Birchall Brothers all the way

With overcast skies, but still very warm a large crowed gathered for the 10 lap sprint race. From the lights going out it was Brothers Ben and Tom Birchall on their “Mitchells of Mansfield” LCR, Suzuki, who took command of the race and were not troubled through out. They got the start they wanted and led all the way, and set the fastest lap of the race in lap 4, with a time of 1:31.213. The only threat to them was from Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni towards the end of the race but the Brothers, Ben and Tom were in control through out, and crossed the line with a 2.273 gap between them and Paivarinta. After the race Ben said, “We needed that win to set us up for the big race tomorrow, the bike is great, I don’t think we will need to do any adjustments for tomorrow” Tom was really happy, saying “I enjoyed that race, it was a great warm up for tomorrow, and its good points for the team” Second place went to Paivarinta and Hanni on the “Team Suzuki Finland” LCR, Suzuki, they got a good start to the race and sat in second place through out. “We had no problems in the race, the bike was good, I am driving 100 percent trying to get all I can from the machine, but just can’t get past Ben and Tom, they are racing really well, we will have another go tomorrow” said Pekka. Adolf was happy with the race, no problems for him. The last spot on the podium went to Jorg Steinhausen and Ashley Hawes on their “Steinhausen Racing” LCR, BMW. They had a bit of a battle on when the lights went out they slotted into fourth spot behind Scott Lawrie and James Neave and they had to fight hard to get past, when they did they tried really hard to catch the leading pair, but with only 10 laps there was not enough time and had to be content with third. Jorg said later “It is frustrating we are racing really well, the bike is good but we can’t just get to the leading pair, we will just need to try again tomorrow” Ashley also said “we are a good team together, I am happy with the race but need to be up front, another race tomorrow, we will try again” Crossing the line in fourth place was “Team SLR” LCR, Suzuki of Scott Lawrie and James Neave, they had another good start slotting into third place from fifth on the grid, the tried hard to fend off Steinhausen and Hawes, and it was looking good for a podium spot, but when Steinhausen managed to get by, he started to pull away and this left Lawrie and Neave in fourth and a good gap between them and fifth, but they could not be to complacent about the position as fifth place team of Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker on their “Hock Racing” LCR, Suzuki, were catching them fast, and they were getting a bit of pressure from “Team Makkula”. Lawrie said after the race “we had another good start, but I did not have the power to stay in front of Steinhausen and Hawes, when they passed us I just could not stay with them, but the race was good and its good points for us too” Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker were really happy with the fifth place, Enrico said “maybe if there was some more laps we could have caught and passed Scott and James, but I am really happy with the race, it is my first race since the crash we had in Croatia” Kurt too was really pleased how things went “the bike was good, no problems, and the lap times were not so bad, maybe a podium place tomorrow” Taking the chequered flag in sixth place was Petri Makulla and Timo Karttiala on their LCR, BMW they crossed the line just behind Hock and Becker, happy with the race, but they wanted more power out of the corners, they are looking forward to the longer race tomorrow though. There will be a 21 lap “Gold Race” tomorrow, and the weather could change, with the possibility of rain forecast, it could be a very interesting race.