Birchalls' blazing pace lights up sidecar qualifying
The first sidecar session of the day got underway at 12.40pm and, although Dave Molyneux/Dan Sayle elected to miss the session, the Birchall brothers made their intentions clear with an opening lap of 114.61mph.
However, on their second lap, the Mansfield pair stopped at the 11th Milestone to make adjustments and Alan Founds/Jake Lowther were quickest second time around at 112.703mph.
Alan’s brother Pete, with Jevan Walmsley in the chair, was also above 110mph as were John Holden/Lee Cain despite suffering from grip issues. Steve and Matty Ramsden were also in excess of 110mph whilst Lewis Blackstock/Patrick Rosney set a new, unofficial personal best lap at 109.091mph.
In what was an extremely busy day, the last main session of the evening saw the F2 sidecars out once more and the Birchalls got close to their own lap record with a lap of 116.675mph. Holden/Cain also improved to 115.110mph to move up to second fastest for the week with Founds/Lowther also going great guns with a lap of 113.746mph.
Tim Reeves/Mark Wilkes and Peter Founds/Jevan Walmsley also broke the 113mph barrier.
The sidecar crew’s will get a final chance to prepare with a 1 lap qualifying session at 16.25 ahead of Monday’s rescheduled Sure Sidecar Race 1.