelies and stoppies on trials bikes doesn’t seem that compelling.

We saw him again in the pits on Tuesday. He was in cut-off overalls covered in paint splashes and he’s been telling interviewers all week that he’s been earning a bit of extra money by doing some painting jobs. The story was that he’s actually been helping a mate redecorate, but whatever truth of the story, the overalls and paint were authentic.

We bumped into him (and a gathering crowd) as he rode an old Manx Norton back into the pit area. It was on the Norton stand along with a couple of their modern road bikes and I guess Guy had taken it up and down pit lane a couple of times (he wasn’t wearing a helmet). Everyone wanted a picture (including us - Tom took this one) and he accepted the attention as entirely normal, which it is, of course, for him.

The crowd followed his banging, popping Manx back to the Norton stand and then formed up three deep as he had a chat to some people from the team before slipping out of the back. Immediately, he’s trailed by a new pack of fans and we spot him again later in the morning in the Tyco Suzuki garage discussing something on his stripped down Supersport bike with the mechanics.

Not all the riders are easily recognised and not all of them are there to race. Jenny Tinmouth has been racing in British championship events on track for many years - 125cc, Supersport and Superbike. She’s also raced on the Isle of Man and in 2010 she beat Maria Costello’s record to become the fastest woman to lap the TT course at 119.945mph. How close to a 120mph lap is that!
Jenny wasn’t racing this year, which is a shame, but we kept bumping into her in the crowd - a fan just like the rest of us. She was at a talk by John McGuinness and Ian Hutchinson at the Palace Hotel sitting a few rows behind us and would have paid for her ticket just like the rest of us. No-one was mobbing Jenny for autographs (her face isn’t as well known) which is a shame - the fastest woman around the TT course deserves a little more by way of tribute.

We saw her again the next day in the grandstand at Hillberry watching the Supersport and Superstock races. Tom had spotted her again and I joked that she was stalking him; he blushed (I think Tom has a soft spot for Miss Tinmouth). Next year, I hope she’s riding - someone must recognise the publicity value of taking a woman rider above 120mph - but if she’s not, perhaps she’ll be in the crowd because she loves motorcycles and motorcycle racing.

Another racer who has set TT records and who wasn’t riding this year was Ian Hutchinson, who held the Superstock lap record until Michael Dunlop’s incredible ride this year and who also, famously, won a record five TT races in one week in 2010. That’s one record Dunlop wasn’t able to match, although he came incredibly close and I thought he was going to do it after his win on Wednesday.

So Hutchinson’s achievement still stands as a unique record but, following that amazing TT, he was caught up in a crash in a British Supersport race at Silverstone. The crash wasn’t his fault and, as a number of riders went down like skittles, Hutchinson had a leg run over and really badly broken. It’s a quirk of life that you can ride hundreds of miles at crazy speeds on a track with no run-off, just hedges and brick walls and come through unscathed; and then you’re maimed in a wide gravel trap intended to make racing safer.

Since that accident, Hutchinson’s life has been transformed from glory and joy to pain and anguish. Almost three years later, after pins, bone grafts, skin grafts and bone stretching, Hutchinson is still wearing an exterior steel splint, but says he will be racing next year. If he is, it will be the most amazing, brave and determined comeback I have ever seen. I’d like to see him achieve that, but for now he’s an unwilling spectator and, unlike Jenny Tinmouth, he can’t melt into the crowd.

We saw Hutchy at a great talk at the Palace hotel, helped by Neil Hodgson and John McGuinness, telling stories about when he was working on David Jefferies’ team, Jefferies’ fatal crash, racing, crashing and general hooliganism. The day Jefferies died Hutchinson got drunk, then came to the casino at the Palace and won £250, which he posted through the door of the race office next day as entry for the Manx GP that year.

We heard about his first trip to the TT with a gang of biker mates from Yorkshire. He’d just arrived in Douglas, ridden off the ferry, pulled a wheelie, looped it and sent his bike crashing into a parked car. When he sat up, his mates were off their bikes, kicking his bike straight and pulling Hutchy to his feet. That’s one motorist with a valid claim if the story gets told too often.

