Reflecting

I really enjoy writing, quite bizarre considering my English teacher at school suggested it was a waste of time me going back for the sixth year. Even then my only interest was motorcycles, much as it still is now to be honest. I didn’t go back and he suggested I would never ‘make a living messing about with motorcycles’. (He actually said motorbikes, but even now I can’t bring myself to write it.) Recently I have been working on Island Racer, our annual bookazine for the Isle of Man TT. Despite ‘retiring’ I’ve retained the role of publisher of IR, working with Classic Racer editor Tony as the editor. I love my time on IR; as some of you will remember my burning passion has always been the Isle of Man and the TT in particular. Tony, being the gentleman he is, always asks me to do an archive-based feature in Island Racer, something I always, obviously, enjoy. This time he caught me on the back foot and went off at a bit of a tangent. Over a pub lunch (how else would you plan a magazine) I let slip that this year would be our (yes I’ve dragged Mrs W to every one) 50th TT on the bounce. Before she kicks off she was only 16 when we took a day trip to the 1967 Senior. As the conversation progressed, Tony asked about mytt ‘that got away’. He must have heard the story many times before; most people have, but what I hadn’t realised was he was putting 50 years and missing a TT win by one second together and coming up with a feature idea! Careless words... Before I could ask ‘is it your round or mine?’ he had planned for me to write a feature around both tales and a title for it too. Fifty years and one bloody second it was then. As I said, I love writing, but this was one of the hardest things I’ve had to write. For most of us, writing about yourself is one of the toughest things to do. But after a few hours staring at a blank screen it happened – and what a liberating experience it proved to be. Like most race careers, mine had some highs, and some very low, lows. All those dark days are the first things that come to the surface when you prod the old memory. But I’m grateful to Tony (don’t tell him I said so, I don’t want him to think I’ve gone soft) and thanks to that Island Racer feature my much talked about autobiography just might happen!

Malc Wheeler