The Brutality of Road Racing

[advrider]

The year is 1907. Motorcycles are a relatively new form of transport; there is more than one in existence, so of course a race has ultimately happened, with predictable results in the days of zero safety equipment. Deaths on the street from these noisy machines must be controlled.

The Isle of Man, a small island in the Irish Sea, becomes the place for a road race to happen. A circuit is drawn up, basic rules are laid down, and the TT is born.

Time trial racing is a unique format. Riders set off at specific times with a few seconds between them; they race against the clock, but there is a rider in their line of sight, giving them someone to race, someone to catch!

Jump ahead to 1911 and Victor Surridge makes history twice. At the Glen Helen bend of the island circuit, he crashes and is believed to have died instantaneously. Most likely unknown to the bystanders and spectators, he is not only the first person to die since the TT race began a few years earlier, he is also the first person to die on the Isle of Man involved in any sort of automotive accident.

Victor was 19. It was his first time racing at the TT. He was a member of the Rudge Racing Team. The incident happened during a practice lap.

Skip forward to 1982, racing was still happening, speeds were dramatically higher and the TT made some bizarre history that year… no one died. In 2001, that same note went down in the history books—a year with great racing, but even better, no deaths. It hasn’t happened since.

2022’s Toll

Right now as I sit waiting for a ferry back to the mainland, the death toll has increased by three souls this year to a total of 263 rider deaths since racing had begun all those years ago on the Isle of Man. There is still a few days’ racing left to go, including the Senior TT, the main race.

If you walk the course and look closely you will see impacted areas, memorial signs of rider deaths in various places.

This year Mark Purslow and Oliver Lavorel, both relative newcomers to racing on the island, lost their lives in solo racing and sidecar racing respectively.

Most may read this and blame inexperience for the deaths. You might think this makes sense, but just a few miles from the finish line at mile marker 27, Davy Morgan also crashed this this week, and died. It was his 80th race here. He was a very well-known rider on the course in his distinctive pink helmet.

That helmet was a regular and recognizable sight within street circuit racing; Morgan competed in hundreds of races across the Manx Grand Prix, Classic TT, Southern 100, North West 200, Ulster Grand Prix, Macau Grand Prix, Oliver’s Mount, and Irish national races, with numerous podiums and race victories along the way.

Aged 52, Davy had contemplated walking away from the sport in recent years, but the COVID-enforced break had shown him what a life without racing would be like.

Speaking in 2020, he said,

… being away from racing has given me the chance to reflect on what motorbike racing means to me, so I’ve no desire to retire from the sport for a while yet, and it’s been a big part of my life for 27 years now.

I’ve had the opportunity to see what it would be like without motorbikes, and I’m glad I had that because if I’d decided that I was finished, I’d have been kicking myself!

The irony of this statement stings today, the day after his death.

The 2022 races are the busiest the island has ever seen, for racers and spectators alike. The debate will again begin: Should this race still exist in this day and age? Both the riders and spectators will tell you the same thing: It is the individual’s choice to race. They are not forced by race teams; they do it for the love of the sport and the excitement this course brings.

There is an obvious brutality to road racing… what are your thoughts?

The title image is one of the last shots I got of Davy entering Braddan Bridge, in a qualifying lap, three day before his death.

 

 

 

 

 

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