Airborne at 250kmh and already thinking about the next corner
Inside the helmet: Mitch Rees on what it really feels like to race the Isle of Man TT
By Kent Gray
A split second or so after the 17th milestone on the Isle of Man TT circuit is a scary fast place called Ballacrye.
For those who work in metric, youâre just shy of halfway through a 60.72km lap of the Mountain Course, right at the start of sector 3, and flying. Literally.
Most will never see this small ribbon of public road on the tiny island in the Irish sea but Mitch Rees is one of the select few who knows it intimately.
âFifth or sixth gear depending on your gearing or what bike youâre on,â he says. âPretty much a flat corner, left-hander, really fast. And then itâs into a jumpâŚyou launch about 30 feet.â
He pauses, not for effect. Because heâs actually running the sequence in his head.
âYouâre coming up to it, and youâre looking for the white line on the inside but you canât see it as youâre entering the corner because itâs a long-ish corner. But thatâs your apex point. So youâre turning in, but you canât turn in too aggressively. Then you see the white line and you tip into the curb. Then the jump. Fifth, sixth gear, launch 30 feet in the air.â
And while heâs hurtling along in outer space?
âYouâre thinking about Quarry Bends. You need to apex there. Come back two gears, holding fourth through there, right-left-right onto Sulby straight. And thereâs a big bump coming out of Sulby, so, like, all thatâs going through your brain as youâre coming off the jump through Ballacrye.â
He says all this in one breath. Two seconds of airtime. A lifetime of preparation packed into it.
Mitch Rees is 33-years-old, a mechanic from WhakatÄne, and one of only a handful of New Zealanders to have raced the Isle of Man TT. He won the Vernon Cooper Trophy last year as the fastest newcomer. Even more impressively, he was the fifth fastest debutant of all-time. In a miserable fortnight of weather. Heâs back for more.
âYou have to think about it before you get there and then forget about it, because you need to be thinking about the next thing.â
The Final Sector spoke to him from the Isle of Man paddock on the eve of practice week, his rented motorhome parked alongside those of Davey Todd, Pete Hickman, and John McGuinness â men whose names are carved into the history of the most dangerous race in the world. He was relaxed, loose, and happy to talk. He described himself, again, as âjust a mechanicâŚa weirdo from WhakatÄne who just enjoys riding bikes.â
âJust Mitchâ is the most interesting kind of sportsman. Elite without ever claiming so, perhaps without even knowing it. And the kind who has genuinely thought about what he does.
Most people who watch the TT â and hundreds of thousands do, from the grandstands and the hedgerows and the screens in pubs across the British Isles and beyondâ understand it as spectacle. The numbers are staggering. The showcase Senior TT is six laps of the Mountain Course. 364.32km. Average speeds nudging 210kmh. Stone walls, trees, telegraph poles, manholes and curb stones at armâs reach. Sometimes closer.
What they donât know is what it feels like from inside the helmet.
âThe adrenalineâs just so high,â Rees says.
âItâs hard, man. Youâre going so fast for so long, and just the wind blowing against your shoulders and your neck and your head⌠like, youâre trying to tuck down inside the screen, but itâs still quite hard to seeâŚâ
âYour brain is honestly in overload the whole time. Youâre getting from one place to the next so quickly, and thereâs so much in between. You have to think about it before you get there and then forget about it, because you need to be thinking about the next thing. Youâre creating a natural instinct of doing.â
He talks about Bray Hill, the steep plunge from the start-finish line down into Douglas. The hedge on the right that heâs practically clipping with his elbow. The kerb at Agoâs Leap that needs to be no more than a foot or two off at the bottom so the suspension doesnât bottom out. The wrong line through the bottom of Bray Hill puts you on the wrong side of the road. The right line puts you somewhere between the curb and the hedge at 273kmh, threading a needle you canât fully see because youâre already looking at what comes next.
âYouâre not focused on whatâs right there,â he says. âYouâre looking so far ahead. You almost become numb to it. Itâs there. You can feel everything going past you so fast. But youâre not focused on that. Youâre focused on whatâs coming.â
There is a section between Ginger Hall and Ramsey that every TT rider mentions unprompted, like itâs a war story they canât quite shake.
âThe surface is so rough,â Rees continues. âSo violent.
âYouâre stood on the footpegs, squatting, for a couple of minutes. Because if you sit down on the seat, you literally physically cannot see. The vibration of sitting on the seatâŚyour brain gets juggled around, your eyes get juggled around inside your head. All you see is a grey blur of the road and the curbs. Then a green blur, which is the trees.â
He says it calmly. This is just what it is.
âYou squat, and you can actually see where youâre going. And then you get to the end and your quads are on absolute fire because youâve just been in a squat position for two minutes or more.â
The bike, by the way, the Superstocker, is producing 220 horsepower. And it wants to wheelie in fourth, fifth, sixth gear at speeds he describes as silly.
âYouâre just wrestling the thing the whole time.â
After a session or a race, youâd expect him to be so exhausted that heâd sleep like a baby. Except the brain canât instantly switch off after something like that.
âYour brainâs been operating at probably the highest speed level it can,â he says. âYouâre scanning for dangers over a 60-kilometre period. You come back in and you need to process it. Your brain starts slowing back down. And then, every racer does this, you go, âI could be better here. I could be faster there.ââ
He laughs at himself for it.
âYeah. And then you want to go again.â
Rees is campaigning the 2026 Isle of Man TT on two Milenco by Padgetts Hondas â a CBR600RR in Supersport and a CBR1000RR-R in Superbike, Superstock, and the Senior TT. The Senior is the one that was cancelled last year. Heâll get his shot at it this time around, fingers crossed.
He came to the TT after a recce trip with his father Tony, who taught him to race and now wrenches for him on the road. Tony drove with him around the circuit for four or five days, and Mitch talked him through it â every gear, every curb, everything to watch for. Tony had been asked to ride the TT himself years ago. The timing was wrong. Now heâs here as crew.
âHe was quite impressed,â Mitch says. âLike, âOh, youâve done your homework.ââ
Heâd done hundreds of laps on the video game. Hours of onboard footage on YouTube. Laps in the car. And still, nothing fully prepares you for the bottom of Bray Hill in sixth gear with the front wheel trying to leave the ground.
âYou donât get the physical feeling from the game,â he says. âYou go down Bray Hill, you get to the bottom, and then your body g-forces out and your face is in the fuel tank. At sixth gear, 180 miles an hour. Just â phwoa.â
The Final Sector asked Rees what the TT gives him that nothing else does.
He thought about it.
âItâs the feeling you get from completing a lap,â he. âJust completing a lap is a big deal. Itâs an achievement. And I think what every motorcyclist ever wants to do is go flat out on open roads. You ask any motorcyclistâŚif we close the road, you just want to go flat out and do whatever you want. And the roadâs yours. Thatâs effectively what Iâm getting to do.â
He said it without a shred of ego. Like it was just obvious.
The boy from the Bay of Plenty, a humble mechanic by day, TT racer by choice, doing the thing of motorcycling dreams. Fanging it on the most famous roads in the street racing world.
Race week at the TT begins tonight. Strap yourself in.
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