Robin Miller: TT 2022 and onwards still faces big challenges

This year’s North West 200 was a stark example of the challenges experienced by the organisers of road racing and with minds focussing on the 2022 TT - only a few days away - the ambitious plans for 2023 put in place by the Isle of Man’s Department for Enterprise are brought into sharp focus.

While there are still 12 months to go before the full impact is visible, the first stage of the rather grandly titled ‘Global Digital First Broadcast Strategy’, obtainable via ttplus.iomttraces.com, has been successfully launched with live TV to follow.

And other improvements providing more entertainment will also be available at this year’s event. So, the while doubting Thomases (or Thomasii) are still active on the keyboards, good progress has been made.

But as IoM motorsport boss Paul Phillips would agree there is still lots to do and if you take the much smaller NW200 as an example it is an illustration of what is the greatest problem faced by organisers - the weather.

When one of Thursday’s races had to be postponed, social media channels were filled with accusations that the organisers should have known it was going to pour down on that day. They managed to fit it into the Saturday race schedule when the sun shone, racing was fantastic, and everything seemed to be going perfectly.

Except, that is, when tyres started popping and several top riders had to retire. The TT organisers and race director Gary Thompson are familiar in dealing with the ‘enemy’ but have to take on one of the DfO goals for 2023 which is: “Delivery of a new 10-race TT schedule for 2023 designed to ensure best sporting narrative, engagement and entertainment and to best complement travel and accommodation capacity and provision.”

The plan, described as