Racing in the Isle of Man

This is TT Week in the Isle of Man.  Not unusually, the programme of races has had to be revised several times because of the weather.  Usually, it is mist and rain but last weekend it was gales on the mountain — which posed a threat to rescue helicopters as well as riders.  So, the Superbike Race was run on Sunday and it was a win for 46 year old, antipodean Bruce Anstey on his Padgett Honda.  His tenth win overall but his first in the Superbike.  It was an impressive performance and he established a new record time for the race.  He still holds the lap record at 132.298 mph from 2014.  Apart from his riding, his success was a result of two impressively quick pit stops.  He beat Yorkshireman Ian Hutchinson into second with James Hillier third.  Hillier just avoided the crash on the last lap between Michael Dunlop and Scott Wilson, which blocked the track and resulted in a red flag to stop the race.  Luckily, neither rider was seriously injured but both will be very sore for a few days.  Michael Dunlop tried his best with his BMW but he was having a hard time battling its jumping about under him.  He must have been exhausted by the end.

It was good to see Ian Hutchinson back on the podium after a gap of several years following a horrendous crash at Silverstone in 2010.  This was just weeks after his awesome performance at the TT when he became the first — and still only — rider ever to win five races in a week.  The injury to his left leg was so bad that it was thought there would have been no choice but amputation.  He resisted that and after 30 operations he is back racing as good as ever, albeit with a lot of metal and replacement tissue in his leg.

The twenty-one times winner John McGuinness only managed sixth.  He seems to be back at his best but his bike just was not quick enough.

In the Supersport TT on Monday, Ian Hutchinson was the winner and received a fantastic welcome when he arrived back in the paddock.  Well done man.  To come back and perform like that after such a terrible accident is .fantastic.  

It is now Tuesday evening and we have news that Ian Hutchinson has won the Superstock TT as well.  Is this going to be another week of amazing wins for this fantastic racer?  I wish him all the best for his future in the Isle of Man and everywhere else that he chooses to race.

The Isle of Man TT Races get little publicity apart from a bit on TV — probably because they are so dangerous — but the two week festival is the most interesting, exciting and unique experience on this planet.  Mind the press and TV will be there to report and bad accidents and riders killed.  I have not been there for 50 years but the event has if anything only got better.  Racers get killed on average at the rate of one or two every year but, even so, many of them keep coming back for more year after year.  And fans come from all over the world; by bike and car and bus and van from Europe but by air from USA, Australia and Asia.  It is such a friendly gathering where top racers from works teams mix with one man team privateers and with Joe Public in a totally down-to-earth manner.  One of the privateers, interviewed this week on TV told us how, last year, he had Bruce Anstey helping him change tyres.  Always delays can be expected because of weather and other things but no-one bothers very much because there are always other things to do.  You need to be slightly mad to want to race year after year at speeds up to 200 mph on public roads where a crash can be potentially fatal.  But there are many men — and a few women — who do come back again and again.  John McGuinness has twenty one wins to his name and he is trying hard as ever this year.  He is past the first flush on youth — he is just three years younger than Bruce Anstey — but he is still wanting to compete.  This year, the fact is that his Honda just isn't quick enough.  McGuinness is quite a big man and the Honda Fireblade is [a] a small bike, physically and [b] needs a severe update to keep up with the other manufacturers later models.

There is a daily report on the racing from ITV4 which is a much enjoyable TV hour. The presenters, four of them, three of whom have raced round the Isle of Man, all men — no token woman — all very professional, lovers of the TT, well acquainted with all the riders and respected by everyone at the festival.  I shall enjoy every day's reports and. possibly, an edited highlights programme at the week-end.

I must say just a little about Guy Martin.  He comes here year after year and has had everything from these races, except a win.  He always looks in with a chance but somehow something stops him winning; the bike may be down on power, or it just stops or he exceeds the speed limit in the pit lane or [2010] he has a horrendous crash, but he still comes back.  Guy Martin is an old-fashioned English eccentric but an eccentric that is surely unique.  He is a part-time racer, part-time TV presenter, full-time lorry mechanic with, apparently, the most comprehensive spanner set ever seen by the supplier's rep.  He has lashed out and bought a Rolls Royce Merlin engine because it is such a beautiful work of art and he intends to display it in the lounge of his house.  Now the Merlin engine is not small; it is a 27 litre V-12, is heavy — about one tonne — and needs a lot of space.  Guy loves his engines and becomes quite emotional about his Merlin — an engine that was built in 1943 and came out of a Lancaster bomber.  I hope he can get a TT win soon; he certainly deserves it and, I am sure, it will be popular with everyone.

