Having seen too many practice sessions affected by the weather, Clerk of the Course Gary Thompson was left with little choice but to postpone what would have been the first race of the Isle of Man TT, taking the opinion that the riders hadn’t had enough time on the Mountain Course — a point-of-view that many riders shared.
As such, Saturday’s scheduled Dainese Superbike Race will be pushed back to 2:15pm on Sunday (local time). However this does not mean that Saturday’s sidecar race will be altered, and remains scheduled for 2pm. This means that the sidecars will serve as the opening race for the 2013 Isle of Man TT.
The Honda TT Legends team has big plans for the 2013 season, and accordingly announced a dream team of riders to race for the factory squad in the World Endurance Championship, Isle of Man TT, and various other road races.
While the EWC team will consist of John McGuinness, Michael Rutter, and Simon Andrews, Michael Dunlop replaces Andrews on Honda TT Legends banner when it comes to road racing events — a huge boon to the young Irish racer, and already a popular move with TT fans.
Still fairly new to the road racing scene, Brandon Cretu is a three-time Isle of Man TT racer, and for 2012 the young racer was one of only two Americans on the Macau GP grid.
Coming off a big crash at the TT during the fourth lap of the Superbike race, we are still pretty amazed that Cretu made the trek down to Macau, let alone got back in the saddle for another road race this season. Road racers, they’re a special breed apparently.
Slapping some GoPros to his Hel Performance Honda CBR1000RR, Cretu gives another perspective of what a lap around Macau is like (read his race report here).
It all started on a Tuesday in February. I was having a chat with Scott Jones that afternoon about our photography plans for the 2012 season. I had no concrete plans at the time so I just deadpanned that I’d like to check out the Isle of Man TT someday.
Somewhat on a whim, Scott suggested trying crowdsourcing to raise funds to go to the TT this year, with a book project serving as backer rewards for contributions. I played along, daydreaming out loud about making a book on Guy Martin’s first TT win. Jokes about quitting my job ensued. It was impossible, I thought. Surely this was just a pipe dream.
Incredibly, it wasn’t. Three months later I was at the Isle of Man TT, having both quit my job, and raised enough funds thanks to the generous help of too many people to name here. It was a fairy tale dream come true, with just one minor hiccup: Guy Martin didn’t win.
Honda Motor Europe’s factory race team is better known simply as the Honda TT Legends squad, and this year the team is really living up to that name.
Fielding a five-rider all-star squad for the 2013 season, the Honda TT Legends team will compete in the 2013 Endurance World Championship (EWC) with John McGuinness, Michael Rutter, Cameron Donald, and Simon Andrews.
For the Isle of Man TT and other road races, the team will retain McGuiness and Rutter, while adding Michael Dunlop to the mix on the three-rider squad.
Take the Monaco F1 without the glitz and glamor, throw in a Vegas casino or two, add some Chinese culture, with a nod to Portugal, and you have got a rough picture of Macau and the Macau Grand Prix. A former Portuguese colony with gambling revenue that surpasses Las Vegas, Macau remains an anomaly in this area of the world, where conformity to the Chinese central Government is more the norm.
The racing takes place on the 3.8 mile armco lined Guia Circuit, a street circuit with long wide fast straights leading into tight corners that snake past casinos and high-rise buildings. Part of the thrill of watching real road racing is the ability to get up close to the action, sadly that is not possible at Macau mainly due to the tight nature of the track. Spectating is therefore pretty much limited to three large grandstands all within the first mile of the track, unless of course you are fortunate enough to have a media pass.
Given the obvious dangers, it takes a certain breed of motorcycle racer to race at Macau. A glance through the list of past winners reads as a recent who’s who of road racing legends, who between them boast more wins at the Isle of Man TT and North West 200 than I can count. There is even a former World 500cc Champion and multiple World Superbike Champion included in the list.
