Full throttle transcript
MARK SKAIFE: It is absolutely just beyond your wildest dreams to think that you could come her and race a motorcycle. The Isle of Man TT is like a religion. It's the oldest motorcycle race in the world. You can stand on the footpath and you can literally each out and touch the riders going past close to 200 miles an hour. The houses are passing you so quick, sometimes it feels like you are inside a video game. It's frightening. It's damn dangerous and it stresses me out.
Murray Walker:Unless I'm very much mistaken, Mark, this is the greatest motorsport event in the world.
MARK SKAIFE: Between Ireland and Britain in the Irish Sea sits the Isle of Man, a sleepy tax haven for most of the year. I've come here to witness the most dangerous road race on Earth. It's about 200km/h straight out the front here absolute lunacy. I want to find out what drives these riders to test themselves and their machines in a brutal event called the TT - Tourist Trophy.
Cameron Donald: There's a lot to get right and a lot that can go wrong so it is part sprint race, part endurance race and it's a time trial, so unique.
MARK SKAIFE: Peter Brock used to say that great race tracks have got consequences. The Isle of Man TT is the ultimate road course. It's the fastest, wildest and most dangerous race track I've ever seen. And for the riders that compete here, there is absolutely no room for error.
MARK SKAIFE: In its 104 years, 234 riders have died. It says on the back of your pass that motor racing is dangerous. This is dead set dangerous, isn't it?
Cameron Donald: It is, it really is. It's frightening.
MARK SKAIFE: Aussie rider, Cameron Donald, is one of over 200 starters this year. When you add the fans, it's like an invasion, With Cameron is his girlfriend, Karen, herself a keen motorcyclist. They've been planning for the race all year.
MARK SKAIFE: So is this normal nervous start tension?
Karen: It kind of is, yeah.
Cameron Donald: All of this is done the night before.
MARK SKAIFE: A late night last night obviously?
Cameron Donald: Usually we like to have this done the night before, everything but by the time we finished like 11 o'clock, it was like get out of here, worry about it tomorrow.
MARK SKAIFE: What is Karen's job in this world?
Cameron Donald: Um, keep me calm.
MARK SKAIFE: Cameron grew up in Warrandyte in Victoria. It was his dad Ken who introduced him to the thrill of the two wheeler.
MARK SKAIFE: Lots of bike photos, not many other ones.
Mr Donald: No.
MARK SKAIFE: It consumed a fair bit of time, didn't it?
Mr Donald: It did, it took up a lot of time.
MARK SKAIFE: From a young age, Cameron began winning and winning.
Cameron Donald: I remember Mum actually saying to me, you know, "You can't - when are you going to buy or build a house? "You can't live in a motorbike." I remember saying to her, "Yeah, mum, you can't race a house."So, I think then she just pretty much gave up.
MARK SKAIFE: The TT is held over a fortnight. One week for practice, one week for racing, seven races in all. And in-between, the public can go flat out, no speed limit on the island road course.
Cameron Donald: Everyone that races here knows the dangers and they accept them. And they do their best to ride accordingly. But I think it's sad in this world that we are all so wrapped in cotton wool these days and there's so few opportunities to do anything dangerous.
MARK SKAIFE: For Cameron, a plumber when he's not racing, there is no event bigger than this. Riders set off at 10 second intervals. It's all about the fastest lap of the island and that's what makes it so pure and so dangerous.
Cameron Donald: You sit on the start line. You're looking down that first hill and because it's not a mass start, you're sitting there, getting waved off one at a time. The pressure on you, everyone's looking at you and it's a rush I've never had out of any other race.
There's just so few events in the world where we can do such a thing, you know, where you can close off a road and race a motorbike around it. It's such a beautiful thing.
MARK SKAIFE: 61km of public roads. Over 200 corners to be negotiated. Top speed, 330km/h.
Mick Doohan: This isn't a track. This is - this is a country road - let's not get this wrong - and it's fast.
MARK SKAIFE: My friend and five-times world champion, Mick Doohan, has come here for the first time. He's not racing but on the parade lap, he got a taste of what it's like.
MARK SKAIFE: First reaction? As soon as you saw the place, looked around, what was your first reaction?
Mick Doohan: I didn't need to come here to have that reaction. It's just, as I say, you know, it really - it is absolutely just beyond your wildest dreams to think that you could come here and race a motorcycle.
MARK SKAIFE: The race has always had its critics but from the start, its danger was its attraction. Back then, racing was banned in England and the island was the only place where there were no speed limits. The TT was born.
MARK SKAIFE: The voice of motor sport, Murray Walker. You've got a great history here, haven't you? You've been here, how many years?
Murray Walker: First of all, let me say it's great to see a great Australian at a great race. Thank you. To answer your question, Mark, I first came here in 1925. I was born in 1923. My father won here. I don't know how many times I've been here, many, many, many times.
MARK SKAIFE: In his 88 years, Murray Walker has seen some very good riders and impressing him this year is our Aussie rider Cameron.
Murray Walker: He's got a good bike, he has got some good backing and he's still has got the most important race of the week to come, so maybe hopefully he'll get it done.
MARK SKAIFE: Each time Cameron sets out is an exercise in courage. Each lap is an anxious one for Karen who gets radio updates on his progress.
Cameron Donald: I see the worry in her face before I head out for a race and sometimes I feel a little bit guilty for putting people close to me through that stress.
MARK SKAIFE: In the week I was there, seven people lost their lives - three riders and four members of the public.
VOICEOVER: ACU Events Limited regrets to announce the death of Derek Bryan.
Cameron Donald: I've lost a couple of friends in my years racing at the Isle of Man and I do think of them in the corners that they have fallen in and where Dobbsy crashed is one of the most intense corners on the track.
MARK SKAIFE: Dobbsy, Paul Dobbs, died in the TT last year.
Paul Owen: He lost his life to the sport that he loves. It's just one of them, mate.
MARK SKAIFE: Paul was buried on the island leaving behind his wife and two daughters.
MARK SKAIFE: What did you love about him?
Bridget Dobbs: God, everything.
MARK SKAIFE: Bridget is Paul's wife. A year on, she has brought the girls back to remember their dad at the race he loved.
Bridget Dobbs: You know it's risky, of course you do. Everyone loves those photos of riders' heads this far from a stone wall. You know, obviously the reason you love those photos is because you think "Oh my God, it's so close" you know. Other people have said that you only really that you're alive when you're almost not.
MARK SKAIFE: Some are just plain lucky to survive like Connor Cummins.
Connor Cummins: I can actually see where it's all gone wrong. I've disappeared over the side and the way I look at it, that's where the injuries started to happen and it's sort of it does get to you a little bit. I just get on with life. The world ain't going to stop for me.
MARK SKAIFE: Has your opinion of the TT changed based on what's happened?
Bridget Dobbs: No. No.
MARK SKAIFE: Do you think it should be banned?
Bridget Dobbs: You can't possibly ban it. I don't know if you could ban it if you tried. It's like a monster, you know. It's bigger than the rest of us.
MARK SKAIFE: Riders don't come here for the prize money - there's hardly any. The TT is simply about the glory of being the fastest. And for Cameron, it was a glorious week. In his chosen race, the super bikes, he was just pipped for first. But second still felt pretty good. Congratulations, mate. Well done. Really good, hey?
MARK SKAIFE: When will you settle down, stop doing this? I don't see it too far away. I never saw racing the Isle of Man as a long-term prospect because, look it is so dangerous and I do see it as a numbers game.
If you keep coming back, sooner or later, I see it's going to catch you out.
