the world . It has claimed 269 lives . In fact there have only been two years when there was not a fatality – 1982 and 2024 . The deadliest year on record is 2005 when eleven riders died . Yet every year it is over-subscribed . There is something madly bewitching about 250 corners in 60.72km being ridden at an average speed of over 200km / h . Peter Hickman holds the current lap time record of 16min 36.114 sec at an average of 219.45km / h , BMW 1000RR , 2024 . Riders pass through villages , dips , dells , hairpin corners , wet roads , trees and leaf detritus , people , walls and fences , cobblestones , dark and light strobing so fast one cannot see clearly , all while staying pinned to the max . “ You have to know what ’ s coming up next - you cannot go down a gear if you don ’ t need to , because you ’ ll be set up wrong for the next turn . You ’ re down 10kph on that last straight , if you roll through there in 3rd instead of 4th , then you could have had another 15 kph . Because your perfect knowledge of the course is not what it needs to be , and you can move to the wrong part of the road , you can use too much of the course , so you ’ ve gotta try and process for all of those things . I ’ d break it down into sections – look for landmarks that would trigger the mind into the clues for the next section . You ’ d be somewhere like Ballacraine and then
you ’ d know that heads through to the Sarah ’ s Cottage and in and out of valleys , where it ’ s dark and shady . Maybe damp , or where water runs across the road , which you don ’ t notice at 300k ’ s . I was pretty quick over the mountain , because it opened up , and it ’ s easier to see where you ’ re going .” He has a fire in his eye and talk rolls off his tongue so fast I can barely keep up , the pace is in his blood , and he seems fired up reliving it . It reaffirms my own silent promise to a recently passed mate that it ’ s something I must go and witness firsthand . I get it . In his first TT race in 1984 , he came in with an average speed of 99.98mph , just off 100mph ( 160.9km / h average ). “ I kept thinking I could have got that back - if I ’ d known . Other riders had people out on the course revealing times , but I only knew my position once per lap .” Sometimes Ken rode what he thought was a slow lap only to find out that he was actually quicker . He said that on his fastest laps he was totally calm and felt like he ’ d just been out for a Sunday ride . In that first Isle of Man , Ken Dobson , the New Zealand rider from Parau , delivered a great ride , so good he came 5th . He returned and rode the various TTs for three years , but didn ’ t surpass the 5th place in the 1984 750cc Production TT . In those years he competed in nine races there , and he has his own page in the
70 KIWI RIDER