TT sidecar stars dominate championship standings after rain-hit opening round
Wednesday 11 April 2012
TT
Top TT sidecar competitors led the way on the opening round of the British F1 Sidecar Championship at Brands Hatch at the weekend.
Tim Reeves, partnered by Ashley Hawes, took a hard-earned victory in the second race, while Birchall brothers Ben and Tom scored two superb second places, putting them at the top of the championship standings.
Reeves and Hawes took seventh in race one, after spinning out of second, and a dominant victory in race two to secure second place in the points table.
Sunday’s opening race was held in wet conditions, but that didn’t stop Reeves taking the lead on lap one. Soon, however, the Birchalls were reeling him in and on lap 5 they passed for the lead.
As the track dried, Reeves and Hawes started suffering due to their tyres, and span on lap 10. They fell back to ninth, but managed to secure seventh and 9 valuable points at the flag.
Meanwhile, Mansfield brothers Tom and Ben were also suffering with their tyres as the track dried. On lap 12 they were caught and passed by Roger Lovelock/Rick Lawrence, who held on for the win.
Monday’s second race was held in heavy rain with the added challengte of oil and fuel on the circuit from the earlier solo races.
Despite that, Reeves and Hawes burst through from seventh on the grid to take the lead at Druids Bend, less than a third of the way around the first lap.
They steadily increased their lead over the Birchalls in second place until, on lap 8, they hit backmarkers. That saw the gap cut down from 2.2 seconds to just 0.5s with four laps to go.
However, when the track cleared again Reeves and Hawes pulled away to take victory by more than 2 seconds.
Despite missing out on the win, another second place gave the Birchalls the overall championship lead.
Reeves said:
“It's been a tough few days with all the bad weather whilst the oil and fuel that had been laid down on Monday made track conditions even worse - I've never known anything as slippy!”
“The bike was working brilliantly throughout and pole position was the perfect start so I felt confident for the two races. In Sunday's I opted for wet tyres, which proved to be the wrong choice, and then I nearly ran into the back of Ben at Clearways. In my efforts to miss him, I spun the outfit and then, like a complete novice, I pulled the lanyard out and stalled the outfit!”
“Getting back up to 7th was the best I could do, but got me some valuable points.”
He added:
“In Monday's race I made, perhaps, my best start ever and once I hit the front I was able to control the gap and bring the bike home.”
“It's great to get a win under our belts so a big thanks to the team and especially to Ash who did a mega job all weekend."
Ben Birchall said:
“This weekend has been very difficult for everyone. In the second race the conditions were the worse I have ever ridden in. I am not the most comfortable rider in the wet, but we gave it our best shot.”
“Our winter testing and development programme enabled us to keep up the pace and push Reeves all the way but towards the end of the race the backmarkers came into play and we were held up slightly at Druids.”
“I had to bear in mind the fact that we have the first round of the World Championship this coming weekend at Magny Cours in France and I knew I had to keep it safe and not put that in jeopardy.”
“I realised that with two second places here we could take the overall win and the championship lead so didn’t want to push any harder than necessary and perhaps spin off.”
The Birchalls will be in action at Magny Cours on Saturday morning at the opening round of the World Sidecar Championship, as will Reeves and Hawes.