But perhaps before answering that question we should think about a couple of others – like who was the first motorcycle racer and why are there so few woman racing bikes ?

Well, I think the answer to all three of these questions is inextricably connected !

No, I don’t know the name of the first person to race a motorcycle but I am willing to bet any amount of Macau casino chips that it was the second guy to sit on a powered bike.  Just had to be - and it was definitely a man.   Come on guys we have to admit that it is just one great macho thing to say … “I bet mine is bigger than yours, or faster than yours" and so it goes on.

The builder, owner or rider of the second motorcycle, sure as eggs are meant to be fried, when he met up with the first bike and its rider just could not resist offering a challenge that “my bike is faster than yours" and the result was the first ever motorcycle race – between two guys on a never ending macho mission.

And I am as sure as sure can be that the race took place on one of the “roads" that had been built to make riding in a horse drawn coach a little more comfortable.  Maybe it was actually held on one of the long straight roads built by the Romans.

From that modest beginning developed ongoing challenges that just grew and grew.  A long straight road was not enough fun as it only proved the fastest machine, not the fastest guy and machine ….. and what a long way back when the bike broke down or ran out of fuel.

So the next race just had to involve corners, or maybe the second race was simply “there and back" which created the first hairpin, and probably the first group of spectators wondering if they would witness the first knee down !  A hat trick of firsts !

Not long after these first few races came the start of the divisions between different racers with different opinions – gotta be us men again ….. when do we ever agree on anything for more than five minutes ?

For many of the ever increasing band of motorcycle owners (aka motorcycle racers) the only way to race was to take advantage of the multitude of roads that were being built all over the world, but with some respect and understanding of others who might want to use the roads for different purposes.   So it was that many racers migrated to the Isle of Man where the first really organized races took place along roads that were normally only used as short cuts for the shepherds and their flocks.

Some others decided that purpose built “roads" that included short straights and a few corners built into an oval shape would be fun and easy to manage.  This resulted in high speed bowls such as Brooklands in southern England where clubs like the British Motorcycle Racing Club were founded to take what had become a definite sport to other levels.

Of course there were some other people who had no respect for anybody other than themselves who turned any road at any time into a race track.  Then, as now, these “idiots" for there is no other suitable word, sent motorcycle racing backwards into the hands of the bureaucrats who tried to put a complete stop to the enjoyment of many thousands.

But nothing was going to stop motorcycle racing – thankfully a few hardened souls saw that, with some sensible restrictions, racing on “public" roads could be enjoyed by the many who wanted to compete and the many more who wanted to watch. 

Others decided that they could build “replica" roads into circuits of varying types and lengths that could be used without having to ask “Auntie" if she minded waiting a few hours before she went to the shops while some bike riders used the road outside her house for racing.

Thankfully these two different forms of motorcycle racing grew and grew – sometimes apart, sometimes closer together – with bigger and bigger crowds watching as the quality of the bikes, the technology behind the machines and the skills of the riders increased to a level that could never have been imagined by our intrepid first pair of racers.

So it continues today with events such as the North West 200 held on the public roads of Northern Ireland being the biggest one day spectator event in that part of the United Kingdom, or the Isle of Man TT races that celebrated their centenary two years ago and this year saw the first of a totally new breed of motorcycle racing – electric bikes !

Not forgetting of course the unique atmosphere of the Macau Grand Prix where the fascination of competing along roads as diverse as the high speed blasts to Lisboa and then the twists around the Guia Hill brings out some of the best racers year after year.

And we still have the circuit “roads" where crowds of two hundred thousand and more watch events in countries from Japan to Spain, from America to Indonesia, and almost everywhere between.  

Long may these races continue whether on the public roads of Europe and Macau or the adapted roads of purpose built tracks around the world.

Both types of motorcycle racing are road racing – both are real – and long may both continue.

Is it Road Racing or is it Road Racing ?

All right, all right, I haven’t forgotten my third question !  Apart from the obvious macho thing, why weren’t the ladies keen to start racing bikes ?  Quite simple – they realized very quickly that they could exert a lot more power over the men in their lives if they sat on the bike in a seductive pose without getting dirty rushing around the roads.  Nothing much has changed there either has it ?