As practice week at the world famous Isle of Man TT races begins, we thought it best to give you some facts and figures and a plotted history to help get some TT understanding. This should help you enjoy the coverage more and help you understand why things are the way they are despite the world having moved on a hundred plus years since the first event!

Geographically the Isle of Man is part of the British Islands, situated midway between England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. This small country has a land mass of some 227 square miles (572 sq. km) and measures at its extremities 33 miles (52 km) by 13 miles (22 km).

Vast stretches of open moor land, thickly wooded glens, over 100 miles (160 kms) of coastline, a central range of mountains and hills lying in a North Easterly/South Westerly direction with well defined valleys leading down to rocky cliffs and sheltered bays make up the general land mass which has its own micro-climate.

As one of the few remaining pure road-racing circuits still in use, it has carried the mantle of the ‘Road Racing Capital of the World’ for many years. This is no idle boast, as visitors flock to the June meeting from literally all over the world. It is conservatively estimated that the fortnight brings twenty-million pounds to island. This normally comes from around 25,000 plus visitors, who join the full-time population of just 76,000, with just 200 full-time police officers.

It almost goes without saying that many of the visitors will be motorcycle mounted and will wish to circulate the mountain TT course in between racing. With parts of the island’s road structure still fully derestricted, the potential for crashes and collisions, not to mention fatalities, is high, despite a recent decline, thanks to some innovative road policing strategies.

That just about sums up the present, but how did it all start? Why do competitors and fans alike travel thousands of miles to compete in an event that was stripped of its world championship status in the ‘60s due to the danger factor? The answers are, of course, complex, but a quick look at the history may help you understand a little!

The first motorcycle races on record were in 1895 and were in fact combined car and bike events between various major cities in Europe like Paris and Madrid. These attracted literally millions of spectators, but due to crashes and fatalities they were soon abandoned. A year later in the UK, the 1896 Locomotives on Highways Act, often known as the Emancipation Act, (in that it did away with the need for three persons in front of a vehicle and a red flag) came into force and raised the speed limit to 14 mph. However, this still did not exactly promote any form of competition, or racing, and the Government was not interested in helping in any way!

By 1903 there was a 20 mph limit imposed on all English roads, so still the only place any motorcycle racing could take place was on banked pedal cycle tracks like the one in Canning Town, East London. A much publicized race that year, between the French and English, had a amazing prize fund of £1,000 and was won by a French rider on a bike with a reported top speed of 80 mph!

The opportunity for either car or bike competitors to practice in between such events was in the main very limited, so that when they ventured into Europe they normally got beaten. The independent Isle of Man, or Manx, government were, however, quick to see the advantages and commercial benefits of allowing racing on closed public roads. New legislation was quickly passed to enable the closing of public roads for motor racing and in 1904 they granted the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) permission to hold car races on the Island.

So it was motor car racing that first came to the Isle of Man in the same year when the Gordon Bennett car trials were held, the actual event itself taking place in France. The course then used was approximately 52 miles long, using virtually every road on the small island in the Irish Sea. The French event was a fiasco and the RAC returned to the IOM to run their own Tourist Trophy Races in September 1905. Although only a small entry it was deemed a success and paved the way for the motorcycle races, albeit not on the mountain circuit, which was deemed to tough for bikes that still largely relied on pedal power!

Before the TT was established, however, the first motorcycle race to be held on the Island was actually a qualifying trial for an International race to be held in Austria in 1906. The course used in the trials ran from Quarter Bridge south to Castletown, then back through Foxdale to Ballacraine, then reverse way to Quarter Bridge. The event was won by a J.S. Campbell riding a six-horsepower Ariel-Jap, a machine very different to the bikes that now take part!

On the way back from the Austrian event, which was beset with numerous allegations of cheating, a plan was hatched to run, what was to become the first TT race for motorcycles in 1907, by leading British riders and officials. One of the men responsible was an English-based Frenchman, called the Marquis de Mouzilly St Mars who presented a magnificent trophy for the winner, which is still used to this day.

So when Frank Hubert and Jack Marshall pushed off their single-cylinder motorcycles at 10 a.m. on a cold wet morning on 28th May 1907 to lead away 25 riders, they started an event, which would become an institution, not only in the UK, but also in the global motorcycle world.

The first TT races where held on the triangular course with the start at St John's. The riders proceeded along to Ballacraine, before turning left and following the current TT course through to Kirk Michael. At Douglas Road Corner in Kirk Michael, the short course left the current TT course and followed the coast road to Peel, before turning left again and heading back to St John's, a course distance of 15 miles 1430 yards.

In 1907 two races were held on the short course with H. Rem Fowler winning the twin-cylinder class on a Peugeot-engined Norton at 36.22 mph and Charlie Collier the single-cylinder class on a Matchless at 38.22 mph.

In 1911 the course moved to take in the mountain road, which had originally been deemed as too much of a challenge. However, with improved engineering, the machines were getting too fast for the original course. The new circuit was 37 ½ miles long and it remained so until the last part was altered to include the start finish in Glencrutchery Road, raising the distance to 37 ¾ miles, which it stands at to this day.

Over the years the event has had its highs and lows, but has survived even the blackest hours, including the loss of its World Championship status. It has seen records made and broken and created legends like 26 times TT winner Joey Dunlop, whose name is synonymous with the TT.

It has grown into a motorcycle festival, with many diverse events slotted into the program each year for the thousands of fans that make the yearly pilgrimage. Its history cannot be contained in any one book, such is the enormity of it as it almost charts the history of motorcycles and engineering development in the quest for speed.

Cumbrian John McGuiness has raised the outright lap record to 130 mph for the 37.75 mile mountain circuit. In recent years Bruce Anstey another leading rider was clocked at 206 mph on the Sulby Straight on a modified Suzuki road bike and so it goes on.

These modern machines may be worlds apart to bikes in that first race, but, the principle of racing against the clock on real roads remains. As do most of the original roads, albeit now surfaced and a little smoother, but long may it all continue!