Australia`s Beare joins TT death toll

London: Australian sidecar rider Dwight Beare, 27, has become the first racer to be killed in this year`s Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) races, organisers said Saturday, adding to a death toll involving nearly 250 people in more than a hundred years of racing.

Saturday`s statement issued by race organisers ACU said: "ACU Events Ltd regrets to announce that Australian sidecar driver Dwight Beare, 27, originally from Melbourne, Australia who was a resident of Onchan in the Isle of Man was killed following an accident near Rhencullen during today`s (Saturday`s) Sidecar Race 1 at the Isle of Man TT Races." 

Beare made his TT Races debut in 2014, achieving a 12th place in his second race on the Isle of Man when he competed with father Noel as his passenger. 

The pair returned to the Isle of Man TT last year, achieving a 17th place in the first sidecar race.

The statement added that Dwight Beare`s passenger on Saturday, Benjamin Binns, had been airlifted to hospital where he was described as "stable" with a fractured ankle. 

There have been nearly 250 fatalities, including more than 140 competitors, since TT motorcycle time-trial racing started on the streets of the Isle of Man, situated off the north-west coast of England, in 1907.

Safety concerns and boycotts by riders saw the Isle of Man stripped of its status as a world championship venue 40 years ago.

Nevertheless, the annual two-week event on the Isle of Man is still regarded as the pinnacle of motorcycle street racing, with competitors in all classes routinely exceeding speeds of well over 100 miles per hour (161kph).