Race One, Le Mans, France.
With brilliant sunshine beaming down on the 4,185km “Bugatti Circuit” at Le Mans, the Sidecar teams took to the track for the opening race of the 2022 championship. One team did not take their place on the grid, that was Harry Payne and Mark Wilkes, they had a big crash earlier in the day, both Payne and Wilkes were okay but their machine was a bit second hand, and the unfortunate part of the story was they were sitting in pole position. But the race was on.
As the lights went out it was Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau with their “Team Bonovo Action” Adolf RS, Yamaha, were first into the first series of bends, closely followed by Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement with their “Santander Salt Sidecar Team” LCR, Yamaha. A great start from Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch on their “Team Bonovo Action” Adolf RS, Yamaha. Slotting into fourth spot was Ted and Vincent Peugeot with their “FHC Competiotn” LCR Yamaha. Stephen Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood with their “Quattro Group” LCR, Yamaha were caught in the middle of Paul Leglise and Melanie Farnier with their “521 Competition” LCR, Yamaha, they were on the outside and on the inside was Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer with their “Gustoil Sidecar Racing Team” LCR, Yamaha, but Kershaw and Charlwood were to slot into the fifth spot. Janez Remse and Manfred Wechselberger with their “Remse Racing” Adolf RS” Yamaha had a good start slotting into eighth place just in front of Claude and Cyril Vinet on their “Team Vinet LKS Racing” LCR, Yamaha. Kevin cable and Charlie Richardson were next up with their “LW Racing” LCR, Yamaha followed by Cedric and Arnaud Pierard with their “Team Pierard” Adolf RS, Yamaha, then it was Philippe Le Bail and Serge Leveau on their “Team AutoTerca” LCR, Yamaha. Stephane and Tristan Gadet with their “LKS Racing” LCR, Kawasaki were just in front of Cedric and Arnaud Pierard with their “Team Pierard” Adolf RS, Yamaha.
No Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries? 10 to 15 seconds after the rest of the field had passed the team emerged from pit lane!
As the teams sorted them self out over the next few laps the leading bunch were evenly matched showing each and other the nose in the braking for the corners but they stayed in formation.
Reeves/Rousseau, Ellis/Clement, Streuer/ Kolsch, Kershaw/ Charlwood, Peugeot/Peugeot were starting to make a small gap over Liglise/ Farnier, and Wyssen/Hofer who were now in a close battle with Wyssen/Hofer desperately trying to pass. This battle was to go on for a few laps until eventually Wyssen/Hofer did make the pass stick.
Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries were on the move, by lap 9 they were up to seventh, but the gap up to sixth was a big one, but they persevered on at record braking pace.
At the front, Reeves/Rouseau and Ellis/Clement had broken free from the other teams, but not after Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch had made a bit for the lead, Reeves/Rousseau had ran a bit wide with Ellis /Clement with them, Streuer/Kolsch took the advantage but this was short lived they went back into third, this was certainly keeping the crowed well entertained as the three teams were three abreast heading into the bottom chicane. In the end though it was Reeves/Rousseau still with the advantage over Ellis/Clement with Streuer/Kolsch third.
Kershaw/Charlwood were in a battle to fend off Peugeot/Peugeot, by doing this they got the hurry on, passed and started to break the tow from them and gave chase to Streuer/Kolsch eventualy making the pass.
Janez Remse and Manfred Wechselberger were to enter pit lane with driver Remse suffering from leg cramp, they were to rejoin the race though albeit 2 laps down. Also to enter pit lane was Cedric and Arnaud Pierard, passenger Arnaud race leathers had burst open, they had assistance from their pit crew and rejoined the race 1 lap down.
By lap 14 Schlosser/Fries had fought their way up to sixth and chasing down Peugeot/Peugeot and Streuer/ Kolsch.
At the front Ellis and Clement had passed Reeves and Rousseau for the first place and started to make a gap. Kershaw and Charlwood were in third place.
Ted and Vincent Peugeot were in battle with Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch, coming into the last section of the circuit Peugeot/Peugeot got into a slide making them spin, their machine suddenly kicked back and came back onto the racing line, this caused Streur/Kolsch to make unavoidable contact, both teams were out of the race for DNF’s. This was to now to put a fast charging Schlosser/ Freis up to fourth in the race.
As the chequred flag came out it was an overjoyed Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement who took the race win with Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau taking the second place.
Stephen Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood were sitting good in third place but unbelievably Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries had caught them on the last lap of the race and made the pass for third overall in the race, they also took the lap record with a time of 1:43.812, The reason for the team joining the race so far down was that their clutch cable had broken. Kershaw/Charlwood took fourth.
Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer took a well-deserved fifth place infront of Paul Leglise and Melanie Farnier another well-deserved result in si
Claude and Cyril Vinet took a good seventh place, the team were very happy with this result.
A good result for Kevin Cable and Charlie Richardson, they took the flag for eighth place, again the team were really happy with this result.
Philippe Le Bail and Serge Leveau took ninth place, a very happy team after the race.
Tenth place went to Stephane and Tristan Gadet, very happy with this result they were.
Philippe Gallerne and Jean-Philipe Bouchard took eleventh place, again a very happy team.
Twelfth place went to Cedric and Arnaud Pierard good after their pit lane visit to secure the leathers of Arnaud.
Thirteenth place went to Janez Remse and Manfred Wechselberger, driver Janez was suffering after the race with leg cramp.
The second 18 lap race will start at 11:25 tomorrow morning.
Mark Walters/FIM