Sidecar world champions set for Isle of Man TT debut

Currently the dominant force on three wheels, the Anglo-French pairing, who have taken 15 Grand Prix victories and 38 podiums🐽 in the last three seasons, will contest the two 3Wheeling.Media S൩idecar Races.
Ellis first came to promineღnce in the 2018 season when the now 29-year old finished second in the British Sidecar Championship, and a year later he took the title for the first time with 11 wins and 18 podiums from the 20 races.
A shortened 2020 British Championshipꦺ season saw Ellis settle for second before joining forces with leading French female passenger Clemen꧂t for the first time in 2021, with the pairing going on to have a superb debut season together.
Ellis joined the World Championship for the first time and took a brilliant second place with a single victory backed up by 11 further podiums. Third place was the outcome in that year’s British Championsh🐠ip with four wins and 6 podiums.
The partnership went from strength to strength in 2022, with 9 wins and 15 podiums seeing them crowned World Champions for the first tim𝓀e. 12 wins and 15 podiums in the British Championship ensured they also wrapped up that title to complete an unprecedented double.
Their current dominance of the three-wheel scene w𓆉as then seen further as they successfully defended both titles in 2023 – 5 wins and 11 podiums in the World Championship seeing them get the better of TT stars, Ben and Tom Birchall. Meanwhile, winning all 12 of the British Championship races they contested enabled Ellis to take his third British title and Clement her second.
The a༒ddition of the double British and World Champions to the TT entry list adds strength and depth to a grid that continues to lap the Island at record pace, but it’s a challenge the newcomer pairing doesn’t take lightly.
Todd 𒆙Ellis: “[The TT] has been on my mind for a number of years. My step-dad (Sidecar Driver, Gary Bryan) has competed at the TT for a long time so I’ve been visiting it for over 20 years now, but being there in 2023 was the f🐲irst time where I started to properly think about doing it myself.”
“There’s a lot of learning to be done, particularly the gears and the bumps and the number of blind corners, but this isn’t a bucket list thing for me. It’s a long-term plan for the next 10 or 15 years, ဣso who knows where we’ll end up!”
Emmanuelle Clementও: “I first came across in 2022 to support Gary [Bryan] and then came back in 2023 to help the team out for the full two weeks. It was then that we did some laps with Dean and Conrad Harrison and the idea of competing became more of a reality.”
“It’s a huge challenge bu🌳t I’m very close to Melanie Farnier (TT Sidecar passenger since 2015 and fastest female passenger) and we have a fantastic group of people around us which I think will really help our learning and progress.”

James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports fo🐼r a decade covering everything from American spo✱rts, to football, to F1.