Oil on the Road at Barregarrow

The left-hander at the bottom of Barregarrow is arguably the most exiting turn to watch on the Isle Of Man's 37.73 mile long Mountain Course. Lined with rock walls and no run-out, this blind turn has a prominent dip that can first launch a rider and then bottom his suspension as they fly through the turn at over 120 mph! I was up early enough to get a good spot on the wall for the 2018 Senior TT and caught James Hillier splitting his case here on the first lap and depositing a swath of oil that everyone after him (which was everyone but Conor) had to contend with. At the time, I published "Trouble at Barregarrow" which to date has over 560,000 views! (Wow and Thank YOU!) This new video is a re-edit incorporating previously unseen and some better quality footage from a third camera. I basically took my most viewed video and tried to make it better. Have I done it? Too jazzy? Let me know. And thanks for watching, for your comments and subscribing!

[@crabbit101]

Excellent footage. Cheers! The bottom of Barregarrow is, without a doubt, one of the most spectacular spots from which to watch. Truly amazing.

[@Unknown-bv7lv]

Nicely done Eric

[@hilmardietrich3954]

Hammerhart, bin begeistert!!!

[@ericzinter9535]

Glad you liked the video!

[@garymayes3247]

What is that marshal doing he obviously doesn’t ride a bike at speed, thank god no one was hurt.

[@Putinhuylo3]

Any lesser than a TT elite rider, and there would be corpses.

[@claytonknight3078]

OMG

[@bobs6129]

Pretty sure all of those nasty bits flooding were his oil pan not sure if Hillier finished that race or not. But that was a pretty nasty bottoming out definitely get oil all over your back tire.

[@missydee6085]

He (James Hillier) did indeed crack the sump as he landed; and he pulled off to the l/h side of the course a few hundred yards after the corner. It really was a minor miracle/fantastic skill that Jimbo, Michael Rutter & Davo Johnson (and everyone else!) all managed to stay on their bikes & race on!! Amazing footage Eric, many thanks for capturing it.

[@bobs6129]

@@missydee6085 yeah when you splatter the pan that oil goes all over your back tire really scary.that's probably the worst spot for that to happen too because you come down so hard even for the riders afterwards like you said.

[@missydee6085]

@@bobs6129 Absolutely. Apart from the big compression at the bottom of Bray Hill, the only place that this type of incident will happen is at the bottom of Barregarrow. It certainly looked like James made a wee mistake on his entry line & nose-dived into the big dip. Like everyone else who races in the Senior TT, I'm sure he was really pumped-up on the first lap: so perhaps his determination to put in a blisteringly-quick opening lap adversely affected him at that moment? We all know the margin of error is like a knife edge in real road racing, so it obviously only takes something minuscule to create a potentially catastrophic situation. Funnily enough I had a chat with him in the paddock the day before the race - & wished him luck in 'The Big One'. I just hope that what was to happen several miles into the race wasn't anything to do with me!

[@ericzinter9535]

@@missydee6085 @Bob S Good discussion! Thank you both for your comments. Attached is a link to another of my videos that you might not have seen: kzbin.info/www/bejne/baXag4eshah6pKc This one compares Hilliar against three other riders through Barregarrow. Hope you find it interesting. Take care, both of you, and best wishes for an enjoyable holiday season! Maybe we'll cross paths at the 2022 TT! I hope we do.

[@ericzinter9535]

@@missydee6085 Great to hear from you and thanks. I think I'm going a little nuts staying in isolation. Very glad to have posted a video that gets people talking. Looking forward to TT 2022!! Maybe I'll see you there!

[@palleh7742]

Why don't they stop they race if it's oil on the road 🤨 didn't David Jeffrey die on oil spill?

[@Puddingtops]

Like how they back off due to the oil flag .........NOT !!!!! 😬😬😬👍👍👍

[@ericzinter9535]

...but what if that was their reduced "safe" speed? Hickman (on yellow) was a tiny fraction of a second slower than Conor Cummins (no flag) was through this turn!!

[@Puddingtops]

Yes that’s true lol! They probably backed off 1 mph on the normal speed 😀 Great video btw👍

[@missydee6085]

@@ericzinter9535 Very good point there Eric. Many casual observers don't seem to understand how riders often do partially slow for incidents on the mountain course - which gives them more leeway to react to hazardous situations. It looks like they're going 'full chat', but these guys ain't your average motorcycle racers. Your new footage also shows that the 2 riders who came close to binning it (Michael Rutter & David Johnson) were on a near-identical line to that of James Hillier through Barregarrow Bottom.

[@eslermanu47]

SHOULD HAVE STOPPED THE RACE MAD

[@luddite2702]

Why no oil flags. Not good.

[@mrpantur7280]

not a big fan of the girl screaming lol. this is racing its dangrouse if you cant watch it then dont. im trying to listen to the bikes.

[@brollona3948]

It's not oil it is dirt/mud. If that was oil he would be dead now.

[@ericzinter9535]

Sorry but I was there and I disagree that the hazard was due to dirt/mud. It was oil from Hilliar's bike resulting from bottoming hard and damaging his engine case. The marshals responded by spreading kitty litter to absorb it.

[@brollona3948]

@@ericzinter9535 Ok, I thought that if it was oil that they would lose the grip completely, by seeing it in other cases. In any case very dangerous stuff.

[@ericzinter9535]

@@brollona3948 thank you for watching and taking time to comment

[@davemaclfc41]

I can assure you it was oil as we were about 200 yards further down the road and hillier pulled in right across the road to us and had oil pissing from the sump, obviously he hit the depression a tad to hard and split the casing..when rutter came passed us he was wiping his visor with his gloves and same with david johnson...nice vid eric..