Seeing a toddler “wowed” by the Isle of Man TT races was a “joy” to see, the boy’s father has said, as motorsport was “in the blood” for his family.
A video watched 65,000 times shows Arthur, from Farmhill in Douglas, saying “wow” after seeing a travelling marshal pass by at Cronk y Voddy at the end of Monday’s race action.
His father Jack said it was the 17-month-old’s “first proper year” watching the TT, which sees bikes travelling at speeds over 130mph (209km/h), after sleeping through the 2024 event.
“I grew up around the paddock as my dad competed in the sidecars at the TT for 22 years,” he said, adding his own son’s reaction had shown “he’s a bike fan too”.
He said: “What I see in him now is what I imagine I’d have been like at the same age.
“My childhood was spent around the paddocks of the Manx Grand Prix, the TT, the Southern 100, any race meeting that there was basically.
“It’s something that I love myself [so] to see him react in the way he did, it brings a feeling of pride and a lot of joy to see that.”
Jack said about an hour before the video was taken Arthur was “sleeping with his ear defenders on and wasn’t really bothered”.
“He woke up right towards the end of the race, and we we’re like we’ll just show him the bikes. I wasn’t expecting the reaction we got,” he said.
He said while one of the comments the video attracted online suggested his son could be among the event’s “next generation” of racers, his family would “have something to say about it if he wants to race in future”.
Reflecting on the reaction the video has had, Jack said: “The organisers have struggled a lot with the weather this year, and it’s obviously a very hard event to run, so it’s just nice to see something positive.”
