“If I finish life with more than two quid in my pocket then I’ve made a miscalculation.” So says Guy Martin, the good looking bad boy of motor-cycle racing, and every documentary filmmaker’s dream subject: outrageous, funny, charming and dressed in leathers – a man who always has a story to tell when he isn’t busy creating them by upsetting sponsors or disappearing when there’s a press conference he’s meant to be at. No surprise then that he is the heartbeat of a new film about the world’s most dangerous bike race that takes place every year on the Isle of Man, almost certainly taking a few lives in the process. In the hundred years that the course has been used for racing – on public roads lined with trees and stone walls – there have been more than 200 deaths. As if to underscore the reputation the circuit has, three riders died a few months ago at the 2011 event.
Opening with maverick mechanic Guy Martin in dirty blue overalls repairing a truck (that’s his other job) the film is called TT3D: Closer To the Edge– a breathtaking, high speed, immersive blast through the 2010 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy motorcycle festival. Or just “the TT” to those in the know. To make a documentary of an event this big, this dangerous, this fast, has to have been a technical and logistical nightmare – so filming it in 3D begs the question – are you as insane as the men who ride around the track? Director Richard de Aragues seems like a sane man to me. “I really just wanted to give the audience a taste of the adrenaline kick that keeps the riders returning to the Island every year”, he admits. And with a background filming Superbike and World Rally championship titles for years he was just the man for the job.
With a crew that would be the envy of many a Hollywood action blockbuster, De Aragues worked out what parts of the 37-mile course he would stake out, and which of the many riders he would follow. He also had some very cool and very expensive filmmaking gear to play with. “We had our own 300kph superbike with on-board cameras,” says De Aragues, “we had hi-speed tracking vehicles; we had our own ‘Russian arm’ [a rig used in movies like Mission Impossible 3 and Transformers that can swoop alongside moving vehicles], and we had a helicopter. We also used ‘on-board’ cameras mounted on the bikes in the race. You’re probably seeing just about every form of filmmaking here.”
When it came to working out which riders to follow, De Aragues had a tough decision to make: follow the wrong man and the story of the race might escape you. Let alone the ever-present risk that you’d be documenting someone’s death. “It was a very difficult decision,” says De Aragues. “We did a lot of research and we knew a lot of the riders before we started. An obvious choice was John McGuiness who was the King of the Mountain and who had won a lot of TT races. There was 23 year-old Conor Cummins, a local boy made good, and there was Irishman Michael Dunlop – a legend because he’d won a TT race two days after seeing his father killed on the track. But, once we met Guy Martin…” De Aragues just starts laughing. The sentence finishes itself.
Despite the fact that Guy Martin had never won a TT race, he grabbed all the headlines going into the 2010 event. Born in North Lincolnshire, and shouldering an accent the size of Scunthorp behind his massive smile, Martin decided to follow his father into motorcycle racing. It was a natural decision for him. “I had a few mates, but I wasn’t bothered about them,” he says. “Or girls. I’m still not really. I’m not gay or owt. I’d rather play with lorries and tractors and engines.” It’s a typical kind of Guy Martin delivery – honest, deadpan, cheeky. On his website he describes himself as a road racer, engine builder, downhill mountain biker, tea junkie, and Dambusters expert. And he does love a nice cuppa. When he crashed recently and ended up in hospital, well-wishers from all over the world sent him thousands of teabags.
After a rapid rise to fame as a teenager with fearless competitiveness, Martin completed his first TT race in 2004 at the age of 23. He was hooked. The thrill of riding at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour (yes, that’s miles per hour) down narrow country lanes lined with dry-stone walls seems to be addictive. De Aragues – himself a keen bike rider – explains. “These guys belong to a body of human beings who want to challenge themselves – like mountaineers. And the thrill is racing around these country lanes. That’s what gives you a sensation of speed. On an open circuit you can be doing 180 mph and you’ve got nothing near you, just big open spaces and gravel traps. I’ve done it on my bike and it’s fast, but it’s not like doing 180mph with hedges and trees and walls flying next to you – that is amazing. You feel more alive because you’re closer to death.”
And part of the strange fascination with the film (provided, like me, you know nothing about the results of the 2010 TT) is the ever-present sense that death is only around the next tree-lined corner. As you travel in 3D along the course thanks to an on-board camera mounted on the bike of Guy Martin or John McGuiness, you cant help but wonder if – or even when – the end will come. “We’ve got shots that still make the hairs on my arms stand up each time I see them,” says De Aragues. And I agree. I’m not a bike fan at all, but this film, with its breathtaking cinematic ride had me hooked. I can see why they do it. As Guy Martin said when recuperating in hospital after a crash some years back: “I’m not sure how you can find the will to live watching day time telly, so whether it kills me or not I’m off back to work.”
