Radio TT is up for top award

Radio TT has been shortlisted for an award by IRN, Independent Radio News. We’re up for the Best Sports Story gong, one of three radio stations to be nominated along with Real Radio Scotland and BRMB Birmingham. Listen to the entry here: tt rainrace 2011 sportentry

I’m delighted about this because we have a fantastic and unique team which regularly rises to the most unpredictable of occasions.

Asking the right questions at the right time: Chris Kinley

Radio TT is pulled together for two weeks each year with a combination of full-time radio professionals, part-time freelances, and others whose sole broadcasting experience has only ever been at the TT. It is one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with and one big reason is motivation. We all want to be involved, we all count the days till it starts every year. Teamwork is another factor. There are no over-riding egos. The team dovetails naturally, knowing we can rely on each other. The ability of each individual is beyond question, whether it’s Roy and Dave describing events at Ramsey and Glen Helen, or Mavis and Heike chatting away in French and German. There’s a lot of good humour all fortnight, off air as well as on air, and that includes those who voices may not be heard but whose presence is certainly felt – the engineers, the timekeepers, and our producer Eunice Cubbon. I’d like to think Eunice and myself have gelled since day one. We have the same approach to the job and the same broadcasting values.

The reason this matters is that the days are long and unpredictable. Uniquely in my experience there is never any script, no running order, no formal structure for a live show which can extend over an entire working day. We set off and see what happens. Of course, we are not completely flying by the seat of the pants. There is a tradition and a pattern which were established by Peter Kneale and Geoff Cannell, both overseen by Eunice, and today we amend and update things as we see fit. It’s a bit like the British Constitution – nothing is written down but somehow it all works. In recent years an extra layer of journalism has been grafted on by Tim Glover and Chris Kinley which gives our output a bite which you don’t always find in the live broadcasting of sports events.

The entry which seems to have impressed the people at IRN is a selection from the day of the Supersport TT when the riders objected to riding, deeming the wet course too dangerous. The race started anyway, but was red flagged on the second lap when it became, er, too dangerous.

We’ll find out near the end of March if we’ve won the award but I’m well pleased just to be on the shortlist. That in itself is deserved recognition for our team.

Bad news for Hutchy and Shaun

Twitter was the place to be yesterday. It was a tweet from MCN that alerted me to Hutchy having broken his leg again while preparing for a show at the ExCel. That didn’t sound good and while looking for confirmation I was well aware that Hutchy himself, normally an active tweeter, was unusually silent. Then Shaun Muir tweeted to confirm that Hutchy has sustained a fresh break, not a repeat of one of his previous fractures. I can’t imagine what Hutchy is going through, having been well on his way to recovery from the Silverstone 2010 incident. Talk about the ups and downs of road racing. Hutchy has pretty much seen it all, from having his first podium taken away because of a technical infringement to winning all five in a year, and now from completing an amazing recovery from multiple fractures to sustaining a new fracture in a comparatively innocuous activity. The good thing is, he has seen it all. So he knows he can recover yet again. Which I’m confident he will.

Good luck to Hutchy, and also a word of sympathy to Shaun and the Swan Yamaha team who signed up Hutchy after the 2010 TT and, through no-one’s fault, haven’t seen much return on their investment. So far.

Chris Evans discovers the TT

Chris Evans was given an introduction to the TT on his Radio 2 show yesterday. He interviewed Steve Christian, producer of Closer to the Edge. Meanwhile Steve and the rest of the CineMANX team are celebrating an Oscar nomination for their recent production Chico and Rita. It’s nominated for the best animated film – great news and good luck for the big night. Listen to Steve’s interview with Chris here . It appears at 2 hours 07 mins on the timeline.

Premature end to Amor’s TT career

Keith Amor’s anouncement this week that he is retiring from road racing because of damage to his shoulder brings a disappointing end to an all-too-short TT career. It also means that the paddock has lost not only a talented rider, but one who was well capable of making hard decisions based on practical evidence rather than emotion.

Keith always rode the TT with a proper appreciation of the hazards. On the Wednesday of race week in 2010 he was one of a handful riders who refused to race when steady rain left the track treacherous. It took quite some time for Race Control to agree and postpone till the next day.

Twelve months later the Wednesday schedule was again affected by rain. Racing started after a delay of two and a half hours, but with water spraying off the tyres Keith crashed heavily at Union Mills and Guy and Cameron almost came to grief at the same place. The damage to his shoulder that day has contributed to his retirement. He also had a spill at Quarterbridge in practice, and another one at the Ulster GP, meaning that both shoulders are weakened. Despite a major operation last November he hasn’t regained full strength and, with his first child on the way, he’s made a good decision.

