With the sun shining down on the “FIM World Sidecar Championship” teams heading out on track for their sighting lap there was drama. “Team Early Grey” Eckart Rosinger and Steffen Werner had mechanical problems. Their machine had put oil onto the track; this resulted in a forty minuet delay to the start of the race, while track marshals cleaned up. Eventually when the race started, it was the Birchall Brother Ben and Tom who got the perfect start into the first series of bends on their “Birchall Racing” LCR, Yamaha. Pekka Paivarinta and Kirsi Kainulainen on their “44-Racing” LCR, Honda slotted into second place and gave chase to the Birchall Brothers. Bennie Streuer and Ilse De-Haas tagged onto the back of Paivarinta and Kainulainen, on their “Team Streuer” LCR, Honda. Lewis Blackstock and Patrick Rosney on their “Dave Holden Racing” LCR, Suzuki got a cracking start from eighth spot on the grid and leap frogged up to fourth spot, just in front of John Holden and Mark Wikes on their “Barnes/Sillicon Racing” LCR, Kawasaki. Michael Grabmuller and Sophia Kirchhofer on their “Polizeisportverein Wels Delta Racing Team” LCR, Yamaha were right on the tail of Holden and Wilkes. Scott Lawrie and Ben Hughes on their “Team SLR” LCR, Suzuki were trying their hardest to get round the outside of Grabmuller and Kirchhofer into the first corner, but had to back off and let Grabmuller/Kirchhofer take the place. Gunther Bachmaier and Helen Deeley had some contact with their “MSV-Schwanenstadt, PSV-Wels” LCR, Suzuki. Their sidecar wheel arch was pushed into the tyre resulting in smoke coming from their machine. They had to leave the track immediately, when they came to a halt the wheel arch was pushed back into place and the continued in the race, they were to finish in 12th place.
With Blackstock and Rosney getting a great start, Holden and Wilkes were keen to get by and give chase to Streuer and De-Haas. This did happen, and Grabmuller/Kirchhofer had the same idea as Holden/Wilkes. With these two teams passed and starting to pull away from the “Rookie Team”, Blackstock/ Rosney were increasingly under pressure from Lawrie/Hughes, who had Peter Kimeswenger and Jens Lehnertz on their “Austria Sidecar Racing-MRSC-Gunskirchen” LCR, Kawasaki, closing fast on their tail. In the closing stages of the race there was more drama. Teams were gesturing to track officials, could there be some fluid or oil on track again?
When the flag came out again it was the Birchall Brothers Ben and Tom who had taken a decisive win. They had the fastest lap of the race too, a time of 1:33.175. They led from start to finish and had no problems with their machine. After the race passenger Tom said “In the final laps I could see there was something on track but not sure what it was, thankfully the flag came out and all was good for us, we hope tomorrow will be a good race for us too”. Second place went to Paivarinta and Kainulainen, they had a lonely race, and with no chance in catching the Birchall Brothers, second was good for them. Their machine had no problems, and they hope they can maybe go one place better in tomorrow’s race.
Holden and Wilkes had passed Streuer/De-Haas for third place in the race. But when Streuer came to technical inspection after the race in fourth place, he said, “There was oil coming from Holden/Wilkes machine. I nearly went off track when the front of the machine slid under braking”. Scott Lawrie and Ben Hughes took fifth place, with Scott saying, “That was good, I really enjoyed that, we had a good battle to get here and we managed to catch and pass Michael and Sophia for the fifth place.
Grabmuller and Kirchhofer took sixth place. After the race Michael said, “With four laps to go I was sure there was oil on track, I found the track slippy. But sixth is ok, our bike had no problems, I hope we can go well tomorrow”. Kimeswenger and Lehnertz managed to overhaul Blackstock and Rosney for seventh place. The team were happy with this position and hope tomorrow will be the same if not better for them. Eighth place went to Blackstock and Rosney, the team were reasonably happy with this, but driver Blackstock said “We had no front end grip, this slowed us up, we could not get a new tyre for the front. I think if we had that, we could have been better placed. But it is good for us another finish, and good points for us”.
Ninth place went to Janez Remse and Robbie Shorter on their “Remse Racing” ARS, Yamaha. They were happy with this as it was their first race on the new machine. Passenger Shorter said “We are going steadily ahead, we are still getting to grips with the new bike, we are happy with the result and we go again tomorrow, let’s hope we can do the same or better”. Tenth place went to Estelle Leblond and Melanie Farnier on their “Racing Side” SGR, Suzuki. The team were happy with this result, with Estelle saying, “ I enjoyed the race, the bike was good, we had no problems with it, I hope we can have a good race tomorrow too”.
Eleventh place went to Jakob Rutz and Manuel Hirschi on their “Sidecar-Racing-Team-Rutz” LCR Yamaha. Driver Jakob said “It is a finish, okay I suppose, we would have liked a better result, but the machine was okay”. After the race all teams were at technical inspection. John Holden and Mark Wilkes had a big inspection to their machine. Oil had come from their machine in the closing stages of the race.
Driver, John, came out from the inspection and publicly apologized to all the other teams and team members for what had happened. The team did not know about the oil leak till the end of the race. The other teams after John’s statement applauded his honesty. Tomorrow there will be a 20 lap Gold Race, starting at 12:30 local time.
Mark Walters