International Isle of Man TT

by Madis Vellamäe
(Tallinn, Estonia)

The Isle of Man is a small island, with an area of only 572 square kilometers (52km long and 22km wide), located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. Only about 80,000 people live on The Isle of Man.

The small island is self-governing, which means that The United Kingdom is responsible for the island's defense and ultimately for good governance, and for representing the island in international forums, while the island's own parliament and government have competence over all domestic matters.

To me, the Isle of Man is most known by the famous and very popular International Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) Race, which is a motorcycle racing event held on the island. The race is run on public roads closed for that event and the first race was held on 1907.

The track is usually very narrow with a lot of curves and lanes flanked by stone walls and even buildings. There have been total of 93 Isle of Man TT races and the famous racer Joey Dunlop has won 26 of them (1977-2000). It's really sad that he died in 2000 in Estonia in Tallinn on the Pirita-Kose-Kloostrimetsa Circuit during a racing event due to crashing into a tree.



http://youtu.be/Ph0SjLC_lqk