10 June - Batteried into submission

Published: Wednesday, 10 June 2009, 2:10PM

In 1907 the first ever TT took place and people scoffed at it. "It will never take off," they cried.

The TT is now the most famoust motorcycle road race in the world, and the doubters have been well and truly silenced.

Well, on Tuesday another piece of motorsport history was made. The TTXGP, the first battery-powered motorbike race, was always going to be a tricky one for petrolhead purists to accept.

By the end of their ever first lap of this famous circuit today, minds had been changed. I'll admit I thought the talk of this being the future of bike racing was a bit ridiculous, we joked about none of the bikes finishing the practice lap.

How wrong we were, as 14 bikes went out in the first practice and 11 came back. It was the strangest sight and sound I have ever experienced in motorsport. The bikes lines up in front of the grandstand.

Bray Hill lay in wait, visors down, flag up, throttle twisted, eyes focused, engines ... quiet. Not a sound. Everything else looked normal but for the roar of the engines? Nothing but a chain rotating around a cog.

And as the bikes hurtled down the road, the crowd that had lined clapped and cheered as it dawned that they were witnessing sporting history.

They race for real on Friday, and I hope it's a good one as the work that has gone into these machines has been incredible.

I'm not prepared to fully exchange my petrolhead status for that of 'batteryhead' just yet, but respect when respect is due.

Meanwhile, in the noisy smelly fumes racing class there was a double win for Ian Hutchinson.

He won the Supersport race after Relentless Suzuki's Bruce Anstey pulled up with just a few miles to go on his final lap.

It was another blow for one of the most likeable teams in the paddock. Hector, their rather vocal boss, is a brilliant character, but not even his smile could mask the disappointment at squandering a winning position.

Relentless Suzuki lost their other rider, Cameron Donald, after he crashed out during practice last week.

I visited him in hospital where he told me it took three doctors to force his dislocated shoulder back into place. These guys are tough: tougher than you would believe.

Back to Craig's blog homepage