TT3D: Closer to the Edge

There is nothing

to compare it with.

It's the most exhilarating place

in the world.

It's like being able to fly.

Just like growing wings.

If it's in your blood, you...

You can't get it out.

You just want more.

You put

the earplugs in, the helmet goes on.

Everything goes quiet.

You know what's ahead of you,

and everything else around you

is forgotten

and it's time you get on with the job.

My mind goes completely blank.

And my mind just goes into madness.

Well, /suppose

it all revolved around

Mr Acum,

me primary school teacher; really.

And he didn't half put manners in us,

that man.

You know, in my day, like, and all that.

But I think, you know,

f*** it, what a boy.

Just, you know, if we was naughty,

he used to give us the slipper:

We knew we was getting it,

cos he used to warm it up on a radiator

before he give us it.

If we was naughty again, which was

mostly me, I was naughty all the time,

we used to have to pick stones up

so the lawn mower

wouldn't run over them.

He used to have his own putting green

out the back of school

and our main job was keeping the

putting green right and mowing grass.

And then, yeah,

I thought natural progression,

I wanted to go and race them.

I've still got my first engine

I ever had.

Suffolk Punch lawn mower engine,

I think it's down there.

Yeah, I just used to play with that.

It was all I wanted to do.

I wasn't bothered about...

You know, I had a few mates.

But I wasn't bothered about,

you know, girls.

I'm still

not bothered about girls, really.

I'm not gay or owt

But I'm just, you know, I'd rather play

with lorries and tractors and engines.

Still, I haven't really grown up.

No, I haven't grown up.

- You got the key?

- Yeah.

Are we all right, then?

Right hand down, boss.

Road racers? A bit mad...

That's tight. You bastard.

What would you say...

A tile short of a roof?

One short of a six pack?

A few slates adrift?

We'd use that one a lot.

Lights are on but no one's home.

I can imagine,

from the outside looking in,

anyone that's racing the TT looks like

the lights are on but no one's home.

You're not a proper road racer

until you've won a T I obviously aren't a proper road racer,

because I haven't won one.

But I'm trying. I don't give in.

Barry Sheene wasn't a big fan, was he?

He thought it was too dangerous, did he.

There you go, lager-shandy drinking

southern poofters, there you go.

That says it all, doesn't it? Yeah.

That's it, we're away now.

All right, boss.

We're getting there.

I was only watching that

the other night, the Dam Busters.

Yeah, it's mega, that. Wallis Barnes.

You know the idea

that got him into that was, um...

No. Not Napoleon...

Who was your boy, that used it in

the battleships? Beginning with an "N"?

Not Napoleon...

Different things

make different people happy, don't they?

Some lads love going to the pub,

I don't like being in the pub.

Some lads love shagging,

I don't like shagging

I don't mind it, but I'm not into it.

I'd rather just go and ride

me motorbikes or me pushbikes.

It's whatever you're into, isn't it?

If we was all the same everybody

would be at the TT wouldn't they?

But different things

make different people tick.

And that makes me tick, and that's

why I'm gonna keep on going.

I just want to keep going

until I've won one.

Or won Eve, that's my plan, win five in

a week, that's not been done before.

171 go and do that, then that's it.

171 go and End the next job to do

I've got another big goal, this...

He's a massive... Well, not massive,

he's not massive, is he?

He's not massive.

People use that word, don't they.

I'll tell you what people word...

People use all the time.

Unbelievable.

Can't use that word, can you?

"Unbelievable."

When a man...

Like I've said this before,

when a man eats his own head, I will

then hold my hands up and say,

"Right, that was unbelievable."

Cos I can't believe

a man can eat his own head.

But, like we say, never say never.

Unbelievable,

absolutely unbelievable.

Evel Knievel was

the big stuntman at the time

and I had a stars and stripes suit,

and a stars and stripes helmet

and I thought I was Evel Knievel,

you know.

My dad used to build me a ramp

and I used to jump 14 toy buses,

where Evel Knievel tried

to jump the 14 real buses.

I wrote to Jim 'll Fix it,

for me to do a jump with him

and he never even replied back,

the miserable old goat.

It's always been in me.

I don't know any different.

I'm not really interested

in anything else, you know,

football, cricket or anything.

It's just been bikes

all the way through my life.

He's still a little boy

at heart. He's crackers, really.

When I met him,

he 'd just finished motocross

and he was wanting

to get into racing bikes.

And he always said, "/'m going to do

an Isle of Man TT race one day. "

And he said, "I just want to win a T /'ll get it under my belt and that's it.

"I '11, you know, never do it again- "

And he won his first 250 race,

and we're like, "Oh, that's it,

he's going to finish now. "

I thought, "Thank God for that. "

But it just makes that bug

grow even bigger; I think.

Even then,

when I was 10 years old,

I just used to watch it,

and it'd just blow me away.

I used to think,

"That's gonna be me one day.

"I'm gonna win one of these- "

if I had been sat there then,

and someone would have said,

you know, I'll have 15 wins, I probably

would have laughed at them

and felI off the wall,

but here I am with 15 wins.

But I still get that,

you know jitters now.

You know, TT's coming. TT's coming.

Building up. Building up.

I get apprehensive, nervous.

Months before the TT you know.

And when I think about it, it makes

me skip a heartbeat, really.

I have to have the house immaculate,

and the garage has to be immaculate.

Everything's got to have its place.

I'll mow the lawn, make sure

that's all right. Clean the cars.

So, just in case anything does happen,

then everything's ready.

I definitely think about it.

It's got to cross your mind.

It has to cross your mind,

cos it's there, all the time.

It's a reality that

you might not come back.

John McGuinness 17.43, 127,

under the lap

record from a standing start!

For two

incredible weeks each summer;

generations of men and women

have made the pilgrimage

to the lsle of Man to pit

themselves against the track,

which has achieved international status

and become synonymous

with speed and glory

At a time when the maximum

permitted speed on English roads

was just 20 miles per hour

and racing strictly prohibited,

a band of enthusiasts

intent on testing their bikes

and themselves to the limits

of speed and endurance

gathered on the Isle of Man,

and in 1907 the Tourist Trophy was born.

You see? Look at the suspension.

You see?

And then we'll put it the other way.

Watch that.

Keep watching.

It'll do something.

See? Look at that. Hey?

Me and Guy have got

the typical father-son relationship.

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