the governor of texas is marshaling his own state's resources to take control of what he calls a failed federal response to the crisis at the border. he's been criticized for playing politics with immigration, but he's doubling down on razor

wire, soldiers, and tough new laws. >> what gives you the authority to tell the u.s. border patrol what to do? >> this land we're on right now was used by the federal government to further illegal activity. and i want to put a stop to it. the isle of man, a jewel in the irish sea. beautiful, ancient, and tranquil, except for once a year. when motorcycles race at speeds near 200 miles per hour through man's villages and narrow country lanes in one of the deadliest sports anywhere. >> what's the appeal of racing so fast on public roads, through towns, past schools, past grandma's house? what's the appeal of the race? >> because you can't do it anywhere else. you can't believe that you're allowed to do it. everything that you're doing is so illegal everywhere else in the world. and then you just get this --

>> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm sharyn alfonsi. >> i'm jon wertheim. >> i'm cecilia vega. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories and more tonight on "60 minutes." if advanced lung cancer has you searching for possibilities, discover a different first treatment. immunotherapies work with your immune system to attack cancer. but opdivo plus yervoy is the first combination of 2 immunotherapies for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread, tests positive for pd-l1, and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. opdivo plus yervoy is not chemotherapy, it works differently. it helps your immune system fight cancer in 2 different ways. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to harm healthy parts of your body during and after treatment. these problems can be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have a cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; irregular heartbeat; diarrhea; constipation; severe stomach pain; severe nausea or vomiting; dizziness;

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there's no denying immigration has become one of the most important and contentious issues in this presidential election year. and there's no better example of that than the high stakes fight between the state of the texas and the biden administration. three years ago, texas' republican governor, greg abbott, launched operation loan star, deploying thousands of police and soldiers and miles of barriers to deter illegal crossings. the supreme court has repeatedly ruled that immigration is the job of the federal government. but as we first reported earlier this year, rarely has a state so aggressively challenged that authority. in january, governor abbott ordered his state national guard to block the federal government's border patrol from shelby park, a dusty stretch of border along the rio grande in eagle pass, texas. to understand why, you need to see what happened there in december. >> we were on the banks of the

river before dawn with soldiers from the texas national guard. we heard the cries of people before we could see their faces. it wasn't until we moved closer that we realized how many people had just crossed from mexico. the soldiers told them it was dangerous to cross here. help us, they begged. some of the women cried, we have children. we heard groans and found this young man twisted in the wire. he kept going. [ speaking in a global language ] stay calm, they told each other, as families pushed their children through. nearly everyone we saw made it across and into the united states. thousands of people a day

crossed here in late december, a record for this section of the texas border. there were so many people, the u.s. border patrol had to transform shelby park into an open air holding center. weeks later, once the surge died down, governor abbott ordered his texas national guard to block the federal government's border patrol from entering the park without permission. governor abbott argued the federal government had failed to fulfill its obligation to the states. and in that, some heard echos of texas' history of rebellion and threats of secession. >> i can't believe governor, i'm going to ask you this question. but i'm going to ask you. do you believe that texas has the right to secede? is that what we're talking about here? >> those are false narratives. what texas and the united states have the right to do, that's to enforce the law. >> you heard the argument against what you're doing out here. each state can't control its own border policy. you're looking at a completely chaotic system. that's the job of the federal government.

>> we're not imposing a texas border policy. texas very simply is enforcing the laws that are the policy of the united states congress. >> what gives you the authority to tell the u.s. border patrol what to do? >> for one, as governor of the state of texas, i have the authority to control ingress and egress to any land in the state of texas. for another, this land we're on right now was used by the federal government to further illegal activity. and i want to put a stop to it. >> reporter: we went behind the guarded gates of shelby park in january, shortly after governor abbott had taken control. >> so, this is called an -- >> reporter: texas department of public safety, lieutenant christopher olivarez, showed us with state national guardsmen were installing fresh razor wire barriers along the river. >> help me understand why texas has a problem with the border patrol coming in to process migrants in this park. >> the issue is trying to prevent another influx.

