RACING AND ROADCRAFT

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] this is douglas capital of the isle of man a very familiar sight to many thousands of holidaymakers who flock here each year and a familiar sight to every motorcycling enthusiast as well fort douglas is the starting point of some of the most important events in the international motorcycle racing calendar and during race weeks the whole island has a fascinating atmosphere of holiday gaiety mixed with the more serious business of racing i think it's fascinating at any rate but maybe that's because my home is here on the island or maybe because i'm pretty interested in motorcycle racing myself my name by the way is jeff duke even when i'm not racing myself i still seem to spend most of my time talking motorcycles and recently i was chatting to a group of clubmen who were over here for the manx grand prix one thing led to another and before very long we found ourselves outside the federal hotel on the front at douglas boarding a coach to go and have a look around the mountain circuit and talk about some of the more interesting features our first stop was at braden bridge i've always felt that a good motto here would be make haste slowly because as with so many double corners it's no use coming into the first part like a scolded cat if your speed puts you in such a position that you can't use maximum acceleration to get away from the second part we walked over the bridge to look at the approach now you can come in here quite fast but if you take the left hander at its true maximum speed you will inevitably drift out into the center of the road leaving yourself very badly placed for the faster right-hander which follows but by approaching alongside the right-hand gutter and peeling off rather late you can hug the left-hand wall of the bridge and then accelerate away around the right-hander changing into second gear as you reach maximum rpm in first that's the way to save precious seconds away again along the circuit past union mills and balacrane and through the past open country here at cronkite body then passed the sign for the 13th milestone this is certainly one of the fastest parts of the course completely blind on the approach and requiring absolute confidence allied to hairline judgment if a fast and safe passage is to be achieved on the prolonged right hand sweep you must resist the temptation to dive to the inside too soon but you should be running straight down the right hand gutter by the time you reach the bottom of the gradient where you peel off late and make a wide sweep over the bridge this section certainly sorts out the good riders from the not so good those with complete confidence and a knowledge of exactly where to go and what to do get through fast and clean but the boys who are not so sure of themselves lose vital seconds sorting out their line and getting properly organized now balaf bridge a place that's very impressive for the spectators and sometimes rather a time loser for the riders it's all too easy to take off from the top of the bridge in a most spectacular fashion which will almost ensure your picture being in the papers it will never be with the winners laurels around your neck because time spent in mid-air is time-wasted the moral is to get your wheels biting the road again as quickly as possible make sure your machine is really upright and traveling dead straight at the moment of takeoff and ease back on the throttle just before you part company with the road that will bring your back wheel to grips with the surface first and allow you to accelerate away promptly the exit from the bridge is perfectly simple provided your approach line has been accurate from belaff we drove on through the twisting but fast quarry bends around selby bridge and onto parliament square in ramsey there's nothing very special about tackling parliament square it's a first gear right and left with a sluggish beginning like braden bridge by peeling off as late as possible and slipping the clutch slightly you can take the right hand at a speed which will enable you to hold your machine in the right hand half of the road then you can feed the clutch in and accelerate away pretty well as hard as you can in first gear to take the left-hander and get away from the square the approach is quite fast and in warm weather you should break with care because the tar may be sticky from ramsey we climbed past the waterworks and drove on through the bleak open country past the lesbros memorial on our way to the three left-handers just before windy corner this is an extremely fast series of bends which calls for absolute confidence to get through quickly and safely at the right speed you should be able to take all three bends in one continuous sweep but your line must be accurate literally to within an inch the approach to our last port of call craig nebar is also fast being downhill so don't attempt any last-minute braking tactics or you may end up through the front door of the pub of course that may be your idea of the perfect end to a day's racing but the king types peel off very late quickly bank over to the right and then accelerate hard out of the corner in first gear incidentally there was some road widening done here a few years ago but it had no real effect on the speed of the corner as the approach and exit remain unaltered however resurfacing has removed some of the very nasty bumps which used to limit the speed of the corner to some extent here under the motorcycling bridge seems rather an appropriate place to leave our trip around the circuit i'd like to introduce you now to a very good friend of mine bob holliday the editor of motorcycling and someone whom we on the island have come to regard as almost an essential part of the scenery over here during race weeks that's right isn't it bob well it's the first time i've ever been referred to a scenery jeff but i haven't missed an important meeting on the island since 1928 and i must have met pretty nearly everyone in the motorcycling world over here one time or another i bet some of them would have jumped at an opportunity of doing a trip around the course like the one you've just described so many people seem to regard racing as a test of hair raising speed and never stop to consider that it's the pre-planning that counts knowing the circuit intimately working out exactly the best way to tackle each particular section solving the problems beforehand instead of waiting until actually hurtling around on a machine these things are vitally important for a serious rider yes bob i quite agree but i suppose the most important thing for any rider is simply to know his own limitations and those of his machine once he is aware of these he can plan his approach to any particular circuit and devise ways of overcoming them so that every ounce of effort goes into the business of getting his machine around quickly and safely jeff this td circuit is one of the very few circuits in the british isles which sees a reasonable number of club riders as opposed to the purely professional riders now i've got one or two questions to ask you about it braden bridge for example you mentioned peeling off rather late just how late well braden's quite easy from that point of view because the gpo have quite fortuitously planted one of their little marker posts by the side of the pavement on the approach which is pretty well where you start swinging round here i'll show you got a pencil bob better