The Place

If you were a newcomer, what did you think , what would you like to have known,that perhaps you wasn't,t told of.
I know things were in the regulations, but if you were a helper ,you may not of had, access to the regs.

Look forward to the replies to this. Great idea.

I didn,t know that you had to get a ticket to be able to watch the race,from the grandstand,even though you had a team pass.

Yes, teams are supposed to ask for them, although I understand that, due to a change in how seats are calculated, there are not enought for everybody who wants one... H&S again?

There were a few things that it would have been nice to have known about beforehand such as grandstand tickets, TT Supporters Club and TT Riders Association (free stuff!).

I'm from the IOM so I can't comment about the travel subsidy etc, but was this clear enough? If I had a UK passenger, would he / she have been eligable for costs as I read somewhere that it doesn't cover passengers?

Other than that I think everything else was well documented and the race office and paddock staff were very helpful when we had any queries.

One thing I would mention though (and this isn't just for Newcomers) is that at no point did we know what the qualifying time / speed was. As it's a percentage of the 3rd fastest qualifiers time I know this could change up to the last few seconds of a practice session, but it would be good to have regular updates during the week rather than getting the calculator out at the end of every session! I think for club meetings they state what the cut-off time is for licence upgrades, so could they put something on the practice results sheet to state what the currently qualifying time is?

Similar thing with tickets for the presentations eh mother

Yes, didn't know till late that we needed them, if he hadn't finished we would not have needed them good job he didn't break down, that is something else ,who collects the broken down ones?

If before Ramsey either the team or the ACU (the scrap van!!) if after Ramsey, only the ACU... because someone tried to go the wrong way to pick someone up, on the one-way Mountain section,....oooops!

Thanks

I never thought for one minute that I would ever do the TT but everyone told me " if you can do the southern 100 the TT is a lot easier" I didn't believe them and hated the idea of saying I would do it and then letting a driver down by saying i can’t,
but then one day in February (after a beer or two) i was on facebook and Annette Daykin posted something about doing the TT and I probably opened my mouth when i should have been listening, I remember it being a Saturday night and the next post was from Helen Gibson with "there's a newcomers weekend next weekend if you’re interested" by Tuesday the flights were booked and the rest is history. Being a passenger at the TT was easier than being a passenger at a short circuit, OK we didn't break any speed records and yes it would be harder work if you were going a lot faster but for anyone thinking of doing the TT for the first time (as a passenger) I would say go on one of Helen's newcomers weekends, watch on board DVDs over and over, make sure that your driver has done his homework and will listen to you if you have concerns.
I think Dave Quirk is spot on about the qualifying time and the free stuff, I hurt my back by not using my crutch (i have a bad ankle) and didn't know that the physiotherapists were there to help all the riders and didn't know it was free until I pulled out my wallet and offered to pay, so i made the most of that and had three go's and came went home feeling better then when I arrived.
I am still on a high from the TT and would like to thank everyone who helped me get there, especially Nigel Smith and the team and Helen Gibson

I would say that because we attended the new comer weekend which Helen Gibson organises our first TT was made a lot easier as we knew who we could talk to if we were unsure of what to do.
The one thing I did learnt was not to listen to paddock gossip and to go to the race office to get confirmation as the paddock gossip is not always right lol!

It would be nice if they left the 2012 TT regs posted on the IOMTT website so people in far off lands can research what is required all year round (rather than just during the couple of months prior to the race). I went to look up the details of the licensing and insurances required to include in an email to our FIM affiliate body but couldn't find the regs (or possibly I'm blind )

I think I may have the regs downloaded somewhere (but not on the PC I was composing the email on).

Chris

I think they were only still available to entrants, a problem for me too, as I could not check things out for newcomers. i will raise this with the organisers for next year.

I've got the Licence Requirements and Regs 2012 as PDF's if anybody needs them.

Was going to say, I thought they were on here as a download. Maybe not this year. I tend to take stuff like that down in case it gets updated, don't like keeping obsolete versions.