because when border patrol is here setting up a processing center, it's going to encourage more migrants to cross the river because they know where to go. >> reporter: it's one of many spots along the texas border where coils of sharp wire have been going up ever since governor abbott launched operation lone star in 2021. since then, thousands of migrants have been detained on trespassing charges, state troopers have cracked down on human smuggling rings, and the state has spent more than $150 million sending migrants on buses to places like new york and chicago, turning the problem at the border to a political and financial headache for democratic mayors. once the site of ball games and flea markets, shelby park is the model of what the border can be. >> where we are right now, there used to be 3,000 or 4,000 people crossing illegally a day. for the past three days, there's

an average of just three people crossing the border illegally. >> you don't just plant a flag to plant a flag. it's got to be strategic and make sense. >> reporter: rahul ortiz retired last year. >> when agencies are making a decision based upon politics or whether they're going to get media coverage, hey, we're going to put all our personnel in this two-mile stretch, what about the other 200 miles. >> reporter: in our interview, ortiz criticized governor abbott for not cooperating with the border patrol and playing politics with immigration. but he also expressed frustration with president biden. >> i've never had one conversation with the president or the vice president for that matter. so, i was the chief of the border patrol. i commanded 21,000 people. that's a problem. >> i just saw 50 people today who had just crossed the border illegally.

so, something's not working. >> we need to make sure that central america, south america, mexico, that those regions understand that if you pay a smuggler and you cross in between the ports of entry and you do not have a legitimate claim to some sort of asylum benefit, you're going to be sent back. >> do you believe that the white house has sent mixed messages to migrants? >> yeah, most definitely. >> we spoke with ortiz in an area just four miles south of shelby park. the ground was littered with wet clothes that migrants had changed out of and left behind after crossing the river. >> does all of this tell you that people are still crossing this river right here? >> oh, yeah. the guides, or the smugglers, will bring the migrants over. this is all very calculated by the cartels that control these areas on the mexican side. >> reporter: about seven miles north of shelby park, we came upon this group of migrants, who had just crossed the rio grande and were being picked up by the border patrol.

[ speaking in a global language ] this mother and her two sons took buses from el salvador. she told us the soldiers on the u.s. side of the border weren't much of a deterrent. she feared the cartels in mexico more. sometimes they kidnap you and expect payment, she said. the reality is people are still going to find a way to get in no matter how much manpower you have out here, how much wire you put up. >> in texas anyway, we're going to be barricading every area where people are crossing until we get every area to have like this area is right now. >> texas is going to barricade every area? what do you mean? >> every area where the cartels use as a crossing, we intend to be barricading. >> the border is going to look look like a war zone. >> it is a war zone. >> reporter: over the past three years, the biden administration has carried out over 3 million

expulsions and deportations, more than the trump administration. but it has also allowed 3 million people to remain in the country for years while their immigration cases are heard. and the border patrol estimates 1.6 million people have entered the country illegally without getting caught. in february, former president trump visited shelby park with governor abbott. on the same day, president biden was also at the texas border in brownsville. >> instead of playing politics, why don't we just get together and get it done. >> president biden says if republicans were serious about securing the border, they would not have rejected a bipartisan immigration deal in the senate in february after former president trump opposed it. that deal would have increased funding for the border patrol and required the president to expel all migrants crossing illegally during surges like the one at shelby park in december. the latest battle between texas and washington concerns a new law governor abbott signed authorizing texas' more than 2,700 law enforcement agencies

to arrest migrants for illegally crossing the border. texas judges would then order migrants to return to mexico or serve time, bypassing the federal immigration system entirely. critics of the law say it is so broadly written, it fails to define when authorities can stop someone. we asked lieutenant olivarez of the texas department of public safety, or dps, about the concern that immigrants or people of color could be subjected to racial profiling. >> i could see our troopers could be stopping cars or checking or immigration status or not. >> this law is not just written for dps. >> right. it's a texas law. >> the reality is this is going to be carried out far from the border. >> absolutely. so, couldn't you get caught up in it? you're latino. couldn't i get caught up in it? >> that's not the case. they have to develop probable cause to stop a car. you can't just interview every person in that car, ask them for immigration status. but there could be issues where another agency outside of a

