Birchall brothers bag pole position

iFIM Sidecar World Championship 2015.
Round One, Donington Park, England.

With the sun shining, but a cold wind, the first round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship got under way at Donington Park in England.

Ben and Tom Birchall will start from pole position on their “Mitchells of Mansfield” LCR, Suzuki.  The Brothers had a trouble free qualifying, and they managed to improve on their first qualifying time.  They set a time of 1:09.668.  Both Ben and Tom are really looking forward to the 22 lap race tomorrow.

Starting next to the Birchall Brothers will be Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze on their “Team E-Aide Motorsport” LCR, Kawasaki; they set a time of 1:09.743, only .075 down on the pole time.  The team did not have any problems during the two qualifying sessions; both Tim and Greg are looking forward to the
race with Tim saying “It should be a good battle tomorrow if today is anything to go by”

Starting from third on the grid will be Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood on their “AOS/Be Wiser” LCR, Kawasaki, the team are really happy with their placing and hope that they get a good result in the race, driver Stevens said “We had old tyres on for the session and we went really well, a podium tomorrow would be fabulous for the team, let’s hope we can do well”.

Alongside Stevens and Charlwood will be Ben Holland and Lee Watson with their “Finning Cat” LCR, Kawasaki, the team are reasonably happy with the times, but in the second qualifying session the team had to pit with a mechanical problem, but they are looking forward to the race tomorrow.
Heading the third row will be Pekka Paivarinta and Kirsi Kainulainen on their “44-Racing” LCR, BMW, they set a time of 1:12.134.  The team were happy with today and hope to have a trouble free race and fight for a podium place.

Next to Paivarinta and Kainulainen will be Bennie Streuer and Geert Koerts they set a time of 1:13.380 in the first qualifier on their “Team Streuer” LCR, Suzuki.  The team did not improve their time in the second qualifier; the team were struggling with and electrical problem throughout the session.

Heading the fourth row will be John Holden and Andy Winkle on their “John Holden Racing” LCR, Suzuki.  
The team are happy with this and hope to improve in the race, with a new bike and engine the team are still getting used to the machine; they set a time of 1:13.894.

Alongside Holden and Winkle will be Uwe Gurck and Manfred Wechselberger on their “Polizei Sport Verein/Gurck Racing” LCR, BMW, they set a time of 1:14.487.  The team did not have any problems in the two qualifying sessions, but the lack of testing before the season has left them trailing a bit on track time, but the team are looking forward to the race.

Tomorrow sees a 22 lap race starting at 14.00 hours local time.
Follow the race with live timing on  http;//livetiming.tsl-timing.com/151580