The Isle of Man TT Races are the reason this island is famous worldwide. The annual motorcycle festival is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world, with over two hundred and fifty rider fatalities since the early twentieth century. It brings huge tourism to the island for two weeks in May and June every year along with funfairs, beer tents and an electric atmosphere. The race is run on a time-trial format on public roads and consists of one week of practice sessions, followed by one week of racing. It has been a tradition for spectators to tour the sixty-one-kilometre TT Course which climbs to a height of almost four hundred metres and traverses over two hundred bends on motorcycles during ‘Mad Sunday’, an informal and unofficial sanctioned event held on the Sunday between practice week and race week. The current lap record has an average speed of 217.989 kilometres per hour. Read more about this year’s event here.
Photo credit “isle of man tt 2008” by Jonathan Camp is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
