Anstey and RC213V-S at the TT

I haven't written about road racing stuff on the blog for a while, but this news has got me excited.

Ten-time TT winner Bruce Anstey is to race the exclusive production bike version of Honda's MotoGP bike at this year's Isle of Man races. This is a reverse engineered way of racing a MotoGP bike on the roads.

Honda produced a limited run of the RCV, with lights and mirrors and a number of other differences (like alloy engine cases rather than the magnesium of Marquez's) and sold them for £137,000 (€188,000), even though it made only 160bhp in road trim. HRC sell a £10,000 race kit to boost power to a claimed 200-plus bhp (which is what bike like the BMW S1000RR are making in Superbike spec). So, as it's now a legitimate production bike, it can race in the Superbike and Senior TTs. Padgetts are the team that helped Ian Hutchinson win five TTs in a week, and Anstey won the Superbike TT last year. It'll be exciting.

Superbike practice starts Monday 30 May. The Superbike race is scheduled for Saturday 4 June. G

Paul Baleta: Update

Our friend and fellow DTRA racer, Paul Baleta is out at the TT ready to practice and race on two bikes, at his debut TT. He's competed in the Manx before, the amateur TT held on the same course, but this is a step up. If you would like to support him with a donation or buy a T-shirt or cap, you can find out more here. G

It's back. If you don't know real road racing, as in, racing on closed public roads, you need to take a look. If you do know it, the TT needs no introduction.

Practice starts on Saturday evening with first qualifying sessions on Monday and the opening race, the six-lap Superbike, gets things started in earnest on Saturday 6 June.

Friend of Sideburn, Guy Martin, will be racing in the two Superbike races (ie, Superbike and Senior TT), Superstock and both Supersport 600 races. There's a stack of TV coverage on ITV4, plus live coverage of qualifying and races on Manx TT Radio, which is a brilliant way to soak up the atmosphere (complete with ads for local chip shops and builders' merchants) while you're spannering in the shed/shirking in the hammock/wrestling naked on the hearth rug. MP