Today: An Introduction to Sidecar Racing!

The other day I saw a cell phone commercial featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Phil Jackson and Jesse James. The sight of Jesse made me think of an episode of his fun little show on Spike TV, "Jesse James is a Dead Man", where he was the co-pilot for a sidecar race where it was as much his responsibility for guiding the vehicle as it was for the guy officially steering the damn thing. (Trust me, these are not the same sidecars you saw in reruns of "Batman" from the 60s - these cars are high tech and built for speed). And then I remembered that Superside World Championship was holding their final event of the season in France this last weekend, and I thought it was high time that I gave the sport of sidecar racing a little love in my blog.

While there are many different styles and leagues of sidecar racing, one of the better known organizations is Superside FIM Sidecar World Championship. Superside has been around for 60 years, and their championship race is held in a succession of rounds each year (racing season 2009 had 5) all over Europe and occasionally abroad as well. The race I referred to above was the final round of this year's championship, held over Labor Day weekend 2009 in Le Mans, France. While I haven't had much luck finding good clips from this weekend's event yet (although by tomorrow hopefully that situation may change), I thought I'd ease my fellow viewers into sidecar racing with a fun clip compilation from Superside, full of engines humming, helmet cams and a few spills and crashes along the way. It looks like a lot of fun, and I hope to one day try it myself.