The three weeks of TT racing on the island are over. Mike Roscher and his sidecar passenger Shaun Parker are taking home a 13th-place finish from last weekend’s first race and a 15th-place finish from the second race. One is heading back to Germany, the other to England. “It was wonderful again on the Isle of Man; apart from one rainy day, we had sunshine,” Roscher enthuses. He is currently fourth in the IDM Sidecar championship. But the 53-year-old simply can’t resist the annual trip to the British Isle of Man. This was his ninth appearance at the legendary Tourist Trophy.
Victories in both races went to the Birchall brothers, Tom and Ben; Friday’s win marked the siblings’ eighth on the Mountain Course. On their triumphant lap, the pair became the first sidecar team to break the 19-minute mark for a lap around the island. Their exact time was 18:59.018 minutes. At the same time, the British duo set a new record on the second of three laps, achieving an average speed of 119.250 miles per hour.
Mike Roscher reached 106 miles per hour on his F2 sidecar with a 600cc Suzuki engine. “With a standard engine,” he adds. Nevertheless, he’s already thinking about diving back into the TT adventure. “But by then, we’ll need more power.” For now, however, Roscher is focusing all his attention back on the IDM, which he’s competing in with the 1000cc sidecar and Anna Burkard on board.