Epic Sidecar head-to-head battle set for 2025 Southern 100
Ben Birchall has confirmed his plans to race at this year’s Southern 100 road races.
This year’s Southern 100 road races will see Ben Birchall go up against Ryan and Callum Crowe in the Sidecar class.
The Crowe brothers won their first TT in 2024, and ultimately went unbeaten at last year’s edition of the world’s best-known road race.
For Birchall, the streak of success he’d enjoyed with his own brother, Tom Birchall, ended in 2023 when the latter announced his retirement from racing, having won 14 TTs together with Ben, with whom he’d also become part of the first Sidecar pair to lap the TT Mountain Course at an average speed of 120mph.
While Tom entered racing retirement in 2024, Ben carried on with new passenger Kevin Rousseau, and it’s with the Frenchman that he intends to race at this year’s 70th anniversary edition of the Southern 100.
Birchall and Rousseau won both races at last year’s Southern 100, on which occasion Birchall was making a return to the Billown Course after seven years away.
"Kevin is a very good passenger, what the likes of him does is amazing," Ben told Isle of Man Today.
"They have to be in the right place at the right time. If they’re in the wrong place you know about it. I’m hoping he is going to do a lot more with me going forward."
On the solo side, this year’s Southern 100 will also feature Dean Harrison on a Superstock-spec Honda CBR1000RR-R and a CBR600RR in the Supersport class, both prepared by himself. He’ll be looking to add a fourth solo title to his tally in 2025.
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
