THE BIG DANCE PART TWO
IN THE MOST RECENT issue I interviewed my friends, Chris and Alex Pickett, about their first foray into racing on the roads at the Isle of Man. From there Alex went on to ride for a couple of well-known teams at the TT. Here’s how it went down.
Alex: “I had become friendly with a local Isle of Man based team when I was at the Manx GP in 2013. TC Racing is a family-based team that specialises in up and coming racers, especially ones from overseas. Cam Donald and Dave Johnson both had their first TT starts with TC Racing. Often, over the years, you’d find the three of us Aussie riders chilling out in the TC tent. It’s a real family atmosphere and they are in fact still like family to me.
“All decisions within the team are made as a team and they approached me to ride for them in the 2014 TT, getting sponsorship from the IOM government. I had to get myself there and pay for tyres. Everything else was covered.”
Chris: “TC Racing is not only a great team but a great bunch of people. John and Liz Taubman, their daughters Alana and Sam Taubman and their partners Gas Knight and Mick Charnock. Mick himself was a very experienced roads racer but a couple of big crashes at the the TT stopped Mick’s career. They looked after us like family, even after my mate Dave dropped a brand new Magnesium Dymag rim on the ground. Dave is no longer with us, but gave us some great laughs at the TT in 2014. Little did we know he had a brain tumour at the time and was losing the plot a little.”
