We asked you, the Visordown audience, what you thought of real road racing and whether in this day and age there's a place for it in our lives? Here's what you had to say:
Road racing should continue for as long as the organisers are willing to run such events. If only road racing had better publicity and bigger sponsorship backing. It would do the sport good and improve safety measures at the same time.
Gravystorm
All rational arguments aside, it makes desperately sad it makes me when I read about the death of another rider. There is no sport on the planet that requires the same level of skill and commitment, to pay the ultimate price competing in the sport you love shows the passion people feel for road racing. I only wish they didn’t have to.
Poutywombat
I don’t have a problem with road racing and the riders certainly don’t, they accept the risks when they swing a leg over their bike. Motor sport has become too sterile with the exception of road racing. Long let it continue!
Glyn Addison
The only thing I’ve got against it is the cost. I can’t afford to participate. This situation is unlikely to change in the near future.
2H4
Since Health and Safety has become the new political correctness, it won’t be long before the H&S Nazis get stuck into road racing. Enjoy and support races like the TT and NW200 while you still can.
Alan Haskins
Every bloody time someone dies in road racing we have this question. Do we have the same question every time someone gets killed crossing a road? No. It’s a great shame and a terrible loss but it happens. I really did feel for the Dunlop family the same way as I do every time I hear of a bike rider coming to an end on the road and leaving a family behind, but no one makes you get on a bike or in a car and launch it round a road or track. The only thing we can do is to make sure that what ever racing is done is done in the safest possible manner to both spectator and racer.
geterssp1
There is no issue with road racing. The competitors aren’t forced on to the machines at gunpoint, and I think I am correct in stating that more horse riders and rugby players are killed and handicapped than road racers. The TT is an awesome festival of real racing, and one of the few things left in this country, short of chasing cheese down a Gloucestershire hill, that the H&S Nazis have not got their antiseptic covered hands on. The myth that the bikes should be reigned in has been put to bed by the fact that Robert Dunlop died on a 250. Leave road racing alone.
Ninjasquaddie
You could stop road racing. You could ban alcohol. You could ban cigarettes and microwave meals. You could ban loads of stuff not necessarily conducive to a long (and boring) life. Ban paragliding. Ban skydiving. Ban the lot. Or you could let people do what they want, and maybe reduce the pensions issue at the same time. The day road racing starts hurting people unassimilated with it, who do not make the positive choice to get involved, is when we may need to start questioning the validity of the sport.
Samuel Taylor
I think the biggest problem with road racing is that most motorcyclists just don’t understand the thrill/skill and pure talent that is required. More people are injured each year racing in the Tour De France!
Len
Racing is, was and will always be, dangerous. The riders accept this fact when they choose to participate. The spectators accept this when they go to watch. Road racing is accessible to people who aren’t lucky enough to have rich sponsors but do have the balls to take part. So let’s just give them the freedom of choice as to whether or not to take part. After all they are grown-ups who can make their own risk assessment without interference from the nanny state. Long live road racing!
paulgayne@yahoo
There will always be an Isle of Man TT as long as there are:
1.Fans
2.Funding
3.Motorsport itself
Road racing is an exciting sport and is here to stay, so there.
kendizx9r
Road racing rocks! It’s only pussies that have a problem with it...
Piersronan
Result:
Leave road racing alone: 13
Its time for a rethink: 0
A complete walkover for road racing, lets just hope it stays that way. In our pampered world it’s one of the last true gladiatorial sports...
