The sidecar which was being raced by Roger and Bradley Stockton was showing signs of a clear and severe deformity before the crash that claimed their lives.

Coroner of Inquests Jayne Hughes reconvened the inquest into the deaths of the father-and-son team this afternoon.

The Stocktons died on the second lap of the sidecar race on Senior Race Day last year, with their machine crashing into the garden wall of a house on Quarterbridge Road shortly after Ago’s Leap.

Mrs Hughes heard evidence from David Hagen, the TT technical director and examiner of vehicles.

Mr Hagen said that having seen video evidence of the crash, he said a ‘clear and very severe’ deformation of the sidecar could be seen, however he said this would only have been evident at high speeds as the pressure put on it would lead to it to bend out of its usual shape.

He said that the fairing attached to the machine would have grown weaker the longer the race continued and this likely led to evidential contact with the sidecar’s tyre.

Mr Hagen added that it appeared that this was an issue before the race and that the machine showed signs that repairs had been attempted to correct the issue, but that these had only been effective ‘to a point’.

He also said that pre-race visual inspections wouldn’t have necessarily picked up the repair work.

Following questions of a representative of the Stocktons, Mr Hagen said that he would expect the issue to be ‘extremely difficult’ to see with the naked eye and that he had only been able to see it having viewed stills and slowed down footage.

Mrs Hughes had previously heard evidence from Ryan Crowe, who alongside his brother Callum competes in the TT as a sidecar racer, with Ryan as the driver.

Mr Crowe said he had seen images of the crash and that in his opinion, there was an issue with the Stockton’s sidecars fairing, an external structure added to increase streamlining on a high-performance vehicle.

He was also shown a photograph which he said showed a distortion to the front of the Stocktons’ sidecar that would be consistent with the effect he had described a loose bolt or fairing could cause.

However, Mr Hagen said that having viewed the footage, he was certain that the pin which holds this in place must have been present prior to the crash as otherwise the machine would have been ‘pretty much unrideable’.

That piece was never located but Mr Hagen said that given the devastating impact of the crash this wasn’t surprising.

Mr Hagen was asked by Mrs Hughes if he had reached his own conclusion about the crash and whether this had changed after viewing the footage. He said yes to both questions and that, in his opinion, the deformity of the machine was caused by wind pressure and that there were no other mechanical issues that would have caused the crash.

He said that the deformity was an ‘ongoing occurrence’ that hadn’t been successfully resolved despite attempts to do so.

The inquest also heard that while the machine was under strain going down Bray Hill, as it turned onto Quarterbridge Road, the surface area on which wind pressure would have been applied would increase, allowing further deformation.

Mrs Hughes will conclude the inquest on Friday afternoon.