Ian Hutchinson wheelies his way to an IOM victory. Photo: IOMTT.com

The Isle of Man has been hosting the Tourist Trophy (TT) races since 1907, making it easily the longest-surviving and almost certainly most widely known motorcycle competition in the world. Calling the event a "race" is really committing semantic mayhem, as it's more like what we'd call timed qualifying in North America: the racers go off one at a time at 10-second intervals and race against the clock rather than their rivals on the track.

Still, numerous signalling boards make it possible for racers to know how they're doing against their main rivals, so don't make the mistake of thinking there's no real competition going on; don't ever try to convince me that people who ride superbikes at speeds up to 198 mph over these bumpy country roads aren't trying really hard.

This year, quiet Yorkshireman Ian Hutchinson continued his early domination of the event by winning the last two races of the week, completing a five-win sweep that's never been done before. Phil MacCallen, with four wins back in 1996, was the last to get that close to such domination.

Michael Dunlop at Ballaugh Bridge.

Photo: IOMguide.com. Date unknown.

While Hutchinson had some luck, he was still the fastest guy out there and you can't take away his victories by talking about the riders who were hurt, had mechanical issues, or were penalized (Steve Plater, local favourite Conor Cummins, 15-time-winner John McGuinness, Guy Martin, and Bruce Anstey were all in the "coulda-shoulda" catagory this year).

So was Michael Dunlop, 22-year-old nephew of the immortal Joey Dunlop, who came closest in the second 600 race, having a 1.5 second lead at Ramsey on the last lap (with about a third of the lap left over the ultra-fast mountain section), but Hutchinson pulled something out from deep inside and made up enough time to take the victory away.

The result was all the more amazing as he was sick as a dog with a desperately bad cold; he was coughing and wheezing and could barely speak to be interviewed.

Tragically, the TT's reputation for killing its offspring continued this year. Paul Dobbs of New Zealand and Martin Loicht of Austria, both married with two children, died in separate incidents in the second Supersport race.

Godspeed, gentlemen.