JAMES WHITHAM
A life going fast
EARLY DAYS
This shot is from 1983, James’ first year of racing when he was 16. After a couple of years on his Honda MT125 his dad bought him an MBA 125 and James entered his first British championship round. He won.
MANX TT DEBUT
In 1985 James was a newcomer at the Manx GP. His bike was a Kawasaki KR250 – a tandem twin disc-valve two-stroke that was never officially imported to the UK. James crashed at the Bungalow in practice and broke his collarbone.
LOVED BY FANS
This is 1991 and James has just won MCN ’s Man of the Year award – which is voted for by readers. Always popular for his frenzied riding style and often hilariously forthright banter, he won the title again in 1996.
CANCER STRIKES
James was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma – a cancer of the lymphatic system – midway through the 1995 season. He had extensive chemotherapy and – amazingly – came second in the 1996 BSB title race.
HARD AS NAILS
Ever since his early days, James has had an entertainingly fearless approach to his racing. This shot from the 1997 Philip Island round of World Superbikes shows yet another painful highside. That's Troy Bayliss (52) looking on.
WORKING FOR KENNY
In 1999 James was hired by the legendary Kenny Robert to ride his three-cylinder Modenas bike in GPS. James didn't gel with the bike (no one did, really) and he crashed a lot. "Working with Kenny was worth it though," he said.
STILL LAUGHING
James and Foggy have been mates since they first met as newcomers at the Manx in 1985 and still ride trials together (badly, apparently) now they're retired. The duo also toured together with their hilarious live show, 'Givin' it Gas'.
‘IF YOU WANT TO JUMP OFF A CLIFF WITH A WINGSUIT ON, MINT. THE TT IS LIKE THAT’
I sense the same ambivalence a lot of fans have for the TT – excitement at the prospect of extraordinary racing, tinged with a fear that someone may pay heavily for our entertainment. “Yeah, I get that,” he agrees. “My attitude is if you want to do something that has an element of risk but doesn’t put anyone else in danger, it ought to be legal. If you want to jump off a cliff with a wingsuit on, mint. The Isle of Man’s like that and I’ve so much respect for people who do it.
“It isn’t the ultimate test of riding a motorbike by a long stretch, it’s more mental – it’s the ultimate test of your ability to keep yourself safe doing something really dangerous. It’s brilliant and I love that it exists in a world where you can’t walk across a bank foyer without somebody saying the floor might be slippy because it was cleaned earlier. And I love that it’s sometimes the most quietly-spoken blokes who are best at it. It’s often not the big brawlers, it’s little blokes like Brian Reid.”
We’ve finished our pie and chips and James has to go and pick his daughter up from school. There’s so much to ask about his later career, his battle with cancer, his life as a commentator. But as he heads off, James is still pondering the TT and what it takes to race there. “I’ve got respect for anybody who races a motorbike, at whatever level. But somebody who’ll queue up on that start line at the Isle of Man is in a different league. I respect those lads more than anyone.”