The Most Bizarre Form of Motorsports Racing Youve Never Seen

We’ve run stories on the mad souls brave enough to race motorcycles on the dangerous, but spectacular, Isle of Man – but there are very few crazy enough to race this course as a passenger! Watch these sidecar racers hang on for dear life at triple-digit speeds in what could be the worlds most bizarre motorsport.

There are a lot of different types of motorsports racing out there, and some of them are pretty obscure – things like scooter drag racing, motorcycle gymkhana, and speedway racing are all unusual types of two-wheeled racing that don’t get a fraction of the glory of heavy hitters like Supercross or MotoGP (but that you can get a real kick out of watching nonetheless.)

But when it comes to a combination of unconventional vehicles, bizarre driving dynamics, and sheer insanity on the track, nothing really comes close to motorcycle sidecar road racing, often also called Superside. This unusual form of racing uses modern, fully race-prepped iterations of the classic sidecars that carted around city-dwellers in the early twentieth century – and while the once-popular sidecar is now a relic of the past, the race series itself has miraculously persisted through the decades, and now delivers some of the most jaw-dropping and head-scratching race action you’ll ever see!

Vintage sidecar racing – it’s been crazy since the beginning. This is actually a husband and wife race team!

Why Sidecar Racing Is Even A Thing

Sidecar racing really shouldn’t even exist, especially in 2016. The vehicles they are based on died out, for the most part, back in the 1950s – and even then, they made a lousy platform for a racing vehicle, with a wide, asymmetrical chassis, unusual handling characteristics, and not one, but two riders. But those weird things about sidecar racing is what makes it such a novelty, and are why sidecar racing has persisted to this day.

In the first half of the twentieth century, sidecars were a very common form of alternate transportation, especially in Europe, and sidecars even saw considerable action in WWII military motorcycles as reconnaisanece vehicles and mobile machine gun platforms. In postwar Europe, sidecars remained popular as an economical form of transportation, and the popularity of sidecars in general resulted in the first-ever sidecar racing series being sanctioned by the FIM in 1949 (to this day, sidecar racing is the only class still in existence since that year!)

From the inception of sidecar racing in 1949 up until the late 1970s, the sidecars used in racing were the same as the ones on production street bikes, but lightened and reinforced for racing duty. In the 1970s and 1980s sidecars began to incorporate a lot more automotive technology, and began to look more like race cars than motorcycles. Over time, they have developed into completely purpose built machines, similar to motorcycles in their engines and basic layout – though nowadays, the vehicle bodies and tires have a lot more in common with open wheel Formula race cars than they do with motorcycles.

Here you can see the basic construction of a sidecar racer in this LCR chassis – a motorcycle engine and transmission, but from there to the ground it’s a lot more like an F1 car than a bike. LCR is a Swiss builder that has made more winning vehicles than anyone else in Superside.

How Racing Sidecars Works

At a glance, you can tell that sidecars make an awkward platform for a racing vehicle. The most obvious departure from normal race vehicles is that sidecars are asymmetrical – the unique layout of a sidecar means it actually corners faster in one direction than the other, which drivers (often called “pilots”) have to account for in every turn. In addition, the entire vehicle will “pull” under both acceleration and braking (toward the sidecar under acceleration, and away from it under braking.) These are all unique challenges of racing an asymmetrical race vehicle, ones that drivers or riders in any other car or motorcycle-based race series simply don’t have to consider.

A weird vehicle requires some, well…weird methods of operating it.

But the most fascinating and unusual part of sidecar racing is the role of the passenger (typically called a “co-pilot”) – who, incidentally, also provides the solution to all the previously mentioned challenges posed by the asymmetrical vehicle. The Very existence of a passenger in a race vehicle, especially a motorcycle, sounds bizarre, but there’s a reason he’s there – his job is to clamor all over the machine, contorting his body and shifting his weight around to modify the weight distribution on the machine, and compensate for the asymmetry of the sidecar.

Sidecars don’t lean into turns like motorcycles do, so the sidecar co-pilot will hang off the edge of the sidecar to allow it to speed through corners in either direction, then duck out of the way in the straights to be as aerodynamic as possible – and they also have to do this smoothly, to not upset the chassis as the pilot steers the bike! The toughest challenge for the co-pilot, though, is under the powerful force of braking, in which he has to hang on under massive g-forces, while also creating drag to help slow the bike.

The result is some pretty stunning visuals, and what appears to be sheer insanity (and probably is) – but what is also really a pretty brilliant way to compensate for the shortcomings of the vehicle design, by actively shifting weight around to enhance handling.

This lookes like absolute insanity, but every move the co-pilot makes is intended to enhance handling of the sidecar rig, helping it take corners faster. It’s all about winning races!

These guys have been nuts since the beginning!

Sidecar Racing: The Most Dangerous Team Sport There Is?

It also makes sidecar racing truly a team motorsport; and as one journalist put it, the only kind of motorsport that would qualify as an Olympic event, due to the sheer athleticism and perfectly coordinated teamwork required to pilot these things. Pilot and co-pilot have to be extremely in sync to pull off handling these unusual rigs at triple-digit speeds and around hairpin turns, especially on courses like the Isle of Man, where sidecar is especially popular.

But the spectacular visuals of sidecar racing come at a price, as sidecar racing, especially at a venue like the Isle of Man, is particularly dangerous. This year alone, two sidecar racers lost their lives in separate incidents racing the famous mountain course; 27 year-old Dwight Beare, an Australian who actually moved to the Isle of Man to master the course, and 58 year-old Ian Bell, racing with his own son as co-pilot (who miraculously survived the crash uninjured.)

Still, sidecar racing, as bizarre and dangerous as it may be, continues to be popular, especially in northern Europe where it first began. The FIM holds the Sidecar World Championship series each year, with events typically held on conjunction with major motorcycle races, and the series sometimes even includes a stop in the U.S. Check it out next time you get a chance, and watch these guys in action closely – you might think the riders of these bizarre, oddball vehicles are actually even more ballsy than the guys on Superbikes!

And you were impressed when superbike riders reached just their knees and elbows over the edge of the track!

Would you ever try taking a ride on a sidecar racing rig?