Lifting the head motorcycle off, the driver Tony Baker calls the Isle of Man TT the Mount Everest of sidecar racing.
“It’s the highest high and the lowest low,” he told us after the show time. With his daughter beside him as the sidecar passenger, Baker has had highs more plentiful than his lows. He’s an expert motorcycle chassis builder who has raced the Isle 24 times. He also competed twice in the World Championship for sidecars at Laguna Seca some two-plus decades ago.
But when the lows strike at the Isle of Man TT, they tend to strike right at the gut. We’re reminded of this upon hearing the news that sidecar driver Ian Bell was killed during the second race of the event.
There aren’t many souls crazy enough to compete in sidecar racing, so the sport’s community is rather tightly knit. In fact, first-time Isle of Man TT competitor and sidecar driver Peter Essaff spent part as Tony Baker’s passenger.