Hungaroring welcomes back World Sidecars

The second round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship moves from a cold and damp France held in April to the 4.381 km Hungaroring circuit, on the outskirts of Budapest. 2005 was the last time World Championship Sidecars raced at the famous Hungaroring, the teams this year will be hoping it will not be as hot as it was back then, when a lot of teams DNF the race, as temperatures soared to the high 30s low 40s, and with the track in a valley the air is very still. Most of the top teams will be trying to stop the flying Finn Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni from getting a strong foothold on the championship leaderboard as they romped away with a great race win in France. Two teams trying to do this will be Mansfield Brothers Ben and Tom Birchall and Kent driver Tim Reeves with new passenger Ashley Hawes, these two teams will be on a high just in from 2 weeks at the Isle of Man TT races, but it will be hard going for them as they head to Croatia after this round. Jorg Steinhausen with passenger Gregory Cluze will be wanting to go one better than fourth and try and get a podium place which would be a great result with Steinhausen making his comeback after nearly six years away from the sport. Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker will be wanting to get a good result and add some good points to their fifth place in France. Text and photos Mark Walters