With round two only one week ago in Hungary the FIM Sidecar World Championship moves to Croatia, to the 4.168 km Automotodrom Grobnik Circuit just outside the city of Rijeka. The circuit is renowned for being fast and very hard on tyres. Also the weather has played a big part in previous races. For this weekend though the forecast is for sun and very high temperatures, mid to high 30s.
Jorg Steinhausen and Gregory Cluze will be hoping for another race win on their BMW powered machine. The last time BMW won a sidecar GP was in 1974 when Klaus Enders and Ralf Engelhardt won the Dutch Sidecar TT. The victory in Rijeka rocketed Steinhausen and Cluze to second place in the Championship with 38 points, only 7 points behind Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni. With only 6 points between second place and fourth, the Birchall Brothers, Ben and Tom in third, and Tim Reeves and Ashley Hawes in fourth they will be trying their best to get the top spot on the podium.
Kurt Hock and Erico Becker had a very busy week as they were forced to repair the whole front of their machine after they had an off in Hungary.
A welcome return to the grid this weekend is Austrian driver Josef Moser and his passenger from England Daniel Evenson, on their Team Tirol, LCR, Suzuki.
By Mark Walters words and pictures