border area could take that into account. >> does that make you nervous? >> there's a lot of agencies that operate, but i would think every chief would have to implement some type of policy or procedure to enforce this new law. >> reporter: in february, a federal judge stopped the new law from taking effect. an appeals court is now considering the case. the department of justice and american civil liberties union are suing the state of texas, arguing it interferes with the federal government's authority over immigration. but governor abbott argues the state of texas is being invaded. and has the right to defend itself. that idea has resonated with militias and groups oppose to illegal immigration. some joined a convoy in february and descended on the eagle pass area. >> everyone, i think, agrees that the immigration system right now is completely broken and there's a lot of blame to go around. but do you really, truly believe that invasion is the right word be using here?

>> invasion is the word that's used in the united states constitution. invasion, or imminent danger. i use them both. and we are in imminent danger because of what the drug cartels do every single day, because of the known and unknown terrorists who cross every single day. >> so, the convoys and militia have heard the language and they've started to come to the point that migrants have had to be relocated from some locations for their own safety. are you not concerned about violence happening because of language like the word invasion? >> there's no language that would spur violence. i'll be clear about this. we don't want violence of any type. >> how does this end? >> oh, it ends very simply, and that's with a president of the united states who will actually fulfill his oath of office and enforce the laws of the united states of america. that means denying illegal entry into our country. >> do you want to be trump's running mate? >> no. >> what if he asks you? >> listen, i love being governor

of texas. i can best aid him in my role by being a great governor of texas. >> reporter: so far the governor has committed more than $11 billion to operation lone star. over the last three years, the percentage of people entering texas illegally has dropped while rising in other border states. abbott's critics say that has more to do with other factors, like crackdowns on migration in parts of mexico. there are still more than a million illegal border crossings in texas every year. there are also at least a dozen lawsuits being fought between texas and the federal government over immigration issues. all that infighting worries former border patrol chief, raul ortiz. >> the national guardsmen and border patrol agents have become pawns in the political game. >> who's winning? >> the cartels, the criminal organizations, that's who's winning in all this. they're sitting back, reaping all the benefits, while they

watch the state of texas and washington, d.c. go at it. patrolling the border with a texas state trooper. >> it's just such a crisis and we feel so overwhelmed. >> at 60minutesovertime.com. ♪ i wanna see all my friends at once ♪ ♪ [droids beeping] [loud indistinct chatter] ♪ [message received tone] ♪ ♪ i wanna see all my friends at once ♪ [find my chime] ♪ ♪ i wanna see all my friends at once ♪ ♪ [find my chime] [in unison] - hey! ♪ [thud] ♪ ♪ i wanna see all my friends at once ♪ [dog whimpers] [thinking] why always the couch? does he need to go to puppy school? get his little puppy diploma?

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on a tiny island across the atlantic, one of the world's most unusual and dangerous sporting events is about to get underway. the 30-mile-long isle of man

sits in the middle of the irish sea, with england to the east and ireland to the west. it was once the seat of a viking kingdom. today britain's king charles is head of state. or lord of man. people born there are known as manx. and the isle has its own unique language and a tailless cat, also called manx. a few hundred years ago, it was known as a haven for smugglers. the buccaneers are gone. bankers have turned the isle into a tax haven. as we first reported last fall, what drew us to the isle of man was not the beauty or the banking, but a hair-raising annual event that, at first glance, seems totally out of place on this little jewel of an island. with emerald fields and rugged coastlines dotted with ruins of medieval castles, the pace of life on the isle of man is slow, even sleepy, for 50 weeks of the year.

