A father and his 21-year-old son have become the fourth and fifth racers to be killed during this year’s Isle of Man TT.
Roger Stockton, 56, and his son Bradley Stockton, from Crewe, in Cheshire, both died during an incident on the second and final lap of the second sidecar race on Friday.
The incident happened at Ago’s Leap, which is just under one mile into the lap and the same part of the 37.73-mile course where sidecar driver Cesar Chanel was killed last Saturday.
Passenger Bradley was a newcomer to the event, while his father last competed at the TT in 2017.
The event’s organisers expressed “a deep sense of sorrow” as they announced the deaths on Friday.
They added in a statement: “The Isle of Man TT Races pass on their deepest sympathy to Roger and Bradley’s families, loved ones, and friends.”
The father-and-son team secured an eight place finish in Bradley’s first TT race on Monday.
Roger was an experienced TT competitor, with Friday’s race marking his 20th TT race start.
He competed at the TT regularly from 2000 to 2008, before then returning in 2010, 2017 and at this year’s event.
In his career, he claimed a total of twelve top-20 finishes and four top-10 finishes, as well as 10 Bronze Replicas.
2022 was the father and son’s fifth season racing together, and they were regular podium finishers and frontrunners in the British F2 Sidecar Cup Championship, finishing second in the championship in 2021.
Three other people have been killed during this year’s event.
Sidecar driver Cesar Chanal died in a crash during lap one of the first sidecar race on Saturday, while Northern Ireland’s Davy Morgan suffered fatal injuries in the Supersport race on Monday, and Welsh rider Mark Purslow was killed in qualifying last week.
The event organisers wrongly announced Chanal’s teammate Olivier Lavorel as the one who died last Saturday before correcting the case of “mistaken identification”.
They initially said Lavorel was the one who had died in the incident, with his teammate Chanal said to be in a Liverpool hospital receiving treatment for serious injuries.
However, four days later it has been confirmed that it was Chanal who passed away, and Lavorel who was in hospital.
