On the Money

Almost 40 years ago, when I occupied the editorial chair of monthly motorcycle magazine Bike, my assistant editor Roland Brown wrote an impressive piece of hard-core journalism entitled “Blood on the tracks”, exposing lax and often downright callous attitudes to race track safety. An extremely competent racer in his own right, Brown’s motivation for this diatribe was personal involvement in the death of a fellow competitor, who had crashed into steel Armco fencing gesturally protected by a few straw bales and been thrown back onto the racing line.

Such incidents were common then, and British domestic circuits without run-off areas were particularly notorious. Contemporary ACU road race committee chairman Vernon Cooper cynically rejected the risks by telling Brown: “Racing is a dangerous sport. Anybody who doesn’t want to race is at liberty to stay at home.” On another occasion, he reputedly brushed aside criticism with a now infamous “the throttle works both ways” remark.

At that time, the ACU had no accessible database at all of crashes, injuries or even deaths sustained on indigenous circuits – either of the purpose-built enclosed variety or “real roads” venues. Reports from track stewards or course clerks were left uncollated, simply filed away and forgotten.

This situation has since improved immeasurably on circuits managed for professional championships such as MSVR’s British Superbikes business and its support races. But safety enhancements in the real-roads firmament have often been led by knee-jerk reaction after deleterious circumstances, rather than any studied analytical approach to anticipating and minimising risk whenever possible. And it’s now an inescapable truth that we live in an increasingly risk-averse society. Tolerance of palpably dangerous sports is wearing thin.

An expression of the threat thus posed for racing on temporarily closed public roads loomed in early February, when it appeared that fertiliser had begun to hit the fan with a vengeance from the unexpected direction of insurance underwriters.

The Ulster Centre of the Motorcycle Union of Ireland (MCUI) abruptly cancelled its entire 2023 racing calendar – most notably the North West 200, Ulster Grand Prix, Sunflower Trophy and Ulster Superbike Championship. Some MCUI events in the Republic of Ireland were similarly impacted. The quoted reason was an utterly unsustainable approximate doubling of public liability insurance costs to somewhere in the region of £410,000.

Strenuous efforts were made to save the North West 200, through sponsors and crowd funding via its massive trackside spectator base, as well as looking for a bung from the Northern Ireland Tourist Authority. But a deathly hush settled over the other events.

Fortunately, last-minute relief emerged in mid-March. Minted County Tyrone businessman Derek Keys and his Euro Auctions company stepped in with a very large donation. And the crowd funding initiative had proved extremely successful, raising around £92,000. So, the MCUI was able to cut a new deal with insurers and most previously canned races this year, led by the NW 200 in May, will henceforth proceed.

No doubt there was a big sigh of relief from those involved. But it’s too early to relax. You don’t have to look far for the raison d’etre behind such insurance woes. Real-roads racing is rough and ready, the attrition rate among competitors remains harsh and safeguarding spectators properly is nightmarish.

No surprise either then that the Isle of Man government had soon joined this conversation. Responding to the MCUI’s subsequently solved dilemma, Manx Department of Enterprise minister and TT race festival supremo Tim Johnston assured all and sundry that full insurance cover under ACU auspices was already in place for the Island’s headline 2023 race meetings, on the TT Mountain Course and Castletown’s Billown circuit.

But not only did Johnston have to admit to a huge increase for annual insurance fees this year, rising by an excruciating 18% to £930,000, he also acknowledged that revenue from TT visitors would have to be milked un-mercilessly to fund inevitable future burdensome increases.

The baleful gaze of insurance actuaries has often been focused on Mona’s Isle and a propensity for closing its stable door after the horse has bolted. Kneejerkism and “lessons have been learned” mantras go hand-inhand. How far back shall we go for ripe examples of risks unassessed?

Leaving aside the 266-strong toll of Isle of Man TT competitors who have laid down their lives in pursuit of racing glory since 1907, the TT Centenary in 2007 proved to be a pivotal point. During the Senior race that year, reaping spectators finally became a reality.

Rider Marc Ramsbotham crashed and died at the 26th