TT Sidecar regulars gear-up for 2013 season
With less than 2 months to go until the 2013 Isle of Man TT fuelled by Monster Energy, sidecar regulars Ben and Tom Birchall will get their season under way this weekend.
The Mansfield brothers will be at Brands Hatch in Kent for the opening meeting of the British F1 Sidecar Championship, which features 2 races on the short and technical Indy circuit.
Ben said:
“With continued input from our loyal sponsors, in particular Andy Mitchell of Mitchells of Mansfield who has dug deep to help us update our machinery, we are pleased to say that we have been able to purchase some new 2012 Suzuki engines and we have been over to Switzerland to work alongside Louis Christen to install the engines in the new LCR chassis.”
After considerable testing in Europe during the winter months the outfit is fully prepared and running like clockwork. The Birchalls are looking forward to putting the LCR Suzuki through its paces under race conditions.
Ben added:
“Our test programme has gone really well.”
“The new Suzuki engine is superb and the new LCR chassis is also spot on, we can’t wait to get started. It will be a hectic couple of weeks for us as we take in the 2 races at Brands Hatch and then head directly to Spain to contest the first round of the FIM World Championship, which runs as a support to the World Superbike Championship round at Aragon.”
Free practice at Brands Hatch takes place on Friday, followed on Saturday by a 20 minute qualifying session ahead of the first race, over 15 laps. The feature race, over 18 laps, starts at 5.25pm on Sunday.