The first round of the 2013 FIM World Sidecar Championship will take place on the 14th April at the 5.344 km Circuit Motorland Aragon and will be run in an anti clockwise direction; World Superbikes will be at this venue too.
Last years champions Tim Reeves and Ashley Hawes will not be defending their title; it was announced in a recent press report. They battled hard last year and came out on top; they will be missed this year.
This year will see Sophia Kirchofer and Anna Burkard mount a full assault in the championship; they competed last year as a wild card team in Oschersleben Germany and were the first all female team to compete in the premier class for sidecars.
A welcome return to the championship this year is former 2008 World Champion, Timo Kartiala, he was passenger for Pekka Paivarinta and this was his first Championship win. He will team up with fellow countryman from Finland, the ever improving Petri Makkula.
Multiple Champion Pekka Paivarinta with Adolf Hanni, is unsure if Hanni will be fully fit after recent medical surgery, if he is not fully fit, Paivarinta will need to find a passenger for this meeting, he has no change to his LCR chassis, and will still be using Suzuki engines.
Jorg Steinhausen and Gregory Cluze will still be on their LCR chassis, powered by BMW, they battled all last year with the top teams and went into the last round only 1 point behind eventual winners Reeves and Hawes, they will be wanting to go one place better this year.
2009 Champions Ben and Tom Birchall want the title back, they have stuck with LCR for their chassis, but their trusted Yamaha engines have been replaced by 2012 Suzuki engines, “The Yamaha engines were great but they were passed there best, we suffered last year with being down on power, so we have opted for Suzuki this year. We have had second and thirds since we won the title in 2009, let’s hope we can be first this year” said Ben.
German team, Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker have been just off the top spot of the championship the last two years, a third and fourth, “good but not good enough” said Kurt. They had some bad luck these years, electrical problems, and some mechanical problems, but they stick with LCR for their chassis and Suzuki engines, but newer.
If the Championship is as close as it was last year, we are going to be in for a treat. All the teams have been working hard through the winter for this Championship, so let battle commence and may the best team win.
Words & photos Mark Walters
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