Isle of Man TT Sidecar stars dominate British Championship action
Tuesday 16 August 2011
TT
Isle of Man TT Sidecar stars dominated the latest round of the British Formula 1 Championship at Cadwell Park.
Tim Reeves and passenger Gregory Cluze claimed three victories from three starts, and they were followed home by the Birchall brothers Tom and Ben in each contest.
The Birchalls were delighted that, despite a misfire in their LCR 1000cc Yamaha outfit, they came away from the fifth round of the championship with 60 points and a move up to 3rd in the standings with three rounds left.
Qualifying was close, with the Mitchells of Mansfield-supported brothers denied pole position by a tenth of a second. They began the first race from the front row and shot off to a good start getting the hole shot into turn one ahead of Reeves/Cluze. They maintained the lead throughout the first half of the 10-lap race, but were finally overhauled by Reeves/Cluze on lap six.
Although the Mansfield brothers were very close they were unable to get past the championship leaders and had to settle for 2nd, just 0.8 of a second adrift
Sunday saw the outfits line up for race two, but a red flag halted proceedings on the first lap. At the restart Ben and Tom were not so quick off the line and were 3rd into turn one. However, as they headed down Park Straight they moved up into 2nd to give chase to leaders Reeves/Cluze.
With the bike suffering a misfire and down on power the Birchalls were unable to catch up and came in 2nd, with a 7 second advantage over the third place outfit.
The final race was delayed due to an accident involving a solo rider and had to be reduced to nine laps instead of the original 12.
Ben and Tom got the hole shot into turn one, but they were soon overhauled by Reeves/Cluze who were keen to take their third win of the weekend. The race was a close run affair between the top two outfits, with the Birchalls following in Reeves’ tyre tracks. On the approach to the Mountain Ben moved alongside Reeves on a couple of occasions, but was unable to make the move stick and had to settle for second place once again at the end of an exciting and enjoyable race between the two rivals.
Ben said:
“We were plagued with a misfire for most of the weekend, but we eventually rectified the fault in time for the last race – and it showed in the lap times. We were very close to Tim (Reeves) throughout the race, but yellow flags prevented us from taking the advantage at the end of Park Straight.”
“It seemed that every time we approached that section of the course the yellow flag was out and we were unable to make a pass. But it was a cracking race and we were lapping within a 10th of a second of each other throughout the nine laps and really enjoyed ourselves.”
“We were pleased to have the support of some of our sponsors for the Cadwell meeting this weekend, Mitchells of Mansfield, NAPIT and John Lawson who all enjoyed their time with us. We were keen to bring them a win, but sadly that eluded us this time.”
Next the team returns to World Championship action, where the Birchalls are second in the standings. Oschersleben in Germany hosts the penultimate round of the championship, which is due to take place from August 27 to 28.