8 things about the 2018 IoM TT

1. Australia’s got talent
Australian British superbike star Josh Brookes will start 11th on the road for his second season aboard the factory-backed SG7 Norton and his fourth attempt at conquering the Mountain Course. He’s 34 years old, he’s had 11 TT starts and with a best TT finish of sixth and scoring a win last year during the Classic TT, so don’t rule him out of a podium placing. For the Superstock and Supersport events, Brookesy has teamed up with his McAMS Yamaha British superbike squad. The first Australian rider down the road will be road racing star David Johnson, who will be riding for the hugely experienced and successful Shaun Muir Racing outfit under the Gulf BMW banner. He let slip during this year’s TT launch event that the bike prepared for him this year is on par in terms of spec to what French world superbike rider Loris Baz is campaigning this season. It’ll be Davo’s eighth year at the TT and with a highest-placed finish of fourth, he’ll be targeting a podium in the Superbike, Superstock, Supersport and Senior events.

2. Put a lobster on Peter Hickman
When Peter Hickman entered the Macau Grand Prix in 2015, he was a little-known entity in this part of the world. That all changed when the British racer claimed victory in the gruelling event and backed it up with another win a year later. At the 2017 Isle of Man TT Peter Hickman stood on the podium of all five TTs and, after a couple of podiums at last week’s North West 200, including one win, he’ll be both hungry and hugely capable to nab his maiden TT victory during the coming fortnight. Add to this that he’ll be riding the same machinery with the same Smith’s BMW team with whom he had so much success with last year (and with whom he campaigns the British Superbike Championship with), it’s high time for Hicky’s first podium. The first of many, we’re tipping.

3. Hutchy’s fit!
Get this. Of the last seven years, Ian Hutchinson has had a fixator cage screwed to his leg for four of them and during that time he still managed to notch up eight TT victories. He crashed out of the lead of last year’s Senior TT and severely damaged the same leg which he injured so badly seven years ago that it nearly ended his career. Twelve months on, he’s fit enough to race: “My ankle was removed and fused and that’s fine now, but it’s what we’ve had to do to compensate for it that hasn’t healed,” he said a month ago at the TT launch event. “They removed the middle of my ankle completely and fused the bone, then had to break my tibia – which was the only bit of leg that had survived – and lengthen it. It’s the second time it’s been lengthened from the same spot and it’s a little bit slow to heal. It’s doing its job and it’s growing but it’s just a little slow.” He’s riding this year for the factory Honda squad and will be ready to ensure his bitter rival Michael Dunlop doesn’t surpass his impressive TT win tally of 16. Hutchy will start sixth on the road, 20 seconds behind Dunlop who will set of wearing the No. 4 plate on his Tyco BMW – the same bike and team Hutchy rode for last year. Fresh from the North West, he’ll be one to watch. He posted on twitter this week that seeing images of himself racing motorcycles again on social media puts a lump in his throat.

4. Honda’s on song
After what can only be described as a disastrous 2017 road racing season for Honda after the ill-fated pairing of two of road racing’s biggest names in John McGuinness and Guy Martin, it looks like Big Red is back on track. With the signings of a recovered Ian Hutchinson and Irish talent Lee Johnston for the 2018 season, the year got off to a great start when Johnston put the Fireblade on the podium at the 2018 North West 200; the company’s first time on a roads box since 2016. With a very fired up Hutchy, new and first-time dad Lee Johnston in good form and the team wanting nothing more than to put last year bad omens behind them, there’s no reason why Honda won’t be fighting for the top step at this year’s TT.

5. These are the rookies
There’ll be three newcomers to the hallowed Mountain Course this year all vying for the coveted newcomer’s trophy. They are National Superstock 600 race winner Davey Todd, who’ll campaign a Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the Superbike, Senior and Superstock events. Irish road racing star David Jackson will team with the experienced People’s Bike squad and has entered all three big-bike events on BMW S 1000 RR machinery, while Scotland’s Adam Lyon will race a Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.

7. McGuinness and Anstey are out
Two of road racing’s most successful and adored competitors will not be racing at this year’s Isle of Man. The first is Antipodean Bruce Anstey who is undergoing chemotherapy after discovery tumours on his spine. The likeable 49-year-old has conquered the illness before, recovering from testicular cancer in the late 1990s and with 12 TT victories under his belt, you can be sure he won’t stop the fight this time either. Meanwhile, John McGuinness, who was expected to make his highly anticipated Isle of Man TT comeback after shattering his leg at the 2017 North West 200, has also been sidelined after he discovered he’d refracted the leg which has taken 12 months to heal. While neither he nor his factory Norton racing squad have yet to release an official statement, the 23-time TT winner tweeted: “Not sure what to say,” it read. “My leg has had a bit of a setback. Sorry [I’ve] not said [anything] sooner, I’ve just been trying to get my head around it all first.” You can bet your bottom dollar he’ll be on the island watching though.

8. Practice has started!
Run over two weeks, practice kicked off on May 26 ahead of the all-important race week seven days later on June 2. Racing action gets underway with the six-lap Superbike TT, followed by the Sidecar’s opening three-lap race. June 3 will host the first Supersport and Superstock races, which are both four lappers, before Tuesday’s rest day. Wednesday will see the Supersport TT (four laps), the TT Zero (one lap), the Lightweight TT (four laps) and the second Sidecar TT (three laps) before the event’s last day on June 8, which will host the final Sidecar TT in the morning before the six-lap Senior TT feature race kicks off at 12.45pm local time.