Black humour ripples through the talk. McGuinness thinks it’s hilarious that Hutchinson crashes at the NW200 and demolishes a listed wall that stood for hundreds of years (it’s a shame he broke his pelvis); they’re both amazed and amused by the fact that a rider ran off the coast road in Antrim, over a cliff and ended up on the beach to be rescued by the coastguard; and both men have dark stories about hospitals. After his leg break, Hutchy overdoses on the morphine and sees monkeys in his room. It’s only when he complains to the nurse that one of them is sitting on the TV and will have it off the wall that she modifies his dose.

Neil Hodgson is at the opposite end of the scale to Guy Martin and Ian Hutchinson. He lives in the Isle of Man but has never competed in the TT. He’s a circuit racer and a former British and World Superbike champion, but he clearly loves the TT and has massive respect for the riders who take it on.

I first came across Hodgson riding WSB for Ducati, where he was unlucky enough to be Carl Fogarty’s team-mate. Foggy was never kind to team-mates and it wasn’t a happy season for Hodgson. He went on to Kawasaki the next year and was a top 10 runner, but never a winner. He resurrected his career in British Superbikes when he had some amazing rides, including a victory from the back of the grid at Oulton Park, and contributing to what was certainly the best BSB championship ever when he just got the better of Chris Walker, but only when Walker’s Suzuki blew up at Donington.

Hodgson is an Isle of Man tax exile not an Isle of Man racer, but world champion motorcycle racers remember their mates and he’s there to help out Hutchy, who future career might be more about talking than racing. Hodgson acts as compere and chat show host and he’s very comfortable in that role.

We did see Hodgson’s former team-mate, Carl Fogarty briefly - very briefly ... He was driving down the hill as Tom and I were toiling up on our bikes on the back road to Creg-ny-ba.

Josh Brookes was at the Isle of Man as a racer for the first time and he’d been setting a heck of a pace. His lap of 127.726mph was the best by any newcomer. If he sticks with it, he’ll be a winner, but it’s not clear right now whether he will come back. He made a number of honest and valid comments about this being the most scary thing he’s ever done on a bike. His presence was a boon for Tyco Suzuki; with Guy Martin off the pace and keeping a lower profile, most of the Suzuki PR was about Brookes’ brilliant form as a newcomer.

We’d seen Brookes on track and he did look good, but we encountered him in stranger circumstances. We took an open-top bus ride around the course on Tuesday and the bus turned out to be a bit of an old banger. It was pulled over because it was leaking diesel as we climbed the mountain section out of Ramsey and sat in the road with a puddle of fuel gathering behind it.

The road had been closed and we were milling about waiting to see if we’d be rescued or abandoned when a group of motocross riders came bucking and bouncing across the moor towards the road. They stopped to have a look and a quick fag and it was only after a minute or two that I realised one of them was Brookes. So that’s what TT riders do on a day off.

Josh Brookes is questioned by Manx Police - can I have your autograph?

As soon as Brookes took his helmet off his anonimity disappeared and he was asked fo a couple of autographs and a few more of their modern equivalent - the camera-phone “me-and-a-celebrity” snap. He took it in his stride, even gave the policewoman an autograph (I thought she was going to book him for some technical offence) to do with his ’crosser, but no, she just wanted an autograph.

John Hopkins was another rider on the Isle of Man who was not racing. He’s been a works MotoGP rider, almost won the British Superbike Championship (like Chris Walker, he was robbed by the mechanical fragility of a Suzuki) and had a poor season in WSB on an uncompetitive bike before taking time out to get some injuries sorted. ‘Hopper’ was at the TT for some promo work. He rode a Suzuki around the course on a parade lap after the racing on Monday and was at Creg-ny-baa on Mad Sunday signing autographs (I’m not quite sure why and not many people seemed that interested). The promo girls were directing people towards his stand and, I have to say, I walked past it thinking it was just some bloke in leathers. That’s the bitter economics of motorcycle racing. Some riders make enough to move to a tax haven, but most of them just about scrape by. Hopkins had a number of years as a works GP racer and a couple of years as a works superbike rider, yet here he is at the TT doing promo work.

