I don’t intend turning STM into an extended blog about the Thundersprint but this year’s event was a cracker in so many ways. For someone who sat on his Mum’s knee at Creg Ny Baa, and watched the immortal Mike Hailwood take the last ever TT win by a Manx Norton, seeing Chris Walker in action on the new Norton 961 was a really emotional experience. It is difficult to convey how incredibly special it felt to have Norton race their all new bike at OUR event - rather than anywhere else in the world - and when Chris won no-one cheered louder than Carol and I. It was great! The crowds were even bigger than ever this year. We’re always very careful never to claim an attendance at the Thundersprint because, as a free event, we can never provide an audited figure. But here’s a bit of informal data for the Math experts amongst you to consider:
At lunchtime, we have a Cavalcade of all the race bikes, plus a few road machines, around the town of Northwich. We are led by the very helpful Cheshire Police and we keep to a steady 30mph which is great for the riders and spectators alike. The route is 2.1-miles long and was lined on both sides by spectators. To state the obvious, that’s 4.2 miles of cheering fans. At the busiest points, the crowds are maybe six deep on the sidewalk. Added to this are the thousands of spectators who prefer to remain in the center of the show. Can any Math major come up with a decent estimate? So that’s the public face of the Thundersprint but the purpose of this column is to give you a backstage view of some of the special moments from this year’s event.
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