By Charlie Lambert
The TT is an addiction. I'm in England, hopping from the radio to Twitter to iomtt.com, just in case I might miss something. And we're still three days from the first race. I didn't listen to Radio TT tonight for breaking news or sporting drama. I listened for the familiarity of it. The routine of practice coverage is the same. I know, we all know, what Chris Kinley is going to say, how he's going to say it, and when. It's brilliant. And we listen out for the things that are different - a new voice on the air, a new name on the grid, something different trackside. The small details of the new take their place among the century-old sweep of the established. Not many sporting events can offer anything like this.
Amid the atmosphere and the tapestry, there is, of course, news of one kind or another. Tonight, it was Anstey, picking up where he left off in 2014, fastest again. McGuinness was looking good. The sidecars got out for a practice session at last. I listened to Tim Glover's round-up of the evening's action, then got a phone call from Alan Knight, the photographer whose work lights up 'TT Talking'. Alan had been out snapping at Quarterbridge and Braddan.
Five minutes after putting the phone down I took another habitual look at iomtt.com to see if the complete practice times were up yet. They weren't, but instead there was that doomladen headline: 'Statement issued on behalf of the ACU.' We all know exactly what that means: there has been a fatality. And so it was. Franck Petricola, in his first TT, had been killed at Sulby.
This is the other side of that coin of familiarity. Shock, yes. Surprise, not at all. It's the TT. It's a genuine, real, ultra-physical challenge. My heart goes out to Franck's family. But we'll all be listening again tomorrow.
