Sidecar racing has been suspended for the rest of the Isle of Man TT Races 2026 after Ryan and Callum Crowe crashed in the third qualifying session at Crosby Leap on Wednesday evening. Organisers said on Thursday the class would stop on safety grounds after an immediate technical and operational review.
The decision changes the shape of the meeting now, not later. Sidecars had already been stopped once this week after a Maria Costello crash, and the latest incident pushed organisers to remove the class entirely for the remainder of the event. Wednesday’s qualifying session was red flagged at about 20:20 BST after the Crowe brothers went down, and both escaped with non-life threatening injuries.
The crash involved one of the most prominent names in the paddock. Nick Crowe, a five-time sidecar TT champion who has backed his sons’ racing careers, said Ryan and Callum had been travelling at more than 160mph when a crosswind destabilised the outfit shortly after they landed at Crosby Leap. He said he thought the suspension was the right call, adding that many people might disagree with him but that, under the circumstances, it was the correct thing to do.
That position mattered because it came from a rider who has lived through the worst sidecar racing can do. Crowe lost a leg and an arm in a sidecar crash in 2009, and his support for stopping the class gave the suspension a weight that a routine safety notice would not have carried. He also said the brothers’ escape was “a miracle” given the speed, and argued that updated aerodynamic devices such as aerofoils should now be considered because current rules are 30, 40 years old and are not keeping up with the times.
The decision came during a grim week for the TT. Competitor Daniel Ingham died in a crash at Doran’s Bend on Wednesday during a qualifying event, and the sidecar class had already been hit by earlier red-flag incidents during practice week. The suspension is a precaution, but it also signals that organisers believe the risk has outgrown the category’s present setup.
What happens next is the review. Organisers have not said whether the sidecar class will return in 2026 with new regulations or aerodynamic changes, or whether the latest suspension is the first step toward a wider reset. For now, the event has lost one of its major races, and the unanswered question is how much of the class can come back unchanged after this week.