but for two weeks starting at the end of may, it becomes one of the loudest, fastest, most dangerous places in sport. >> it's like nothing else. no matter what you've done in your life, until you see a bike do what we're doing here, nothing compares at all. >> british motorcycle racer peter hickman is one of the best in the world. and a 13-time winner of a race known as the isle of man tt. short for both tourist trophy and time trial. not long before we met hickman, we watched him fly over the first jump on the course at a place known as ago's leap. >> you go by ago's leap today,

and truly it was a blur. it was just like -- a speeding bullet. how fast do you think you were going when you went by there? >> around 185 to 195 mile an hour, somewhere around there. it's top gear. >> reporter: besides the blinding speeds, what truly makes the isle of man tt unique is that it is run on public roads that are open to normal traffic until just 30 minutes before racing begins on a 37-mile course that covers much of the island. running through villages and pastures, with riders taking more than 200 turns just inches from rock walls and buildings and residents. >> you initially race through a village and it just feels like you shouldn't be doing it, but we're allowed. >> on the isle of man. >> on the isle of man. >> reporter: there's more to say

about the tt, much more. but first, what is it about this tranquil isle that produces such a wild and improbable race? >> the people on the isle, they like to do things their own way. >> katrina mackie moved here from scotland 15 years ago and now teaches university students the history of the isle of man. she told us, over the centuries, the blood and cultures of english, irish, and viking clashed and mixed here to create the unique manx identity. >> the manx see themselves as we're not english. we're not irish. we're manx. >> from what you're telling me, the isle of man seems to always be finding its own path. that streak seems to define it. >> yeah. it still has that streak of independence. and a lot of it does come from its north heritage. >> reporter: the norse, vikings,

sailed south from scandinavia more than 1,000 years ago in search of places to conquer. >> in 1079, norse gaelic ruler called rodred crovan invaded the isle of man for the third time. third time lucky for him. >> this was the seat of the norse kingdom for a while? >> for a while, that's right. >> reporter: contrary to their reputation, the vikings didn't just blunder and move on. on the isle of man, they established a sort of parliament called the tynwald that still makes the laws here. >> it is the longest, continuous running parliament in the world, and it's an important part of the manx identity. [ singing in a global language ] >> reporter: another important aspect of identity is the manx language, which natives have been speaking and singing for nearly 1,500 years. [ singing in a global language ] right keegan gell works another a cultural organization

dedicated to preserving and popularizing the manx language. [ singing in a global language ] >> oh, my god. that was beautiful. >> thank you. >> why does it matter to save the language? >> my ancestors spoke manx. so, for me, it's a nice way of feeling like i'm connected. i think if we were to lose manx, we'd be so much the poorer for it. >> let's try to do that altogether. >> reporter: manx nearly was lost. by the 1950s, after more and more english speakers visited or settled on the isle, there were fewer than 200 manx speakers left, when a concerted effort began to revive the language. >> i'm going to teach you how to say -- >> the rebirth of the language has been described as a phoenix like story. >> definitely. it's a strong, it's a resilient language. and i think there's more and more pride all the time with

people embracing manx and seeing it as a really, really good thing. it is just like the phoenix rising out of the ashes. it didn't die. it got perilously close. >> okay. ready? >> reporter: today, right keggin gell teaches adult manx classes at a local pub. >> fys, this means knowledge. >> reporter: while just a few hundred yards down the road, 4 and 5 year olds are learning to count in a manx language immersion school. [ speaking in a global language ] >> it's really exciting seeing people go from having one or two words, in the first lesson, starting to introduce yourself. you would say mish bill and you would say mish bill back. >> mish bill. >> mish bill, well done. [ speaking in a global language ] >> reporter: manx is spoken with the tynwald, the isle of man's

parliament, meets in ceremonial session. for centuries the tynwald has chartered the unique path. it was the first legislature in the world to grant women the vote. it especially asserts manx independence in matters of taxation. >> england in the mid 17th century had raised its custom duties. the isle of man didn't. you have tobacco and tea and brandy and rum coming from elsewhere into the isle of man that were then taken from the island in small boats and smuggled into england and scotland. >> smuggling was known as running. >> the running trade, or the trade, yes, absolutely. >> and that was very lucrative. >> very, very lucrative, yeah. it was at that point the british government decided, okay, we need to do something about this. enough is enough. >> reporter: the british effectively took control of the isle of man. and to this day, the british monarch is head of state and has

