The inquest into the deaths of Roger and Bradley Stockton this morning heard that there were no defects to their sidecar at the start of the race in which they died.

The father and son team died on the second lap of the sidecar race on Senior Race Day last year.

With the crash bearing remarkable similarity to that which claimed the lives of Frenchmen Cesar Chanal and Olivier Lavorel, there has been increased attention on this crash, given both crashes occurred within days of each and happened at the same point of the course. 

Coroner of Inquests Jayne Hughes read a written statement from two technical officials who both said that the machine was clear of defects before racing and that a fairing, which had been repaired at some point prior to that race, had been checked and was found to be in working order. 

Mrs Hughes also heard oral evidence from Ryan Crowe, who alongside his brother Callum competes in the TT as a sidecar racer, with Ryan as the driver. 

Mr Crowe said he had seen images of the crash and that in his opinion, there was an issue with the Stockton’s sidecars fairing, the fairing is an external structure added to increase streamlining on a high-performance vehicle.

He described how he personally adds cable tie to his fairing connector, an ‘R clip’, which is to make extra certain the bolt will remain in place, however he said this is a personal choice and others may or may not do this and he didn’t know whether the Stocktons did or not.

During questioning he said that if the R clip was to fail for any reason, this can allow the bolt and fairing to move and make it harder for the driver to control the machine. 

He gave a personal example of when he has had issues with a fairing during the Southern 100 which had made his bike harder to control. 

Mr Crowe was also shown a photograph which he said showed a distortion to the front of the Stocktons’ sidecar that would be consistent with the effect he had described a loose bolt or fairing could cause.

Also giving evidence was David Molyneux, the most experienced sidecar racer around the TT course, who said that the Stocktons had been black flagged during last year’s TT due to concerns marshals had around their sidecar's bodywork being affected by the wind. 

He said that it was possible that if the fairing was damaged during the race, it could cause issues for a sidecar, making it difficult to control and this could not have been picked up during pre-race scrutiny. 

The inquest continues this afternoon at Douglas Courthouse.