That is awesome!! Does anywhere else in the world hold such a race? Truly amazing that the complete island shuts down for this event and with the injuries/deaths that it is still so popular and allowed to continue to get faster.
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I get mine from
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Racing on closed public roads is alive and thriving in Ireland, with the Northwest 200 regulary attracting over 100,000 spectators every year. Other smaller events at Mid Antrim, Tandragee, Cookstown, Dundrod (aka the Ulster GP) and several others are also going strong after many decades. The Irish races are all mass-starts, like other short-circuit events, but the Isle of Man is by far the longest circuit (37.75 miles, while the others are all under 9 miles), and is the only one where competitors start in 10-second intervals instead of all together.
There are some other real-roads racing in various events around Europe as well. It's sad and ironic that Northern Ireland's Joey Dunlop, who was and still is the all-time wins leader at the Isle of Man with 26 TT victories, died just weeks after the 2000 TT at a public road circuit in Estonia at age 48. Just to give you an idea how much of a hero he was in Ireland and how much real-roads racing means to the people there, Joey's funeral was televised nationally and was attended by 50,000 mourners.
There were plans to hold a race of this type in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia last September, but it all fell apart. We are still hopeful that it could happen in the future, but government officials have yet to fully embrace the idea, so I'm not holding my breath.
You can find out more info on this type of racing at
www.realroadracing.com.
:cheers
