HARDWARE
Harry Payne and Mark Wilkes – World Championship contenders and TT Newcomers for 2022. Who are they? What’s happening in a shed on the Isle of Man? Contributor: Lucas Croydon THE HISTORY Harry Payne and Mark Wilkes have each made their name known in the sidecar paddock individually, before teaming up at end of 2020 to forge an enviable partnership. After Mark won the world championship in 2019 with his former teammate ‘Tim Reeves’, He took up the opportunity of parenting multiple TT winner Dave Molyneux, however due to Covid restrictions this did not come to fruition. Harry however competed locally and picked up his first IOM Centre Championship in his debut year as a sidecar driver. Harry and Mark first teamed up for the Sidecar BurnUp at Lydden in October 2020, and quickly established themselves as the “ones to watch”. Over the winter of 2020 and during many nights in the garage a plan for 2021 was hatched and an assault on the British F2 championship was agreed. They did fantastic by finishing a tremendous 2nd overall in the series and actually winning the ‘cup’ catergory. They scored ‘cup class’ wins in every race they finished and this proved the pairing were set for great things.
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The solid season was backed up with 3 wildcards in the FIM World Championship on different machinery, the latter being a win in Estoril Portugal in October 2021 on a borrowed bike! These great achievements stood out particularly to one of their sponsors DAO Holdings (Sommai Nantakoon) who then decided to up her involvement considerably, forming the new team DAO1886 (pronounced Dow 18 86)... the new team is cool collaboration between DAO Racings Sommai Nantakoon, and her close friends James and Diane of 1886 Bar, Grill and Cocktail Lounge in Douglas. Harry and Mark, under this new banner, will be lead ambassadors for the official DAO Racing Team (formerly Silicone Racing; 2019 Senior TT winners with Dean Harrison). The new team operates from an Isle of Man workshop and is managed by Linda Alton-Heath well known for her work with Andreas Racing Association at Jurby and Klaus Klaffenbocks (Klaffi) event management company RP Events. The new team will contest the 2022 FIM World Championship and 3wheeling.media sidecar races at the 2022 IOM TT.
ISLE OF MAN PREMIER MAGAZINE
