Lauder sidecar racer Steve Kershaw gearing up to compete in 2025’s Isle of Man TT races

In readiness for tackling the Irish Sea island’s near-38-mile mountain circuit next June, Kershaw will undertake compulsory training to familiarise himself with the course over the winter and qualify for a course licence, as well as swapping his ineligible F1 bike for an F2 one, a Honda-powered 2019 LCR.

The Borderer has re-enlisted former passenger Stuart Clark in the hope of benefiting from his prior TT experience, and the pair have taken part in a couple of meetings in a bid to get back up to speed together before the end of the current racing season, at East Fortune in East Lothian two weeks ago and Knockhill in Fife at the weekend.

Despite not having ridden an F2 since 2009 and being hampered by an engine breaking down in qualifying, causing him to miss a day’s racing, Kershaw claimed two wins at East Fortune with lap times only two seconds off the current record.

Kershaw and Clark entered every race available to them at Knockhill’s 50th anniversary event, with Scottish club races, British F2 championships and the Jock Taylor trophy contest all on the programme, but again lost a day on the track due to the replacement engine they’d used a week earlier breaking down too.

The one day’s racing they got in, on Sunday, yielded a win and a third place in two Scottish club races, a fifth in the British F2 race only three seconds off a podium finish and another fifth in the Jock Taylor race, less than two seconds off reigning F1 world champions Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement on their TT F2 in fourth place.

Looking ahead to next year, Kershaw said: “It’s been an ambition of mine to race the TT since I was a teenager after watching the TV coverage and hearing stories from the older guys at race meetings.

“I didn’t feel ready back in 2009 and wanted to race F1 to try and get to the grand prix series, so now, 15 years later, I’ve done far better than I ever expected in F1, so I feel the time is right and I’ve got the experience to do it justice.

“We’re not going there to win – we’re going there to learn and see how we like it.

“After this last couple of weekends, it’s probably going to be the toughest challenge we’ve ever taken on, but we’ll give it 100%.”

Clark added: “After winning the British title in 2018 with Steve, I was satisfied I’d done the best I could on an F1.

“It was only doing the TT that could persuade me out of retirement, so when Steve called me, it was a shock, but I’d rather go with Steve than anyone else.

“The races this month have been so much fun, it’s proved to me it’s the right decision.”

Kershaw and current passenger Ryan Charlwood have got one last round of this year’s British Sidecar Championship to go in the meantime, at Brands Hatch in Kent from Friday, October 11, to Sunday, October 13.

They go into that finale in third place in the six-round competition’s overall standings, on 174 points, behind leaderboard-topping Cumbrians Jack and Sam Laidlow on 236.5 and Lancashire’s second-placed Lewis Blackstock and Patrick Rosney on 234.