Keith made his TT debut in 2007 at the age of 35 and made his mark instantly by taking 14th place in his very first race around the Mountain Course. A year later he made it to the podium, third in the first Supersport race on Wilson Craig’s Honda, the same year that his bike caught fire on Bray Hill in the second Supersport race. 2009 saw him on the podium twice, third in both the Supersport and Superstock events. Another third came in 2010, again on 600cc machinery and he was lying second for HM Plant in the Senior when forced to retire at Glen Helen on the last lap. Last year saw him advance to second on the podium on his own KBMG Honda 600. That was his best year overall – finishing all five races with three fourths, a fifth, and second place in the points championship. I tipped Keith for a win last year and I feel sure that within the next year or two he’d have become the first Scot since Jim Moodie to top the podium.

Retirement will have been a tough decision but in typical style he’s weighed up the situation as it is, not as he’d like it to be. He’s given us all a lot of enjoyment and I wish him every success in the future, a future which includes working for Focused Events who run track days across Europe.

This could take some time…

Now that the organisers have decided to start TT races with riders in the order of their fastest practice times, apart from the pre-designated top 20, I’m wondering what the Raceguide will look like? And how long will it take me to read out all the changes when hardly anyone will remain in their original slots?? If any spectator misses the Raceguide changes, they’ll have their work cut out recognising who’s who.

What's in a number? McGuinness takes numero uno through Braddan, 2011. photo: CL

Not that I am against the idea – it makes sense. I’m just starting to think through the consequences. I guess the I.T. team will also have their work cut out, re-programming starting numbers which, I assume, will be changed to correspond with a rider’s actual start position. Will it also make life harder for the scouts behind the scoreboard?

Whatever the consequences, we’ll all manage to cope and you can’t argue with the sporting logic behind the decision. I wonder how long it will be before the whole grid lines up on the basis of practice speeds, including the top 20? And how much will that add spice to practice week?

TTale of TThree TT Stars

Big news today is the signing by TAS of Conor Cummins for the 2012 road racing season. Conor’s arrival means Hector and Philip Neill will again run a two-rider team at the TT, having entered only Guy Martin last year. Conor’s time with McAdoo has yielded some terrific results but his chances of becoming the fourth Manxman to win a solo TT will only be improved by this move which teams him with a proven TT-winning outfit.

Conor made his TT debut in 2006 and was best newcomer in both the Superstock and the Senior – an impressive 17th overall in the Senior. In 2007 he became the fastest Manxman ever around the Mountain Course in taking 6th place in the Senior for Millsport Racing on Yamaha machinery. The same year he was 5th in the Superstock, a feat he repeated 12 months later, again aboard a Yamaha but now with NCT. In 2009 Conor made another quantum leap, signing for McAdoo Kawasaki, grabbing his first podium with 3rd in the second Supersport TT, and then runner-up in the Senior, still his best TT finish. The same year he lapped at 133.284 at the Ulster, setting what was then a new record for the fastest road racer in the world. His victory in the first SBK race was his first international road race win. Conor continued to raise the bar in 2010. On the Mountain Course he lapped at 131.511 to lead the SBK TT before retiring at Laurel Bank, he was back on the podium with third in the Superstock, and led the Senior before Guy Martin’s crash at Ballagarey caused a restat which was when Conor had his own spectacular off at the Verandah. Last year, by no means fully fit following months of surgery and rehab, he took 6th in the second Supersport race and was also honoured by the Spirit of the TT award in recognition of the courage and commitment he’d shown in battling back from his injuries.

So 2012 is going to be another exciting year for Conor and his army of supporters.

But it isn’t like this for all TT riders. The arrival of the Winter edition of the excellent TT Supporters Club magazine brings news that former MGP Senior winner Simon Fulton is by no means sure of racing this year. A detailed interiew with Si reveals that his sponsor Kev Stephenson from Rev2Race has sold his R6 because of a downturn in business, and Simon himself has had to sell his R1 to pay for his TT bills from last year. Total cost of keeping Si on the road last season was £38,000. At the time the mag went to press he had no bikes, and was planning to build a 600cc bike. Whether he’ll be entering the other classes looks very doubtful to say the least. Simon will not be the only rider who is finding the financial climate very damaging to his TT career.

To end on a up note. Keith Amor has just tweeted the great news that he’s to become a dad. So for all sorts of reasons, 2012 is getting off to an eventful start in the TT world.

 

Good news from Hutchy

Hutchy has been on Twitter to reveal that he’s just had his 19th operation. This one has enabled him to lift his left foot for the first time in 16 months, meaning he expects to be using an orthodox left-side gear shift before long.