Isle of Man TT sidecar star swaps to two wheels for next month's Classic event

It has been confirmed 14-time Sidecar TT winner Ben Birchall will tackle next month’s Classic TT as a solo competitor.

Birchall is set to swap three wheels for two in the event’s Historic Junior class.

The in-form Dean Harrison heads an entry that also includes fellow TT stars Michael Dunlop MBE, John McGuinness MBE, Peter Hickman, Jamie Coward and Davey Todd amongst those on the entry list.

The latter will be hoping to be fit after being ruled out of the majority of the road racing season with the injuries sustained in a crash at the Daytona 200 in March.

After Manx Grand Prix qualifying begins on the afternoon of Sunday, August 16, practice for the Classic TT is scheduled to start with two single familiarisation laps on August 17 and 18, alongside MGP qualifying, before the first full session takes place the following day (August 19).

Six classes will be raced at next month’s Classic with the ultra-lightweight and Junior 600 classes new for 2026.

That breadth of machinery has helped attract an entry featuring multiple TT winners, podium finishers, class specialists and emerging stars for the two-week festival of racing.

The festival will once again culminate in the Senior Classic TT on the afternoon of Friday, August 28, which is open to machines eligible for the Formula One and Lightweight classes and brings together the fastest 60 riders from across the event.

Fresh from a superb Southern 100 debut, Hickman’s only previous Classic TT appearance came in 2015 while Michael Rutter also makes a welcome return to the Mountain Course after injury forced him out of last year’s event.

Shaun Anderson, Michael Sweeney, Brian McCormack and the Manx pairing of Michael Evans and Joe Yeardsley should also be well to the fore whilst the F1 class will again have a plethora of overseas talent including the evergreen Stefano Bonetti, Amalric Blanc, Julian Trummer, David Datzer, Timothee Monot, Maurizio Bottalico, Michal Dokoupil and Horst Saiger.

Dunlop has also entered the Historic Senior race where he’ll be joined by, amongst others, Dean Harrison, last year’s race winner Browne, McGuinness, Todd, Coward, Conor Cummins, Johnson, Herbertson, Yeardsley, Evans and Jordan. Another rider set to feature is Derek McGee who’ll make a return to the Mountain Course for the first time since 2019.

Classic specialists Will Loder, Harley Rushton, Phil McGurk, Andy Hornby and impressive newcomer from last year Jeffrey Vermeulen will also contest the three-lap race.

Dunlop, victor 12 months ago, should be the main front runners in the Lightweight race where the highly popular 250cc machines are expected to dominate.

The concurrently run Ultra-Lightweight race will see the 400cc machines of yesteryear well to the fore with the likes of Nathan Harrison, McGee, Yeardsley, Perry and Rushton on board whilst Todd and Hickman have both entered the class too. New for 2026, 125cc machines are included too with Don Gilbert, German newcomer Chris Meyer, Tizano Rosati and Tom Snow all confirmed entries.

The Junior 600cc race which will take place for the first time is set to feature many of the favourite middleweight machines from the nineties including the Honda CBR600 and Yamaha YZF-R6 taken to victory during the decade by the likes of Phillip McCallen, Ian Duffus, Jim Moodie, Ian Simpson and David Jefferies.

As expected, the class has garnered great interest with over 60 entries including those from Dunlop, Todd, Herbertson, Yeardsley, Evans, Hodson, Marcus Simpson and Anderson. McCormack, Barry Furber, James Chawke, Johnny Stewart and Michael Russell are also on the entry list as are Ryan Whitehall, Paul Cassidy and overseas visitors Julien Cregniot and Laurent Hoffmann.