Opinion: the world's most exciting race is in danger

The world’s greatest motor race is under threat. Now, I’m yet to visit every single motorsport event in the world, giving the previous sentence much less heft than I’d like. But even if I’d found a few thousand spare weekends and completed my ‘I-Spy Racing’ book, I’ve a strong feeling the Ulster Grand Prix would still be number one. It’d have a podium place, at the very least.

After years of reading about its heroes and following its livestreams, I finally attended in 2018. I’ve never experienced anything like it, not even on the Isle of Man. While you have the same bunch of bikes and riders as the TT, they’re racing in full grids rather than under solo, time trial conditions. It is hair-raisingly, impossibly exciting to witness. And very much the same to compete in, as described by fans’ favourite and relative local, Lee Johnston.

“You’re sat there with your box of sandwiches watching everyone go past, and you’re having an unbelievable time, so imagine sitting on the bike and getting to do that?

“You look at circuit racing and go ‘I could do that, I could come and do a trackday’. But you can’t come here and ride around like that, can you? I think that’s why it’s harder for road racers to stop. Despite the danger. You race a short circuit and it’s a good feeling when you win, but there’s no massive buzz. When you’re hauling arse round here it’s a mega, mega feeling, and when you’re winning it’s even better.”

While the TT receives a wealth of support from the Isle of Man government and boasts a swathe of lucrative commercial tie-ups, Ulster is in dire trouble.

“Despite a full programme of superb racing being run throughout 2019 Race Week, a severe weather warning forecast for Saturday’s principal race day resulted in perhaps the smallest crowd ever witnessed at Dundrod,” reads a statement. “The huge loss of income this caused, compounded by existing liabilities, has created a major financial crisis for Ireland’s oldest and most famous motorcycle race.”

Fastest, too. And not just in Ireland. Ulster frequently holds the record for world’s fastest road race, and last year Peter Hickman – a man whose house is chock-full of road racing trophies – regained the title for the Belfast circuit with a 136.415mph average lap. Average, don’t forget, with a handful of slow corners to negotiate including a crawling-pace hairpin. Much of the time these riders are nudging 200mph mere feet from lampposts, houses and dry-stone walls.

Now, road racing’s very greatest strengths serve up biggest vulnerabilities. The heart-pounding nature of its racing – for both spectators and competitors alike – puts them both at considerable and increasingly infamous peril. On a smaller (but still worrying) scale, the fact you’ve the freedom to roll up and watch as close as you dare – perched atop fences or peeking over a garden wall – means money doesn’t flow into the sport from spectators’ pockets in a traditional manner.

Eighty miles west, the Enniskillen road races have been called off for 2020, with funding (or a lack of it) prevalent. “Along with the fact that a trend of spectators choosing not to contribute by buying a programme or contributing towards the event means that not only Enniskillen, but the sport in general, is suffering, something that clubs cannot sustain in the long run,” reads the statement.

A relatively small road race dropping off the calendar is galling but digestible. One of the biggest, and the very fastest? It doesn’t bear thinking about. Ulster’s Dundrod circuit is adored by riders and has a storied past, not least a wild and brutal stint of car racing that ended after the havoc-ridden 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy. The frisson of danger is road racing’s USP in an increasingly safe and nannied motorsport world, but it does perhaps make the sport a controversial investment.

“Over the past months the race organisers have met with a host of public representatives including Councillors, Westminster MPs, MLAs and other government officials,” Ulster’s statement continues.

“While there has been a sympathetic hearing to the UGP’s plight, the crisis situation remains. Discussions continue but, so far, no financial assistance has been made available as we move into the period when preparation for the 2020 event should have been well underway.

“Only a small fraction of the sums provided to many other major sporting events would make an enormous difference to events like the Ulster Grand Prix,” say organisers. The next few weeks are absolutely crucial to its survival. We dearly hope those sums can be found.

Photography: Stephen Davison