the right to veto any manx law. in practice, that power is almost never used, and the isle of man fiercely guards its independence. >> we have our own tax laws, and the island is very proud of that. >> in a way, what was going on in the 17th and 18th century, the trade, this place was kind of a tax haven back then. >> in some respects i guess you could call it that. >> it is again today. >> it is again today, yeah. most companies don't pay any corporation tax at all. >> zero? >> zero. the level of income tax is much lower than anywhere else. we have a top rate of income tax of 20%. we have a lot of people living on the island who are very, very wealthy who are pay relatively low tax on the island than they would elsewhere. >> reporter: the isle's total population is a little more than

80,000. but many of the world's biggest banks have a branch here. the owners of more than 1,000 private jets avoid millions of dollars of taxes by registering them on the isle of man. just as it has tried to make its tax laws attractive, the isle of man has worked long and hard to attract tourists. >> by the 1880s, 1890s, a week by the sea had become a british institution, really. by 1913, just before the war, we were seeing 600, 650,000 people visiting the island every summer. huge, huge, huge numbers of visitors. >> reporter: among those visitors around the turn of the 20th century, were a few wealthy people, who brought with them newfangled machines called motor cars. >> the speeds we're doing were quite phenomenal. >> according to matthew richardson, curator at manx national heritage museum, these were the founding fathers of the race now known as the isle of man tt. >> the tt began as a car race.

that's where we get the name tourist trophy. it began as a race for touring cars. there was an opportunity to race cars in the united kingdom at that time because parliament there banned road closures for racing. >> and you said we'll close our roads down? >> partly, the lieutenant governor was the cousin of the chairman. the isle of man economy at that time was heavily dependent on tourists coming here. and he thought that having a racing event would only bring more tourists. he was proved to be absolutely right. >> was he ever? when we come back, we'll see how and why the isle of man tt, the 2024 edition of which begins this week, has become a bucket list destination for motorcycle riders and racing fans from all over the world. it'll be raining cats and dogs again. time to waterproof with gorilla. waterproof with gorilla?

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- lift the clouds off of... - virtual weather, only on kpix and pix+. the isle of man's unique culture and manx language set them apart. but it's the race, known as the tt, that has really put it on the map. first held in 1907, it is the most dangerous motorcycle race on earth. more than 250 riders have been killed over the years. yet, as we first reported last year, fans flock across the irish sea to watch, and racers clamor for an invitation to ride. >> i can lose my life. that's the thing. it always has been since i was a wee boy and my dad sat me on the edge and i watched the bike go past, i thought, that's what i

want to do when i grow up. >> richard "milky" quayle was born and raised on the isle of man, a manxman through and through is how he puts it. in 1997, he got his wish to race in the tt. and five years later, he won it. >> so, what is it like as a manxman to win the tt. >> there's only ever been three of us that have done it in the 118 years, whatever. i think it's a bit like when you go to do your washing on your trousers and you're like, i'll just check the pockets. you reach in there and find ten pound, and oh, yeah, i've got ten pound richer. you can multiply that by a million, that's what it's like to win the tt. it's like woo-hoo. >> the actual prize money is minnis kuhl compared to other professional sports. the winner of last year's race

won just over $30,000. there are five classes in all, dictated by the power of the motorcycle and the number of laps. riders are constantly braking, shifting, and twisting the throttle thousands of times every lap. then there is the side car race, three wheeled contraptions that scream around the course with a driver and a passenger whose job is to throw their weight around every curve. just inches off the ground. what about the side car? >> they're alone to themselves. you'd never get me on a side car. i'm not into -- i love speed. i love fast bikes, fast cars, fast jet skis, fast anything. but side cars, no, no.

