Two riders died at this year's TT. That's not at all unusual, a rider is killed most years and more than 250 have died in the race's history.
News media have a set formula for these stories and how they are covered depends on the publication and where it is:
- Media in the UK report the death and there's always a footnote along the lines of: "this latest death poses serious questions as to whether this event should continue."
- Motorcycle publications report the death and then publish opinion pieces on why the event should continue.
Actually, K2 has a much higher death- to-climber ratio than Everest, but now I'm just being pedantic. How on earth can you draw a comparison between Everest, or indeed any mountain, and a motorcycle race? Smoking kills more people than the TT, so does drinking, watching car rallies, equestrian eventing, dogs, marathon running ... I could go on, but you get the point.
And no-one is going to ban the TT, it's worth millions to the economy of the Isle of Man and clearly the Manx government sees an average of 2.5 motorcycle racers killed each year as a small price to pay (in economic terms) for the benefits it brings to the island.
There's no clamour among the UK population to ban the TT, most people haven't even heard of it for Christ's sake!
It's hard to think of any racing events which have been closed (or banned) on safety grounds. The Mille Miglia - a thousand-mile road race in Italy - was banned twice, once in 1938 by Benito Mussolini when a spectator was killed and finally in 1957 when a crash killed two competitors and nine spectators (five of them children). Even then, the race wasn't completely finished - it was revived in 1982 as a road rally for classic cars (a bit like the Manx GP).
Other classic road races have ceased or have converted to tracks, but their end has been due to inconvenience caused by having to close roads, rather than through safety concerns.
Let's be absolutely clear - the TT is not going to be banned and all those articles saying why it must continue are rallying to a fight that isn't being fought.
So why are they being written? In my view it's partly guilt, partly seeking to justify why we support such a brutal sport, but I think it's also a case of chest beating; it's the logic of Millwall supporters chanting "no-one likes us and we don't care". In our case the chant would be "we watch people crashing to their deaths and we don't care". But we do care, or at least we like to pretend that we do - that's why motorcycle publications carry these articles, that's why several thousand bikes rode round the TT course in memory of Simon Andrews (killed at the NW200) ...
Twitter is awash with crocodile tears - people who didn't know Karl Harris are devastated, heartbroken, want to say what a great bloke he was ... they want to make themselves part of the event.
But we don't really care. If we did, we'd stay away from the TT like Scott Redding. The MotoGP racer was due to take part in a parade lap before the start of the Senior TT on Friday. He pulled out after his friend and mentor Bob Price was killed in the Supersport Race 1 on Monday. Redding didn't want anything to do with an event that had killed someone he cared about and he issued a very thoughtful statement explaining that. He was villified by bikers on Twitter and other social media outlets.
We don't mind people shedding crocodile tears, but when someone sheds real tears it's a different matter.
So where do I stand on this? I've followed motorcycle racing since the mid 1960s and have been a regular at recent TTs. I'm going to be brutally honest - I accept that riders are killed; let's be logical, if I did mind, I'd stop watching.
I don't want people to die, but I'll be brutally, brutally honest and say that I think crashes, injuries and deaths add massively to the drama of motorcycle racing. I don't go to see someone die, I don't want people to die, but if they do it makes my "entertainment" more intense, it horrifies you, it shocks the soul.
The TT won't be banned, the only way it will end is if people stop watching it and then the economic benefit will no longer be worth the residents on the Isle of Man putting up with the inconvenience of closing the roads.
If you don't want people to die, do what Scott Redding did - don't go to the TT. If you do go to the TT, then at least be honest and admit that you're quite prepared to see two or three riders killed each year in the name of entertainment.
For the record:
Simon Andrews (31) from Evesham was killed in the NW200 road race in May.
Bob Price (65) from Stroud was killed in the Supersport Race 1 at the TT.
Karl Harris (34) from Sheffield was killed in the Superstock race at the TT.
Other motorcycle-related posts:
Will Michael Dunlop Become the Greatest TT Racer of all Time?
Closer to the Riders
Notes from the Isle of Man
Closer to the Riders
Notes from the Isle of Man
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