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Death of a Lovely Man

I have had 3 months of total silence on this blog.  There was no particular reason for the silence but at my age, time does seem to slide by almost unnoticed.  I was stimulated to write again today by the announcement of the death of former leader of the Liberal-Democrats, Charles Kennedy.  He was a mere 55 years old.  We don't yet know the cause of death but I suppose we must assume a heart attack until we have proper medical assessment.  We know he has had problems with alcohol — indeed that was why he was forced from his post as party leader.  But I have always felt that Charles Kennedy drunk was a much better leader than either of his successors — drunk or sober.  Winston Churchill proved what could be achieved while consuming rather large volumes of alcohol.

I never met Charles Kennedy.  I did meet two earlier leaders of the Liberal Party, Jo Grimond and Jeremy Thorpe.  I met the latter soon after his election to Parliament for the first time as MP for North Devon in 1959.  Those were heady days when there was much talk of a Liberal revival and there were notable by-election successes; Ludovic Kennedy just failed to win the seat of Rochdale and Eric Lubbock was sensationally successful in winning Orpington.  I listened and talked to Jeremy Thorpe when he came to address the student's union at Leeds University in 1960 [I think].  He was quite impressive as a performer but he seemed slightly slippery — perhaps he was just behaving as a politician and lawyer].  Jo Grimond I met in the mid-sixties at Aberdeen Airport.  Aberdeen Airport in those days didn't amount to much — before the North Sea oil boom had taken off and there were only a few people waiting in the very basic terminal building for a flight down to London.  Mr Grimond had just flown in from his constituency [Orkney and Shetland] and was on his way to Westminster.  It was a wet and windy day and we few passengers stayed in a well-sealed building awaiting the arriving aeroplane.  Jo Grimond struck me at the time as looking like a slightly disorganized country parson — with a rather large hole in the heel of one of his woolen socks.  But we chatted about instant coffees and motorway service stations and he was charming.

Charles Kennedy was the most successful leader of the Liberal-Democrats and his death is a great loss to public life.  He lead his party to its greatest success in the election of 2005, when they won 62 seats — their best result since the Liberals in the 1920s.  He was a a man who could make contact with ordinary people, lacked all pomposity and was able to laugh at himself and politics.  He always seemed at ease when on TV and managed to combine TV appearances with his job as party leader.  Famously, he stood out in public in opposing Tony Blair and the Iraq War.  He was famously justified in this and no doubt this contributed greatly to his election success. .He also opposed the Liberal-Democrats going into a coalition government with the Tories.  He appears to have been justified again in his opposition as his party has been absolutely destroyed at the general election.  Nevertheless, throughout the last five years he was silent in his opposition and I think this was to his credit.  The decimation of the Liberal-Democrats is, I think, more a result of the behaviour of the party while in government.  Both Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were for ever rubbishing government policy while doing little justify their own performances.  Only Danny Alexandre at the Treasury impressed.  He may have had rows with George Osborne every day but none of it came out in public and they presented a united front.  George Osborne praised him, thanking him for his support throughout five years in government after Danny Alexandre lost his seat at the election.

Like 85% of Liberal-Democrat MPs, Charles Kennedy lost his seat at the election.  He represented the constituency of Ross, Skye and Lochaber for 32 years and was a much loved local man, living in Fort William.  He was displaced at the election by the tidal wave of the Scottish Nationalists who swept all before them.  Although collecting less than 1.5 million votes, they now have 56 MPs while the Liberal-Democrats, the Greens and UKIP who together collected 7.45 million votes managed only 10 seats between all three parties.  I am sure that this ridiculous imbalance will come to haunt the parties at Westminster as the SNP's motley crew tries to disrupt government.  It is the most distorted representation of the people in our history — according to the Electoral Reform Society.

Many people in Scotland were sad to see Charles Kennedy kicked out after so many years but yet they were prepared to vote for a Nationalist.  The death of Charles Kennedy is great loss to all of us and everyone from the Prime Minister down has mourned his passing.  Perhaps, he died of a broken heart?

I read a little story in the TMS column in The Times for 3rd June which told of Charles Kennedy in his final year at university in Glasgow spending time with a careers adviser who asked what he wanted to do in life.  "I am not sure," said Charles Kennedy, "I like reading and people so I could be a teacher.  Or possibly, a journalist."  Politics was discussed as a last resort.  A year later, he was elected as an MP at the age of 23 and received a letter from the careers adviser, which said "Dear Charles, I was delighted to hear the news of your election.  I can only presume that all else failed"

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