than that i came prepared look you have sketch maps of all the places you were talking about where's braden there we are let's have it hmm now your approach line brings you alongside the right hand gutter as you break and change down to first gear as you come level with the gpo marker post which is about here you peel off quite sharply and run along tight into the left hand wall of the bridge now on the far side just where the wall starts to curve away from you you peel off to the right and accelerate hard away if you approach too fast you'll drift over here somewhere and be unable to get properly lined up for the exit what about the road surface quite good but there's a slight dip on the apex of the right hander which can shift the suspension quite a bit so you have to be prepared for your megaphone or footrest grounding slightly that happens about here or one other thing bob if the surface is a bit wet you shouldn't change gear with the throttle too wide open or you may promote a rear wheel slide good now what about the next place you visited around the 13th milestone well you've got to remember that it goes on for quite a long time you've got a blind right-hander then a hill and the left-hander over the bridge before you straighten out and shoot off towards kirk michael which makes it a very difficult section taken as a whole you have to think ahead all the time if you want to maintain a good line most people dive in too early on the first right-hander and then drift out and spoil their approach to the left-hander at the bottom of the hill let's have a look at your sketch bob hmm here we go you see if you keep well out into the middle of the road to start with it's not so difficult to cope with everything else that follows the correct line sweeps across to a point on the left where the wall gets out and continues straight down the right hand gutter to the left hander over the bridge this calls for a late peeling off point and the wide sweep the closest point to the inside of the bend being opposite the telegraph pole somewhere up here you've stressed the line of approach a lot jeff but here at the loft bridge [Applause] the way one takes off over the brow of the bridge is equally important isn't it perhaps your approach line more or less takes care of itself it's true and you've got to peel off rather more rapidly than usual to make sure that your machine is really upright before you actually take to the air have a look at the way this chap's doing it the ideal place for takeoff is on a diagonal line halfway between this bridge wall on the left and the yellow line down the center of the road along here then you can accelerate away quite hard as soon as your rear wheel gets back on the road again the really important thing is to have your back wheel off the road for as short a time as possible time spent sailing through the air is almost completely wasted if you ease back on the throttle just before takeoff and poise on the footrest your rear wheel will return where it belongs biting the surface as quickly as possible that's the way to get through balaf quickly but the line is the most important thing back again at parliament square isn't it jeff it certainly is you come in quite slowly and leave the moment for peeling off as late as possible and take the right hander at a speed which will keep you over in the right hand half of the road like this chap is doing if you don't keep almost in the gutter as you come around the right-hander you'll end up doing this sort of thing whilst trying to get sorted out for the left-hander that takes you out of the square jeff we've been dealing with a lot of corners and hearing about peeling off points and so forth what about the really fast bends those three left just before windy corner for instance they can be extremely fast and your aim should be to take them in one continuous sweep instead of regarding them as three separate stretches of road of course you've got to build up to the right speed but this is a pretty fast section of the circuit this is what you should aim to do got the right sketch amongst the power bob somewhere here we are now your approach line should be down the right hand side of the road here by the way there's a slight right king just before you reach the bends which can very easily throw you offline if you forget it you leave the first left a little late adjust your speed so that you barely clip the center line and drift out towards the fence then you come in again halfway between the line and the left hand bank on the apex of the second corner using all the road to get around the last left hander if your speed and line have been right you should be able to take the whole section in one continuous sweep there should be none of this business of picking your machine up and laying it down again for each individual curve but you have to know exactly what you're doing and be on exactly the right line every inch of the way look at this chap he's chugging along quite merrily or so he thinks but look at the difference in speed when one of the old hands takes it [Music] and here's someone taking craig nebar our last port of call not doing too badly either he peels off perhaps a little too soon but he's away quite quickly the road widening that's taking place here makes the corner look rather deceptive and you're tempted to peel off too soon you should really wait until you've almost reached the end of the wall on the left somewhere about here and you accelerate away hard under the ridge and away into the distance and that brings us back to where we came in bob that's terrific jeff just one last thing you've only talked about a few particular places but i suppose pretty well the same principles apply to a number of other spots around the circuit of course braden bridge is very much the same as the s bend above the water works although in this instance it's a right followed by a left hander in each case the secret is getting lined up so that one can get away really quickly it's acceleration that counts in this sort of racing and you can't accelerate really hard unless you are properly lined up for it and craig nabarro is similar to signpost isn't it both right-handers with a pretty fast approach yes and in each case you have to leave the moment for peeling off as late as possible in fact the same thing applies all the time you've got to know the circuit like the palm of your hand before you pull on your levers and start racing of course the professional boys have been at it for years know all the tricks but i for one am very glad to see an increasing number of clubmen finding their way onto the road circuits these days any last words of advice for them jeff well bob i think some people tend to forget that racing doesn't just start and finish on race days and that applies whether you're on the tt circuit or anywhere else if you plan everything beforehand and work out how circuit should be tackled you'll find everything more interesting you'll get around faster and you'll get around more safely but remember there's a world of difference between taking calculated risks under the control conditions of a racing circuit and taking unnecessary ones on a public highway get to know your machine keep it under control all the time one of the main things i've learned in my years of racing is that safety first may be a bit of a cliche but it still saves lives good luck [Music] [Applause] [Music] 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