Everyone in the world of road racing was pleased with Adrian Archibald's emotional victory in this year's F1 TT; much has been written about the tragic accident involving David Jefferies. After a period of reflection, Philip Neil of TAS, the team supporting David and Adrian on Suzuki machinery, kindly responded to our questions ………….

* Could you briefly explain how Temple Auto Salvage [TAS] became involved in professional road racing.

My Father, Hector, has been involved in road racing since the early 70's, known then as Hector Neill Racing his team achieved a Senior TT victory with Norman Brown in '82, and numerous other victories with riders including Joey Dunlop, Stephen Cull, Johnny Rea, Brian Reid. Following a ten year break we decided to get together in 2000 to form TAS Racing as I had recently retired from a career racing and later managing in professional motocross.

* How does TAS go about obtaining top class racing machinery and trade support?

We had a long time connection with Suzuki, as my father's TT win was as a privateer team supported by Suzuki, and I had raced for their MX team. Although they were not involved with the TT at this time it was my job to put together a proposal, which would entice them to return.
So I suppose it was part former connections and part convincing them in our ability; the rest of your support packages are achieved in a similar way, by selling yourself to particular companies. You start out small and progress with results. A good rule is to set your targets on the best equipment, not the cheapest or most available, that's what I did and then we put everything together and build our own race bikes to our specs.

* On what criteria is rider selection based for the TAS team?

We need some international and some local involvement; personally I like to work with someone who I think I will get on with and who will listen to what we say. I need someone who will give 100% as we do.

* Which riders have you supported / sponsored in the past and what do you consider to be the highlight of your involvement in the sport?

I have already mentioned some of the riders although the list is very long. Recently it has been DJ, Ian Lougher, Adrian Archibald and Bruce Anstey. Working with DJ was a pleasure, I will never forget his treble in 2002 - it was special, together with Adrian's first ever TT victory under very difficult circumstances this year.

* How difficult was it to continue racing at this year's TT after DJ's tragic accident? 

The hardest thing I have ever done within racing, but somehow it made things easier as at least we still had something to focus on. DJ had so much desire to win we remembered that the whole time.

* What was the problem concerning the racing numbers for the Senior TT and how was it solved?

Senior rules have always been that the fastest rider in practice starts at number one, second fastest at number two etc, Two days before the race the numbers were released with Adrian starting at number one, even though he had been second fastest behind DJ; because DJ would not be starting the race was no reason to ignore the fact that he had still set the fastest time during practice, for this reason I refused to race with the number 1. Adrian agreed; when we requested the change eventually the organisers saw the error they had made, but it was too late to change everyone's number, so they apologised and offered us the use of 0. I accepted and so the problem was solved, although I think the Organisers should have thought it over more carefully before allocating the numbers.

* Are you able to explain your and the team's emotions after Adrian Archibald won the Formula 1 TT?

To be honest at the time I was only thinking about DJ and I think most of the team were the same. I felt a bit sorry for Adrian as this was the biggest day of his racing life, and I know he had a mixture of emotions as well. I think the real joy over helping Adrian Archibald to achieve his first ever TT victory will only be fully appreciated by us in years to come, when we look back. It was a very emotional time.

* Many members of the TT Supporters Club have concerns about the future of the TT Races. What issues do you think need to be addressed in order for the event to be success / viable after, say, 2007?

I think this question deserves an answer that we have not really time to go into at the moment, although some points which I have recently raised are with regard to matters such as marshalling. We need more fully trained marshals and they need better facilities out on the course such as permanent radio contact with Race Control, and the approval to react immediately in whatever way necessary to any incident. Rules on belly pans need to be changed so that oil from an engine failure does not go onto the circuit. The question over the speeds of the machines becoming too great is something I have considered; this may be a good point as if you think about it you see good racing on any capacity of machine.

* To what extent do you think the TT Organisers respect and take into account the views of principle "works" teams such as TAS?

We have been hearing over the past few years that we would be invited to give our opinions, I am up for this but only if it is a situation where our opinions will be listened to. At this moment I think the Tourist Board listen to our views although I am not sure about the ACU. We do have the chance to challenge the regulations when they are released, but in my opinion this is not the way to achieve anything, we should be talking about next year in August before the regulations are written.

* What are your plans for 2004 - and will TAS be taking an active part in the TT Races?

TAS have no plans to pull out of the TT at this stage, although we do not make any decisions until after we have spoken to Suzuki. We do have some thoughts as to where we would like to go with the team next year, which would see some change in direction, but the TT would be included in these plans. I just need to have everyone in agreement, this may require some reassurance of the willingness to change from the TT Organisers. 

Graham Bean