>> you need only to look at old photos to see how the race has changed. early side car outfits looked like what you might see on the street. today, they resemble angry mutant bobsleds. the first motorcycles were basically bicycles with engines strapped on them. today's bikes are bullets, ridden by some of the top pro racers in the world. >> i'm trying to beat the clock, not the person in front of me effectively. >> milky quayle gave us a taste of what it's like to ride the course with a bike on a simulator and an actual lap playing on a screen in front of him. >> over to the left and over the to the right. it takes so much physical effort to get the thing to turn. this is one of the fastest points on the circuit. >> everything is a blur going by. >> 190, 195, 200 miles per hour. >> this is nuts.

you know that, right? >> it's fun. >> reporter: he knows a lot of people won't get his definition of fun. >> the last time you raced as a rider was 20 years ago. >> 20 years ago, yeah, yeah. >> it nearly killed you, didn't it? >> yeah, yeah. yeah, it did. but, i mean -- >> what happened? >> i made one little mistake and -- >> what was your mistake? >> i literally entered the corner too early. i just caught the rock face with my shoulder. it just snagged and pulled me into the wall on the right and threw me over and hit the wall on the left. that's the flip side of the coin, isn't it? when it goes bad, it -- it can hurt you. >> the crash in 2003 ruptured his spleen and punctured both of his lungs, among other injuries. >> i was in the hospital and a journalist came in to see me and do an interview and stuff.

he was trying to put words in my mouth, you must hate it. it's dangerous. you must want to get it stopped. i was like, you you are? why would i want to stop it? it's the best thing in the world anybody could do? why would i want to stop it just because it hurt me? >> the only way to make the event safe is to not do it. if we're going to race sports bikes through public roads, the danger is there. >> paul phillips is the man who has been in overall charge of the isle of man tt for the last 15 years. >> the bike starts single file. they travel so, so fast. the speed limit is generally through villages, towns, 30 or 40 miles per hour. and they're going through them at 200 miles per hour. >> i'm not sure you know how crazy -- you go through a village where you're usually driving 35 miles an hour and these guys are going 200 miles an hour through these villages. that's wild. >> it is wild. it is. >> some people in our audience

who are not really familiar with the race would be surprised at the casualty statistics. 250 casualties over the years. you know that's got some people sort of howling that this race is too dangerous. it shouldn't be. >> i totally understand that. you know, this event really doesn't embody the, sort of, human spirit. nobody's forced to come and do this. and this event does, kind of, give you and me the opportunity to test and push boundaries and live their lives to the absolute limit. >> like the ultimate expression of free will. >> yeah, yeah. >> even if that free will can get you killed? >> so it seems, yeah. to be honest, as a rider, you don't really think about it. >> hickman takes his third c at tt. >> peter hickman has won 13 tt races, including last year's marquee race, the senior tt.

225 miles over six grueling laps. >> as a rider, we have already accepted if someone's here and riding and signed up, we have already accepted what that consequence is if we make a mstake. >> what do you say to the people who say it's too dangerous? >> everyone's entitled to their own opinion. that's the way i look at it. again, in today's world where you can't do this, you can't do that, you can't do the other, the isle of man is the last place, i think, in the world where a man can push himself to his limits. i think the tt riders, they're modern day dragon slayer of the world. he wants to prove he's an alpha male. >> organizers of the tt have taken steps to minimize risk where they can. riders are sent off the start line at 10-second intervals to make space between them. but passes with not an inch to

spare still happen. >> the course is all good. >> reporter: there's a sophisticated control room, where race managers can monitor every rider on the course. >> so, it's, sort of, like air traffic control? >> yeah. >> it sort of looks like you're in an air traffic control center. >> absolutely. >> gary thompson is the man in control of the control tower, what's known as the clerk of the course. >> this afternoon, we're going to close the roads at 12:30. and then 30 minutes later, we're going to have bikes riding down glencrutchery road at nearly 200 miles an hour. in 30 minutes we'll have turned a public highway into a racing circuit with 602 marshals in position with a course locked down and ready to race. that's pretty special. pretty special. >> i wish you all a safe and enjoyable qualifying session. >> reporter: perhaps the most significant change has been to strictly limit the number of

