Isle of Man TT: Organisers confirm they wrongly identified competitor killed in crash during race

Organisers of the Isle of Man TT have confirmed they wrongly identified a competitor following a fatal accident at the weekend.

Originally on Saturday, it was announced French passenger Olivier Lavorel had been killed in a crash during a sidecar race with team-mate Cesar Chanal having been taken to hospital.

However, four days later, a new statement was issued clarifying that it was Chanal who died.

Lavorel remains in a critical condition in hospital in Liverpool and the families of both competitors have been informed.

The races around the island off the northwest coast of England have been run since 1907 and rank among the most dangerous in motorsport, with 259 fatalities in various events to date.

The annual motorcycle racing event returned for the first time since the COVID pandemic, but has been marred by the death of three competitors during this year's festival.

The statement said on Saturday during the opening lap of the first Sidecar Race of the 2022 Isle of Man TT Races, an accident at Ago's Leap involving outfit number 21 of Chanal and Lavorel resulted in the death of one of the competitors.

It said: "One of the competitors sustained injuries that would not support life and was sadly declared dead at the scene. The second competitor was unconscious with severe injuries".

"An initial identification procedure was conducted using established procedures and would appear to have resulted in a mistaken identification.

"We now believe it was Cesar Chanal who died at the scene of the accident on Saturday, June 4. Olivier remains in a critical condition and continues to receive treatment.”

The statement added that a “thorough review of the processes relating to the identification of competitors will take place in due course".

Alongside Chanal, Welsh rider Mark Purslow was killed in qualifying last week and Northern Ireland's Davy Morgan died after an accident in Monday's Supersport Race.