FIM Sidecar World Championship 2015.

Round 2.
Le-Mans, France.
With only one week since the first round at Donington Park, the sidecar teams head to France to the 4.185km Buggati cirquit at Le-Mans, in conjunction with the 24 hour solo motorcycle race.  The teams will line up on the grid for an 18 lap race on Saturday starting at 11.30 local time.

Donington Park saw a new winner on the rostrum, Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood on their “AOS/Be Wiser” LCR, Kawasaki, took the 25 points to lead the championship.  Stevens and Charlwood will not be at Le-Mans as they were a wild card team for the event in Donington, and are concentrating on their main domestic championship in Britain.  Another wild card team on the rostrum were Ben Holland and Lee Watson with their “Cat Finning” LCR, Kawasaki, they took third place, and they too will not be contesting the Le-Mans round, as they like Stevens /Charlwood are concentrating on the British domestic championship

Second place went to the permanent team of Pekka Paivarinta and Kirsi Kainulainen on their “44-Racing” LCR, BMW, they will be hoping to capitalise on the 20 points from Donington Park and get a good result in Le-Mans, a good result could see them leading the championship.

After the round in Donington, the two top teams of Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze, “Team E-AIDE
Motorsport” LCR, Kawasaki, and Ben and Tom Birchall, “Mitchells of Mansfield” LCR, Suzuki had a great battle all through the race swapping places for the lead.  On lap 17 of the race, contact between the two teams resulted with the Birchall Brothers arriving down pit lane with a rear wheel puncture resulting in a DNF.  Reeves/Cluze continued in the race to cross the line in first place with damage to their machine.  Reeves/Cluze were disqualified from the result leaving them pointless after the first round.
The Birchall Brothers will not be attending this round at Le-Mans, or any other rounds.  A press release from “Birchall Racing” saying that the team will not participate at any further “FIM Sidecar World Championship rounds”.

Bennie Streuer and Geert Koerts on their “Team Streuer” LCR, Suzuki will be hoping for a good result after their fourth place at Donington which would keep them in the title race.

Mike Roscher and Anna Burkard will be hoping to stay in the top five of the championship, a good result would be great for their team with their “Roscher-Burkard-Penz13 Racing” LCR, BMW.

A new team to the championship this year, John Holden and Andy Winkle with their “John Holden” LCR, Suzuki, had a disaster at Donington, they had contact with Uwe Gurck and Manfred Wechselberger on their “Polizei Sport Verein Wels Gurck” LCR, BMW, when Gurck spun on track.  This resulted with Passenger Winkle receiving extensive hand injuries, he will not compete.  Holden has managed to replace Winkle with Dean Kilkenny for his passenger at this meeting.

There will be three one event teams at this meeting in Le-Mans.  Manuel Moreau and Stephane Gadet on their “MG racing SID” LCR, Suzuki.  Jonathan Huet and Sebastien Arifon with their “Jonathan Huet” LCR, Suzuki.  Philippe Le Bail and Sebastien Lavorel will be hoping to go one better this time and get on the podium, they finished fourth here last year with their “Auto-Moto Terca” LCR, Suzuki.