racers to just over 30 side car teams and 100 solo riders. >> how important is it just to determine that a rider is good enough to be on this course? >> very. one of the things when i first started working on the tt was that that wasn't the case. there were people coming here who were ill-prepared. >> reporter: now there's a strict protocol for would-be first time racers, and milky quayle is a key part of it. he first takes newcomers around the course in a car. >> so, then what's going to happen is -- >> reporter: then during practice week, he leads them on an actual lap to see how they perform and whether they can keep up. >> what are you looking to see if they're good enough to actually be in the race. >> yeah, basically. it's a bit like applying for a job. you have to have a good racing cv. that's the first initial thing we do is, who is he? what's he done before? if he's a good rider, that's an

instant plus tick. okay. well, then, like -- >> do you ever have someone you're taking around and you go, they're not ready? >> yeah. during my 18 years, i've been teaching people. in 18 years, i've probably had about five people i said, you're not ready. you need to go back and do a bit more studying. i remember getting behind milky quayle on my initiation lap, and i screamed in my helmet, this is crazy. >> renny scaysbrook made milky's cut. an australian now living in california, he is a full-time motorcycle journalist and a part-time racer, who was invited here after winning the pike's peak race in the u.s. his first tt was in 2022, when six riders were killed. >> there's some really awful stuff that happens here. you can't sugar coat it. but on the other side, you know, it is the most incredible place to ride a motorcycle.

the dangers up here, exhilaration is up here. it's so unlike anything else. you ask any motorcyclist and they'll say, the tt, they all know. it's like saying, you ever heard of michael jordan? you might not like basketball, but you know who michael jordan is. the tt is a bit like that. >> what's the appeal of racing so fast on public roads, through towns, past schools, past grandma's house? what's at that peel of this kind of thing? >> because everything you're doing is so illegal everywhere else in the world and then you get this -- the things just -- like buildings are ripping past you and there's no gap between the building and the pavement. there's no foot path. so someone's bedroom window is only like that far away and you're doing 165 miles an hour. it's completely mad. it's awesome.

>> it's mad. it's awesome. >> it's awesome. >> reporter: during practice week, we met one of the ferries. the primary means of getting to the island. and watched as hundreds upon hundreds of racing fans rolled on. to accommodate the 40,000 fans who come to the race, almost every soccer and rugby field becomes a campground. and the roads, while they're open, are clogged with riders. >> the fan can sit inside the road, watch go past, half an hour later, they can ride on the same track. it's the best build. it's the best. >> reporter: there's no admission fee to watch, and the paddock is open to all. here, fans can touch the stars. but one visit to the merchandise

tent is all it takes to know that this is a commercial bonanza for the isle. >> make no mistake, that's what it exists for. it exists for economic reasons. it exists to bring people to our island. and for no other reason. it doesn't exist because we like motorbikes. we do like motorbikes, but that's not why it exists. >> one rider was killed in last year's tt, 46-year-old spaniard raul torras. that there was just one death after six killed in 2022, was a relief to organizers. but also a reminder of the risk that has run through these winding roads for more than a century. >> a lot of people don't grasp how wild the event really is. i'm a part time racer. i can steer a bike okay. but i'm not the level of these guys. you know, i mean, they do stuff that i just go, i have no idea how you do that.

>> wow, that's brave. >> yeah. >> peter hickman is one of those guys. last year, while winning four races, he set a new all-time speed record for a single lap. >> what's the trickiest part? or maybe it's the same thing, what's the most dangerous part? >> it's all tricky. it's all complicated. it's all dangerous if you get it wrong. there's only a few corners that are very slow that are probably 30, 40-mile-an-hour. maybe 95% of the lap, i would say, is over 160 miles an hour, hence why the average speed is well over 130. you have to be at 110% concentration 110% of the time. >> what's your explanation for why you do this? >> this makes me feel alive. >> makes you feel alive? >> yeah. >> you can't just leave it like that. expound, explain. what do you mean? >> i think you can only really appreciate life if you're putting yourself into places

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you tonight on this special edition of "60 minutes presents" animal magnetism. what's it like to be in the water with them? >> magical. >> we are eye-to-eye with the whale of moby diha