Manx events get go ahead
By TMX Archives on 15th Aug 07
THE Manx Two-Day Trial (August 25/26) and the Manx Classic Weekend Trial (September 1/2) have been given the go ahead to run on the scheduled dates - albeit on much revised routes, writes T+MXs man on the spot John Watterson.
The events could still be halted if the Foot and Mouth outbreak wasto spread outside the restricted area in Surrey, but for the moment, atleast, it is all systems go.
The decision was made last Thursday evening following a discussionbetween the events' organisers and the Isle of Man government'sDepartment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
Ian Murphy, clerk of the course for the solo class of the ManxTwo-Day Trial and next month's prestigious Trial des Nations, admittedit was a big relief while acknowledging the amount of work which wasnow required to get the first of the weekend events up and running in afortnight's time.
"It was obvious the original routes for both the Manx Two-Day andthe Classic were not practical because of the extensive use of uplandtracks and farmland. The routes have now been radically modified, usinggovernment owned plantation and quarry areas extensively, but at leastwe have the two events more or less intact."
Both events will be road-based and will follow a similar route, withthe sidecars concentrated in the north on the Saturday of the ManxTwo-Day weekend and the south on the Sunday. The solos would follow thesame route on opposing days, and the 180-riders entered for thefollowing week's Classic event will again ride a similar route.
''It's the only way we can be confident of running the eventssafely," continued Murphy. ''We will be keeping away from farmland andall livestock. It is that, or nothing, really.
''DAFF has bent over backwards to assist us and we will now workhard to ensure the events are as safe and successful as we can possibly make them. The route we jointly came up with was the only option available to us.''
There will be no need to have machines disinfected as the routeswill not run over farmland, purely open roads, quarries, certainsections of coastland, plantations and one or two areas ofprivately-owned land new to observed trials.
There is no doubt that a lot of work has to be done between now andthe start of the Two-Day on the Saturday between Manx Grand Prixpractice and race weeks, on August 25, as most of the originalpreparations are now obsolete.
Hopefully the trials will consist of a similar number of sections tonormal, approximately 80 per event, but the general route will beshorter with larger groups in concentrated areas.
''Subject to any further extensive outbreaks of Foot and Mouth beingcontained we should be OK,'' added Murphy, ''If not it could be a wholedifferent ball game!
''All being well the Manx Two-Day will happen - we will make it happen.''