It was a good day to go racing; overnight thunder storms had cleared the air. But 21 laps was still going to be a long race.
Some teams had worked well into the early hours making adjustments. Pekka Paivarinta and Jussi Veravainen were still working on their machine at 3am; they had to repair some parts of their chassis.
As the sidecar teams lined up on the grid there was a nice breeze blowing into their faces. The lights went out and it was the Birchall Brothers, Ben and Tom, who got the perfect start. Pekka Paivarinta and Jussi Veravainen slotted in behind the Birchall Brothers. Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries got a good start and edged ahead of Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes, Bennie Streuer and Kevin Rousseau got in behind Reeves and Wilkes, Joseph Sattler and Uwe Neubert got up alongside Streuer and Rousseau. But their race was to stop abruptly after only four corners when the pulled off track with a mechanical failure. Next up were three teams lined up side by side. On the inside was Sam and Adam Christie, in the middle was Kees Endeveld and Jeroen Remme, and on the outside was Paul Leglise and Emmanuelle Clement, it turned out that they were in the right place on the track, There was some contact between the Christie Brothers and Endeveld and Remme. Endeveld and Remme were to run wide into the first corner with some fiber glass flying from their bodywork. They rejoined the rest of the pack in last place, but they were still in the race. Rupert Archer and Stephen Thomas had a good start and had a small gap before it was Peter Kimeswenger and Jens Lehnertz, next up was Jakob Rutz and Bjorn Bosch, then it was Rasmus Dombernowsky and Rekola Annsi.
The first half of the race was a bit hectic at the front. The Birchall Brothers were out in front, and they were to manage their race strategy well. It was all going on behind though, between Reeves and Wilkes and Paivarinta and Veravainen. Reeves/Wilkes looked like they had a problem in the early laps going down the start finish straight, Reeves sat up in his machine, but then all seemed to be good again, but they had to go at some pace to catch Paivarinta and Veravainen. They did catch up and made a pass into the last corner, but they were a bit hot going in and they ended up running wide, they had it all to do again.
Lap seven saw Dombernowsky and Annsi pull into pit lane for a DNF. And lap eight saw Paul Leglise and Emmanuelle Clement pull off track with brake problems. They had a bit of a moment running across the kitty litter on the previous lap, due to their brake problem. Lap seventeen of the race saw Bennie Streuer and Kevin Rousseau pull in for a DNF, this was due to an electrical problem. It was a great pity for the team because they were sitting in a good fifth place throughout the race.
The only battle really going on through the race was between Reeves/Wilkes and Paivarinta/Veravainen, The Birchall Brothers were out in front, and all the other teams left in the race were all on their own. The Birchall Brothers were delighted to take the chequred flag for the race win, they stayed well out of trouble and their race plan worked right to the end.
Reeves and Wilkes got passed Paivarinta and Veravainen for second place, and they kept this place till the end, but they still had a problem with their machine cutting out then restarting, this was to happen three times during the race. The team had the fastest lap of the race, a time of 1:31.996.
Paivarinta and Veravainen took the third place, they fought hard for this place and were not so happy, but they had a lot of work through the night to their machine, and it is a good solid result with good points for their championship campaign. Fourth place went to Schlosser and Fries, they had a very lonely race, but again, a good solid result for the team. Another great result for the Christie Brothers, Sam and Adam. They took fifth place. Good points for their championship.
The next four teams were all one lap down when they crossed the line, but none the less all good points for them. Rupert Archer and Stephen Thomas had a trouble free race and crossed the line in sixth place, their best result so far in the championship. Seventh place went to Endeveld and Remme, they regrouped after their small miss hap on the first lap, another finish with good points for the team in their first full season in the championship. Rutz and Bosch took eighth place. They had a nice battle in the beginning of the race with the team who took ninth place Kimeswenger and Lehnertz.
The next round will be at “Assen” Holland, August 18th. The following weekend, the 25th, it will be Croatia. So it will be a busy month for the teams.
Mark "Wally" Walters