Steve Parrish was a works GP rider in the 1970s and ’80s, but was overshadowed by the fact that he was Barry Sheene’s team-mate. Guess who everyone wanted to interview after the race. Later, determined not to get a proper job, he turned to truck racing and then to TV punditry. He does MotoGP for BBC and the TT for ITV.

Parrish was in the pits, perhaps doing some background work or heading for an interview. The fact that he’s on TV makes him better known than he was as a GP racer and also, bizarrely, gives him some celebrity status that otherwise, he’d never have. Parrish was doing the camera-phone me-and-a-celebrity shot and didn’t look too happy about it. I guess he realised that once one person plucks up courage to ask you, then a dozen more realise what’s going on and jump on the bandwagon. The trick to getting through the pits and about your business is to stride purposefully. Any time you stop you’re a sitting target.

The biggest name at the TT, the man they all want a piece of, is John McGuinness and this year, there was barely enough McGuinness to go around. We saw him a number of times during the week and he sets a hot pace on and off the track. He enters six TT races, including the zero-emissions TT so has to practise and qualify for all classes.

On Friday evening he was at practice; on Saturday he was practising in a number of classes; on Sunday he raced the Superbike and then gave a talk with Hutchinson at the Palace; on Monday he raced eight laps in Superstock and Supersport classes and then a record-breaking lap on the electric Mugen, plus a demo lap on a classic Paten. That’s 380 miles, with around 350 of those at race pace, nudging an average of 130mph and demanding massive concentration and fitness. I’ve ridden that distance in a day on a road bike, on roads and at nothing like 130mph and I was ready for a good stretch at the end of it (to put it mildly). Interviewed afterwards, McGuinness said he was going to have a bit of a rest the next day, but when we went for a wander around the pits, there he was in the coffee area giving a TV interview. Standing to one side was a PR woman, holding a clipboard and checking her watch. Was she his manager for the day, steering him from one appearance to the next?

PR woman to his right, camera crew to the left. Situation normal for John McGuinness

McGuinness is, of course, there to race, but as the greatest living (and competing) TT rider he has a long list of interviews and appearances. We’d paid to hear him talk alongside Ian Hutchinson on Sunday night. When the gig was booked, McGuinness hadn’t expected to have to race the Superbike TT that afternoon, but he was barely late and stayed on for the full session (and afterwards, selling his autobiography) despite having two races, practice and a demo lap the next day.

It was interesting to hear him speak about his day. One of his corporate commitments had been to help in a tribute to Joey Dunlop, who won 26 TTs and won his first TT for Honda 30 years previously. McGuinness’ Fireblade for the Superbike race was painted in a replica colour scheme, similar to Joey’s winning bike and he also had Dunlop leathers, his famous yellow helmet and race number. The “tribute” was kept a secret until just before the race and created quite a stir on the grid.

It was clear that McGuinness felt deeply uncomfortable about the whole thing. The last thing you want before the start of a race like the TT is to have a massive distraction like that. You need to be preparing yourself mentally, getting into the zone, not filling your head full of corporate “bullspeak”. Instead of saying what a fantastic TT rider Dunlop was (which he was) you want to be plotting how you’re going to beat his manic nephew Michael and take a few steps close to beating his tally of 26 TT victories.

Apart from the distraction, he also felt uncomfortable about dressing up as Joey Dunlop. I think McGuinness felt it was not right, perhaps a little disrespectful (despite the Dunlop family saying it was fine). Anyway, I’m sure it had an effect on his Superbike race. He normally blasts everyone away on the first couple of laps, does a super-fast pit-stop and the race is as good as won. This day McGuinness said he thought he was going fast, but when he got his lap boards, he was far slower than usual. He’d wanted to go quick, but as he said, he’d not wanted to crash with all the Joey stuff on and look a complete dickhead.

So McGuinness was slower than normal, then screwed up the pit-stop by speeding in pit-lane, getting a 60-second time penalty, so it was race over. He did manage to claim third place with a new record lap on the last lap and I think it took him that long to get his head together.

The distraction, in my view, cost McGuinness that race and allowed Michael Dunlop a confidence-boosting win. On the back of that, he was unstoppable all week and almost went through the card. McGuinness won the Senior to take his total number of wins to 20 and he also beat Joey Dunlop’s record of TT podiums.