Sidecar racing at the Isle of Man TT Races 2026 has been suspended for the rest of the event after Ryan and Callum Crowe crashed during qualifying at Crosby Leap on Wednesday evening. Both men escaped with non-life threatening injuries, but the decision announced on Thursday means the sidecar class is now out for the remainder of the meeting.
The change matters now because it shuts down one of the TT’s headline classes with the event still underway, and it follows a red-flag stoppage at about 20:20 BST in the third qualifying session. For anyone searching Manx Radio TT coverage on Thursday, the key fact is simple: organisers have taken sidecar racing off the schedule while they carry out an immediate technical and operational review.
The crash happened on day three of practice week, a stretch already marked by two earlier red-flag incidents. The suspension was described as a precautionary measure in the interests of competitor and spectator safety, and it came after a week that was already heavy with concern. Competitor Daniel Ingham died in a crash at Doran's Bend on Wednesday, and the sidecar team of Maria Costello and passenger Shaun Parker were also involved in a crash on Tuesday.
Nick Crowe, who lost one leg and one arm in a sidecar crash in 2009, backed the suspension but also said the sport should not stop at ending racing. He said Ryan and Callum had been travelling at more than 160mph when a crosswind destabilised the outfit shortly after they landed at Crosby Leap, and argued that the incident showed why sidecar aerodynamic rules need updating. In his view, the rules are 30 or 40 years old and no longer keep pace with the speed or behaviour of the machines.
He said it was a miracle the brothers were still here after the crash, but he also warned that leaving the sport unchanged would ignore the real problem. That leaves organisers with a sharper task than simply deciding whether sidecars can return: they now have to show what the review finds, and whether the next move is a tighter rulebook rather than a restart under the same conditions.
