Tributes have been paid to island motorcycle racer and TT podium finisher Gary Carswell, who was killed in a practice accident at Jurby at the weekend.
Mr Carswell, a 45-year-old engineering technician with the water authority, was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to Noble’s Hospital after the accident on Saturday morning.
Andreas Racing Association chairman Gordy Moore said police were investigating the incident and the club would conduct its own enquiries as well.
Manx Motor Cycle Club chairman Harvey Garton added his voice to the tributes.
‘He was one of those people you regularly came across and it is a huge, huge shock,’ he said.
‘We heard a mention on the radio on Saturday evening so we went on to the web and discovered the terrible news. It seems so cruel that having raced as he did on the Mountain Course in the Manx and then the TT – so that’s a lot of racing miles – he should lose his life in an accident like that at Jurby.
A TT spokesman said Mr Carswell, a father of one from Ballure, Maughold, had finished 25th in last year’s Senior TT and was to have competed in three races at this year’s event.
David Cretney MHK was tourism minister at the time of Mr Carswell’s TT podium and knew him well. He said: ‘I really liked Gary. He was a real character. He had one or two accidents but always bounced back. Everyone loved him, he was a great guy. I saw him recently at the 80th birthday party of Des Collins, who had sponsored him, and we had a chat. Of course, we are all thinking of his family at this time.’
Saturday’s racing was abandoned at Jurby after a spate of accidents left insufficient ambulance cover. Plans to run a reduced meeting on Sunday were abandoned after the poor weather failed to improve in time. Andreas Racing Association is now hoping to run an extra meeting for those riders still requiring TT Mountain Course licence signatures.
