Tragic Angus motorcycling star Andy Lawson will be laid to rest in his home town of Arbroath on Tuesday.
Fellow bikers are once again expected to converge on Angus to pay their respects to the 25-year-old road racer, who died following a crash in the Ulster Grand Prix just over a week ago.
Hundreds of riders from across Scotland and beyond accompanied the father-of two’s body home on its final journey from Dundee to Arbroath last Wednesday, with crowds of people lining the approach to the Angus town to honour the multiple champion.
The rider’s family has been overwhelmed by tributes which poured in following the tragedy on the high-speed Dundrod circuit, coming from across Scotland as well as passionate road racing areas including Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, where Andy won the Junior Manx Grand Prix in 2014.
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Roy Shirlaw, the managing director of leading Scots motorcycle firm Shirlaw’s, who backed the Angus talent, said the sport had lost a rider destined for the very top of road racing.
“The love and admiration for Andy has been mind-blowing but the scale of it, including what we saw when he came home on Wednesday, is nothing less than he deserved,” he said.
“We became involved with Andy about a year ago and he was definitely a guy who was going places in the sport.
“I’ve no doubt that the next step would have been to introduce him to a manufacturer as he carried on up the ranks of road racing. He was such a lovely guy and it is a tragedy he has gone.”
A celebration of the multiple Scottish champion’s life will be held at George Stewart’s Chapel of Rest on Millgate Loan, Arbroath, at 1pm tomorrow, before he is laid to rest at the town’s Eastern cemetery.
It is anticipated another large turnout of bikers will create a two-wheeled cortege through the town, and fellow racers from far afield are planning to join the emotional farewell to the young engineer. Mourners’ donations, in the place of floral tributes, will go towards road racing air ambulance charities.