Giles Olley Secures Classic Sidecars For July 6-9 Southern 100 — Isle Of Man Tt Sidecar Review
The isle of man tt sidecar review has produced a clear outcome for Billown: Classic Sidecars will race at the Southern 100 Races on the Isle of Man this July after approval from the Auto-Cycle Union. That keeps sidecar racing on the 4.25-mile Billown Circuit in Castletown on July 6-9, even after the modern Sidecar category was suspended for safety reasons.
Giles Olley And Billown
Giles Olley said the Classic Sidecar grid came together quickly and credited the effort behind it. “To go from a blank sheet of paper to an excellent grid of Classic Sidecars in such a short space of time is a testament to the incredible spirit of the road racing community,” he said.
He also thanked Greg Lambert and Dr Paul King for clearing the way. “We are deeply grateful to Greg Lambert [Sidecar competitor] for his tireless work on the ground with the drivers and passengers, and to Dr Paul King at the ACU for helping us clear the administrative hurdles so efficiently.”
Ryan And Callum Crowe
The route back to sidecar racing at Billown started with the suspension of the modern class at both the Isle of Man TT and the Southern 100 Races. That decision followed the Crosby incident involving Ryan and Callum Crowe, when their outfit flipped off the road.
An official Sidecar Sustainability Review has since been launched by the organisers of the Isle of Man TT. Against that backdrop, the Classic Sidecar place in July is not a direct return to the modern category, but a separate class built under tighter historic machine rules.
ACU Approval For July
Classic Sidecar entries are fully funded by a private benefactor, which removed one more obstacle to putting a grid together. Racers must use either two strokes built before 31/12/1967 or four strokes built before 31/12/1972, so the field will be limited to older machinery rather than the suspended modern outfits.
For teams and fans heading to Billown, the immediate change is simple: sidecars remain on the programme for July 6-9, and the Southern 100 crowds will still see the class at the 4.25-mile circuit in Castletown. What returns is the classic category, not the modern one that was stopped after the Crosby crash.
