Your Responses

F.Schwarz - March '06
I just found your web side to day, I was choked Wat happened to Joey's grave had the privilege to meet hem personal when he was injured in 91 . Some Irish friends I met at the TT in 88 invite me to come over for the North West 200. One off the friends was Joey's sponsor Andy Mcmenemy. We wend to Joey's pup and his brother and his Vader where there to, so we talked and have some pints it was one evening I never forget have been three times in Ireland for the races the ulster and the cookstown. I live in Canada and go every year to the T T Have booked for 06 always stay with a friend in Ramsy. I hope to go one more time to the north west to watch the races, and to meed your most friendly and hospitality people's this year I will watch it on the web.

Ian: - March 04
I fully endorse the comment by Twinpots regarding the effect motorcycle racing has on our community, but never discount rugby union. Does not matter where you live when it comes to beating the rest of the world we all join together. Just look at the result against England!

Joe Soap:
Great to see an article on the NW on your site. I didn't get up this year but I do go most years. I was wondering if anybody can tell me when the racing was last cancelled due to the weather. Anybody know?

Gordon:
The problem this year at the NW200 was that the organisers ran out of time for the last race as the roads had to be opened by 18:30. This is a condition of the Road Closing Order. It was not possible to complete the last race in the time left as the road open car has to completely open the circuit before 18:30 - it takes between five and ten minutes for a car to do a complete circuit - unlike the bikes.

Most of the motorcycle road races have at one time or other been cancelled during the day by rain. I can think of several that I have attended over the years like the Carrowdore, Cookstown and Ulster Grand Prix. These events have been cancelled because of rain flooding several places round the course.

Most events have had laps cut in order to get all the races into the available time, but have not always succeeded. These delays have unfortunately been caused by some of the incidents where riders have been treated after being injured or sometimes when oil slicks after, even minor, incidents have happened. I can think of one occassion at the Mid Antrim 150 which took over an hour for the road to be cleaned after the contents of a sump went all over the road. The track gets pressure washed with detergent to remove the oil or sometimes petrol. This happened at the Cookstown this year. A quick dusting with cement does not always work although it does quite often do the job for minor spills.

Twinpot:
Motorcycling has been and remains a uniting sport in Northern Ireland. I have followed racing on and off for many years and whereas some sports (e.g. football) manage to cause divisions within communities, biking unites. There is an unspoken and unwritten fraternity or kindred spirit within the bike world. People don't ask you your surname or what school you went to or where you're from. If you ride a bike you're a brother. I've been stranded a couple of times at roadsides with punctures or worse and fellow bikers have stopped and unconditionally offered help. What a pity the whole population in NI weren't bikers. There'd be no trouble at all. Keep 'er lit.

Sparky:
Hey your dead right. I go up to the port most years to see the northwest races and I'm not even a bike fan. On a good day there are thousands of people everywhere and there's hardly ever any trouble. I think if you got thousands of football fans arriving in a town sadly there would probably be trouble. We've seen it all on tv. There is something right enough about bike races that seems to bind people togethr just like you say. I'd say to anybody who hasn't gone to the races to go and see how enjoyable sport can be when it's carried out in a sportsmanlike way. It'll never be the same without Joey tho.