Magic Carpet Ride
This is a video from an on-board camera during open practice last month at the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race. The rider is legendary racer John McGuinness; the steed is a Honda CBR1000RR superbike.
What makes IoM unique is the fact that it's a true street course. Whereas GP courses have aprons and rollout areas and sandtraps and spongy walls and perfectly manicured pavement, at IoM you're racing on the streets people drive every day. It's bumpy and cracked; instead of soft landing areas for crashes, you have stone walls and houses and trees and light poles flying by at 150 mph. A mistake on a GP track might earn a rider a broken bone or two. A mistake at IoM is very likely to put him in his grave. Consequently, this is one of the most white-knuckle races in the world. It's comparable to the Nurburgring back in the 1960s when it was run in tube body GP racers on 2-ply tires.
And lest you think this is a young man's game, McGuinness is 44.
What makes IoM unique is the fact that it's a true street course. Whereas GP courses have aprons and rollout areas and sandtraps and spongy walls and perfectly manicured pavement, at IoM you're racing on the streets people drive every day. It's bumpy and cracked; instead of soft landing areas for crashes, you have stone walls and houses and trees and light poles flying by at 150 mph. A mistake on a GP track might earn a rider a broken bone or two. A mistake at IoM is very likely to put him in his grave. Consequently, this is one of the most white-knuckle races in the world. It's comparable to the Nurburgring back in the 1960s when it was run in tube body GP racers on 2-ply tires.
And lest you think this is a young man's game, McGuinness is 44.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 12:44
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home