Surprise Birthday Present for Reeves and Cluze!

FIM Sidecar World Championship and the FIM F2 Sidecar World Trophy.
Gold Race Oschersleben.

With the weather dry and very hot, 20 laps for the 22 sidecar teams was going to be very hard.

As the lights went out it was really a repeat of the sprint race yesterday.  Markus Schlosser and Thomas Hofer with their “Team Schlosser” LCR, Suzuki led the rest of the field into the first complex of corners, followed by Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze on their “Remse Racing/Team Eaide” LCR, Yamaha.  Pekka Paivarinta and Kirsi Kainulainen on their “44-Racing” LCR, BMW, tucked into third, with Sebastien Delannoy and Kevin Rousseau with their “Team Sand Seb 72” LCR, Suzuki, fourth.  Bennie Streuer and Gerard Daalhuisen with their “Team Streuer” LCR, Suzuki, fifth.

It was to be a lonely 20 lap race for most of the teams once they sorted themselves out over the first couple of laps.

Ben and Tom Birchall on their “Birchall Racing” LCR, Honda, and now the FIM F2 Sidecar World Trophy Champions, battled hard and fought their way up to sixth place. There was not to be a great fight like yesterday between them and Streuer/Daalhuisen and John Holden and Mark Wilkes on their “Silicone/Barnes Racing” LCR, Suzuki.

Mike Roscher and Anna Burkard on their “Roscher-Burkard-Penz 13 Racing” LCR, BMW, also fought hard and slotted into seventh place.

Holden and Wilkes were in a safe eighth place, and were having a steady race, they did however have a big moment going into the first corner when they missed their braking point and the machine started to snake under heavy braking, passenger Wilkes was lucky he did not fall out.  The pair regrouped after this and continued their steady race.

Michael Grabmuller and Sophia Kirchhofer on their “Polizeisportverein Wels” LCR, Yamaha, had a really bad start and had to fight hard for their eleventh place overall, but second place in the F2 Trophy Class.
By the end of the race, it looked like Schlosser/Hofer were to take a good win, but disaster struck the Swiss pairing.  On the last lap their machine just stopped.  It turned out that they struck electrical problems, but the machine restarted after the race had finished and the returned to the paddock very unhappy.

Everybody on the pit wall waited for Schlosser and Hofer to take the chequered flag, but to their surprise it was Reeves and Cluze who appeared out of the last corner first, for the flag.  Everybody in the race moved up a place with the demise of Schlosser and Hofer.

Reeves and Cluze were ecstatic with the win, punching the air over the line.

Reeves said “Unbelievable, we could not look at Schlosser throughout the race, when I saw him slow up and pull off, I could not believe it, what a birthday present, (said with a great smile)  The championship is still for the taking, but it is going to be very hard.  This win for us is great for all the people who help and support us, thank you all very much”.

Paivarinta and Kainulainen still lead the championship with 157 points, from now, Reeves and Cluze, after today’s win, takes them to second with 134, and Schlosser/Hofer third with 120.

Paivarinta said after, “It was a hard race, very hot and energy sapping, Kirsi did an amazing job once again, the bike was good.  We will see what we can do in the last round in England”.

Delannoy and Rousseau took third; the team were so pleased with this.  They had no problems at all with their machine.  They look forward to the last round at Donington.

Streuer and Daalhuisen took fourth place.  Streuer said after “I am really happy with how things went to day, no problems at all, the team worked hard all weekend, big thank you to them.

Champions of the FIM F2 Sidecar World Trophy, Ben and Tom Birchall took fifth place overall, they had no problems with their machine.  With 200 points in the championship, no other team can catch them.  They will be looking forward to the next round at Donington Park, this would be classed as their home track, great for their sponsors and fans.

Roscher and Burkard took sixth place and were really happy with this; they had no problems with their machine.  They are going home tonight very happy.

A good weekend for Holden and Wilkes, they took seventh place, with Holden saying “What a job Mark
has done for the team this weekend, I cannot thank him enough, it has been great”.

Olivier Dichamp and Vincent Peugeot took eighth place on their “A.C.T.” LCR, Suzuki.  They have had a good weekend; their bike has been good, with no problems.

Grabmuller and Kirchhofer took second place in the F2 Trophy class, They had a bad start, but second place is good for their championship points tally, they sit with 116 points and second in the F2 Trophy class.

Gunther Bachmaier and Manfred Wechselberger took third place in the F2 Trophy class with their “MSV Schwanenstadt” LCR, Suzuki. They had a DNF in yesterday’s race, which lost them good points in the championship standings; they have slipped just behind Grabmuller/Kirchhofer, with 110 points.
The next and final round will be held at Donington Park, England on the 17th of September.

Mark Walters