“At the end of the war, I was told, ‘What do you want to be? Do you want be a wireman or an insulation inspector or what?’” Stan Dibben said. “And I said, ‘To hell with it, I wanna ride motorbikes.’” And ride them, Dibben did. As the “passenger” on a sidecar motorcycle racing team, he was the co-winner of the World Sidecar Championship in 1953. In that time, that meant skimming the ground with your bare chin, brushing up against trackside bushes, and just generally hoping to avoid “being thrown into orbit” with a high-side, as Dibben so eloquently states it.
As part of National Geographic’s Short Film Showcase last year, filmmaker Cabell Hopkins chatted with Dibben about the sidecar racing and his life, even putting Dibben back on a modern sidecar racer for a few laps around the Mallory Park circuit. It’s a well-spun story with plenty of old archive footage to demonstrate that while sidecar racing is still insane, it was probably an order of magnitude crazier 60+ years ago. Try not to get a little misty-eyed when he walks through the paddock and the PA announces him as “World Sidecar Champion.” We should all wish to be able to hang onto the back of a screaming sportbike at 86 years old like Stan Dibben.
that. was. AWESOME… look at him hanging it out there
at the 5.10 mark—-at 86 years old?!?!!! hope im half that
good when im his age! that was just awesome.
That is a great story, so glad it is getting told. How many more are out there? My guess is thousands.