Why Isle of Man TT clerk of the course job is a “no-win situation”

The Isle of Man TT is a complicated event in almost all aspects, whether you’re trying to follow the event as a fan, compete in it, or run it, and Gary Thompson admits that the nature of his job as clerk of the course puts him in a “no-win situation”.

Thompson has been in-post as clerk of the course for the Isle of Man TT for 14 years by now, but the last couple of editions of the TT road races have been especially challenging from a weather perspective.

In 2025, the headline Senior TT was cancelled due to bad weather, while this year’s event saw almost every day of race week affected by rain. Neither Superstock race was run in the end, and the Senior TT’s classification was decided after only one lap, the race having been shortened to four laps to try to fit it into the schedule before a crash for Erno Kostamo on the first lap of the race forced it to be stopped, after which the weather prevented it from restarting.

The nature of the TT makes it impossible to sanction riding in poor conditions on safety grounds, but with 10 races scheduled in any TT event nowadays (eight in 2026 thanks to the removal of the Sidecar class after qualifying week) any disruption can have a knock-on effect for the rest of the schedule.

Having all 10 races run over their planned length is clearly the ideal scenario, but the priority for Thompson is the safety of the riders, even if that comes at the cost of his own reputation among some sections of road racing fans.

“First and foremost, my absolute priority in anything is safety, the safety of the competitors,” Gary Thompson told the Manx Radio SportsCast podcast in an interview ahead of the Manx Grand Prix and Classic TT.

“I won’t – I will not, have not, and won’t – put competitors out in conditions that aren’t satisfactory. If that means putting in a delay, then so be it, or if that means cancelling a day’s racing, so be it. 

“I would imagine those same individuals who criticise me on Facebook – and I see it, people tell me about it and all that, it doesn’t really faze me, it doesn’t bother me – if I was to put out a race or a qualifying session in unsatisfactory conditions and a rider got hurt, those same people would be very critical over the fact that I started that qualifying session or race in the first place. 

“I’m in a bit of a no-win situation.

“That’s what I get paid for, that’s part of being clerk of the course, and it’s not just me, it’s any clerk of the course.

“We do what we do for the safety of the competitors, and if people don’t like that then so be it.”

Another complication of running the TT at the current moment is the consideration of sponsors. Since all 10 races are sponsored, the interests of the companies who have paid the money to be in that position are also a consideration.

“Each race is sponsored,” said Thompson, “so we do what we can to try and satisfy the sponsors; obviously they’ve ploughed a lot of money into the sponsorship of the event, so we try to do what we can to ensure that the races go ahead.”

But rider safety is still the priority for Thompson, and not even just from a standpoint of conditions; the length of the TT course means that the amount of distance riders are expected to cover is also a welfare consideration.

“I saw somewhere on Facebook saying ‘Why doesn’t he run the Senior race and the Supersport race all in one day’ and all this sort of thing,” Thompson said.

“I mean, at the end of the day, the TT competitors and the competitors at this event – the Manx Grand Prix and the Classic TT – they’re human beings and there’s only so many laps that they can be expected to do. 

“Although it’s not written down, in my own mind, and having discussed it with the medical personnel as well, nine laps around the TT course is a stretch. 

“So, we try to limit the amount of laps that anybody does to nine.

“That’s why, on occasion, we do have to reduce those laps, [firstly] to satisfy the sponsorships involved and also rider welfare.”