FIM Sidecar World Championship.
Estoril, Portugal.
Race one report.
The heavens opened and the track was awash with water for the morning warm up. Teams took to the track but came straight in, not even completing one lap, except for Pekka Paivarinta and Ilse de Haas, they could not see the pit lane entry as the visibility was so bad, they had to endure floods on track for another lap. Remarkably the skies got brighter as the morning went on, there was a warm wind blowing, this was to help dry the track and by the time the sidecar teams took to the track for the race it was completely dry.
As the lights went out it was Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries who took the lead with pole sitters Stephen Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood right on their tail, Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement were next up with Ted and Vincent Peugeot next. The Christie brothers Sam and Tom were next with Pekka Paivarinta and Ilse de Haas next, Harry Payne and Callum Crowe were right in the wheel tracks of Paivarinta and De Haas, Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer were next up, there was a gap then it was Claude Vinet and Christophe Pouillot, Kevin Kable and Charlie Richardson were alongside, Philippe Le Bail and Serge Levean were next up with Rupert Archer and Steve Thomas next, Pierre Leguen and Leopold Rouby were at the back.
By the third corner on lap one Ellis and Clement nipped up the inside of Schlosser and Fries for the lead, Kershaw and Charlwood tried to follow but Schlosser/Fries held them off, the Peugeot’s were trying to go round the outside of the second and third teams, three sidecars will go round a corner side by side!
Ellis and Clement were to keep the lead from Schlosser and Fries, Kershaw and Charlwood managed to get by Schlosser/Fries too. The top places did not change until lap six when Kershaw and Charlwood took the lead from Ellis and Clement, then one lap later Schlosser and Fries took second from Ellis and Clement.
There was a great battle going on for 4th, 5th and 6th places between the Peugeot’s, the Christie brothers and Wyssen and Hofer, these three teams managed to break away from Paivarinta and De Haas, who were in the mix at the beginning of the race making it a four bike battle.
It was to turn out a lonely race in the end for Paivarinta and De Haas, they got into seventh place at the start of the race and were to finish in seventh place. They hit problems with rear tyre grip as their race continued.
Another team who had a lonely race was Harry Payne and Callum Crowe, they struggled with lack of power from their machine.
Cable and Richardson were locked in battle with Vinet and Pouillot and Le Bail and Levean, but Le Bail /Levean were to fall back leaving Cable/Richardson, Vinet/Pouillot to battle it out as they have all season, they were to swap places numerous times during the race. The two teams have great respect for each another.
Archer and Thomas were another team out on their own, but considering they only did two laps in qualifying, and the lack of track time for them this was okay for them.
Leguen and Rouby were on their own too at the back of the field.
The battle at the front raged on with the three teams passing and repassing, but lap ten was to be a crucial lap as Schlosser and Fries took the lead and started to break away from Kershaw and Charlwood with Ellis and Clement trying their best to pass for second, but these two teams were starting to get tyre problems, this was to slow them, leaving Schlosser and Fries to make a good gap at the front.
Wyssen and Hofer with the Peugeot’s managed to start making a small gap from the Christie brothers, but the Christie brothers were not out of the battle yet, they hung on to the back of the two teams in front.
As the race was coming to an end Schlosser and Fries were well in command from the two pursuing teams.
On lap 17 Ellis and Clement managed to pass Kershaw and Charlwood for second spot, but there was no chance they would catch Schlosser and Fries, but they had to watch also, as Kershaw and Charlwood were pushing them all the way.
The chequred flag came out to the delight of Schlosser’s team on pit wall and to the delight of Schlosser and Fries, they took a great win and they also had the fastest lap of the race, a time of 1:46.081.
Ellis and Clement managed just, to stay in front of Kershaw and Charlwood for second. It was a great race between the three top teams in the championship, but they have it all to do again tomorrow. The championship will be decided then. Ellis and Clement lead with 345 points, Schlosser and Fries have 304 in second and Kershaw and Charlwood have 252 in third. And it is double points again tomorrow.
The battle for fourth place went to the line with Wyssen and Hoffer just keeping in front of the Peugeot’s, it was a great battle.
The Christie brothers were not far off the two in front either; they took a great sixth place.
Paivarinta and De Haas took a lonely seventh with Payne and Crowe a lonely eighth.
Vinet and Pouillot got the better of Cable and Richardson for ninth place, another great battle throughout the whole race.
Le Bail Levean took eleventh place, Archer and Thomas twelfth, with Leguen and Rouby thirteenth.
The race for the championship will start at 16.00 local time, and it will be 18 laps.