The Isle of Man TT. The motorcycle racing event that every motorcycle enthusiast knows about. Between 1949 and 1976 it formed part of the FIM Motorcycle Grand Prix Championship but from 1989 the Isle of Man’s Department of Tourism took it over and renamed it Isle of Man TT Festival.
The main reason that it doesn’t form part of the annual Grand Prix Championship is due the course’s high danger level. Being a street race, it is not only hazardous and tricky, but if a racer comes off his bike, it is highly likely that he could hit a stone wall.
Guy Martin is one of those racers that have almost no measurable level of fear. Not only has he finished eight times on the TT’s podium, but during the 2010 race he came off his race bike at around 270 km/h. He was air-lifted to hospital with broken ribs, bruised lungs, twisted ankles and fractured vertebrae.
Closer to the Edge is a documentary film about Martin and his history regarding the most notorious of all motorcycle races. Simply from watching the trailer one already get sweaty hands (I did at least!) and to a certain degree you can only try to imagine what it must feel like to pedal a race bike at over 300 km/h, sometimes and arms length from buildings.
Ster-Kinekor has not yet confirmed if this movie, which will be released next month, will make it over here and Numetro said it has no news on it either.
It will be a real pity if South Africans also don’t get to see this movie, as the much talked about Senna is also not coming to South Africa.
Have a look at the video above to see what we might be missing out on.
