Isle of Man TT races

Last weekend, I was invited to the Isle of Man TT races by my good friend, Clark Evans, a director of Jester Interactive Publishing. North Wales based Jester is the only Welsh games publisher and their TT Superbikes” (above) has sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.

I cannot describe what a fantastic weekend I had – it was one of those ‘you had to be there’ moments. All the racers were great guys, very approachable and totally different to the prima donnas we see in other sports these days. The atmosphere was electric, the weather was fantastic and I had one of the best weekends of my life.

To top it all, I got to experience what very few outside of the organisation of the TT races have ever done, namely travelling in the Marshall’s Car to close the TT Superbike race down and officially open the roads back to the public. Now that might not sound exciting to many people, but I can tell you, legally hitting a speed of 150 mph on a normal road in a supercharged Jaguar is something I will not forget in a hurry!

Now you may be asking what my weekend escapade has to do with Wales or, more specifically, the Welsh economy. Quite simply, the Isle of Man TT Races is one of the major events in the motor sports calendar and, despite Jester sponsoring the main race, there was no other presence from either the Welsh Government or other Welsh businesses at this event. This is despite millions being spent by the Assembly on projects such as the Auto Technium and the Wales Rally GB to try and establish Wales as “a centre of excellence in motor sports”.

Whilst Cardiff-born rider Ian Lougher was second in the TT Superbikes race, he was the exception in being supported by the resources of Honda and Blackhorse Motorcycle Finance. Other Welsh riders were struggling for resources to not only run their bikes in the race, but to actually get to the Isle of Man.

Take, for example, the case of Paul Owen from Llangollen. Having only been able to raise £3,000 from a variety of local sponsors to support his racing career this year, Paul managed, on a second hand bike, to gain 23rd out of a field of 75 bikes.

Imagine what he could do with some decent backing from Welsh businesses, given that other sports in Wales have hundreds of thousands of pounds lavished on them annually from both the public and private sector.

So, if there are any bikers turned businessmen out there who want to help Wales put itself on the map in motorcycling terms, you could worse than supporting a great rider like Paul achieve success in one of the toughest sports available.

On a wider scale, if the Assembly Government is serious about enhancing the reputation of Wales as a centre of excellence for motor sport, then it should certainly consider whether it could support the development of motor bike road races events in Wales. The spin-offs for tourism could be substantial. For example, the Isle of Man had over 40,000 visitors over the weekend, whilst the North West 200, which took place in Northern Ireland’s North Antrim Coast in May, attracted some 130,000 spectators.

Given that we already have the Aberdare road race which takes place every July (but which is struggling financially to make ends meet), specific support from the tourism department of the Assembly could begin to attract more people to the South Wales valleys. More importantly, the establishment of new road circuits in areas such as Pembroke or Anglesey could also bring enormous economic benefits to some of the poorer parts of Wales and, more importantly raise the profile of the nation to a whole new set of tourists.

This weekend made me realise that, unlike current Assembly thinking on the matter, motor sports is not just the final stage of the Wales Rally GB, and it is time for Wales to take advantage of the 1 million motor cyclists in the UK and develop a strategy that takes in all types of motor racing to boost the sports tourism industry in Wales.