Category: British Sidecar Championship

The British Championship, run at the British Superbike Championship

Molson British Sidecars

Birchalls and Ellis/Clement dominate damp Cadwell Park

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Molson British Sidecar Championship, Cadwell Park 7/8 August

The celebrated Cadwell Sidecar Revival attracted a full entry of all manner of sidecars, with the main focus being on the three championship races.
Todd Ellis (Santander Salt Yamaha) had his French lady passenger alongside for his second British Championship appearance in as many weeks. Ben and Tom Birchall (Haith Honda) were more than keen to fight for their unbroken record of victories.
Absent from Cadwell Park were Sam and Adam Christie because of Adam’s Thruxton injuries. At this moment in time, the Christie bike will continue to be missing, with the ankle injury to Adam more serious than initially thought. Asked if he might be tempted to use a replacement passenger to protect their points, Sam said the family feeling was, that racing was on hold pending Adam’s recovery. Let’s all hope it is sooner rather than later.

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Molson British Sidecars

Fast Thruxton and six not out for Birchalls

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Round Three, Molson British Sidecar Championship

Cooler and mixed weather provided interesting racing conditions on what is widely acknowledged as one of the toughest tracks in the UK. With no FIM World round clash for the next two domestic championship weekends, there was a strong entry for both this, and the upcoming Cadwell Park Sidecar Revival. Fresh from success in Assen, Todd Ellis, reunited with Charlie Richardson for home rounds on the Santander Salt Yamaha, was determined to pick up where he left off when last on UK business.

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Molson British Sidecars

Birchalls prove hard to beat in Kent

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Molson British Sidecar Championship, Brands Hatch

A slightly smaller grid than normal due to a World Championship clash with Assen and one or two Covid related absentees, did nothing to detract from the quality of racing at Brands Hatch. The recent heatwave had abated slightly, but free practice was dry and warm, with the Birchall Brothers picking up where they left off at Oulton Park. They were over a second faster at the head, with Tommy Philp/Tom Bryant and the Christie Brothers close together and chasing. John Holden’s machine caught fire, damaging his feet in the process, but the BSB Marshalls did a great job extinguishing the worst of the flames.

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Molson British Sidecars

Birchalls lead the way in Cheshire thriller with double top

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For the first time in the modern era, the sidecars were treated to two races in the Oulton Park opener. After such a long lay-off, everyone was itching to get going, and the size of the entry reflected that enthusiasm.

A clash with the FIM World Championship in Hungary took three or four top crews out of the equation, but that did nothing to detract from the quality of the on-track action.

Qualifying – Early Friday morning and the sidecars were on track at eight-thirty. Initial times had the Christie brothers looking strong ahead of Ben and Tom Birchall, with Blackstock/Rosney and Holden/Pitt very much in the hunt.

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Molson British Sidecars

Oulton Park welcomes record entry for round one with two races.

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The 2021 season bursts into life at Oulton Park over the weekend of June 25-27th with a bumper grid, some new names, but with some notable teams missing.

The FIM World Championship in Hungary claims the attention of Tim Reeves/Kevin Rousseau, reigning British Champion Steve Kershaw/Ryan Charlwood, Kevin Cable and Kyle Masters, and 2019 Champions Todd Ellis/Charlie Richardson. This could well be a case of “when the cat’s away”, but that only makes the excitement and opportunity at Oulton more intense. With two races on the programme at the spectacular Cheshire circuit, there is much to play for.

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Molson British Sidecars

Knockhill round two axed due to restrictions

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Extension to the current levels of restriction by the Scottish Government has brought further complication to the 2021 Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

The Knockhill round scheduled to take place over the weekend of July 9-11th will now become a two-day event (10-11th July) with reduced classes participating.

MSV, promoters of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, have had the difficult choice of dropping three of those classes. The British Sidecar Championship traditionally runs a full programme alongside that event, but now there is literally no room on the shortened programme to accommodate the sidecars.

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Molson British Sidecars

Two races at Oulton Park to get the British Championship season under way, June 25-27

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The weekend of June 25-27 sees Oulton Park host the opening round of 2021 as per the published schedule.

In previous years, the constraints placed on the circuit by reduced track time have meant that the sidecars have been allocated just the one race. This has been unpopular, but also recognised as unavoidable.

Roger Body has been lobbying hard over this particular sticking point and his efforts have finally paid off.

The Oulton Park opener will now feature two sidecar races, thereby getting the season away to a meaningful haul of points for the championship hopefuls. This is due solely to Roger’s efforts and a large degree of cooperation from Stuart Higgs and the MSVR organisation.

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Bemsee

Bemsee at Oulton 7-8 May – NOW LIVE FOR BOOKING

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By Mike Dommett

Club Sidecars (F1 & F2) will be there.
If you plan to enter – Register or Login and book here:
https://www.bemsee.net/event-calendar

We have a range of BSB Teams looking to enter and will offer slots to Club riders before them.
That does mean you need to get your entries in soon please.
We will cut-off on that after this weekend and then release available slots to BSB Teams waiting to get in at that point.
Remember you can still book with Bemsee and withdraw upto a week before the event with no cost penalty.

Can’t work it out online?
Call us on 01708 720305 between 10-3 each weekday

Use it or lose it!

Molson British Sidecars

Bitterly cold Snetterton banishes winter blues.

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ALL PHOTOS BY JENNY TRIKER WELLS

The two-day test session organised by Roger Body and RKB-F1 Motorsport at the Snetterton 300 circuit attracted a good following from the Molson Group F1 Championship with fifteen outfits signing on Saturday morning.
There was also a fair gathering of club and classic machinery, whilst the F2 outfits were conspicuously absent.
At around six degrees with a strong breeze, conditions were far from ideal, although by its very nature, many teams shook out the cobwebs of the closed season and came away with positive results.

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Molson British Sidecars

Oulton Park opener moved back to late June

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The Bennetts British Superbike Championship celebrates its 25th anniversary season against a challenging backdrop of COVID-19 restrictions and a ban on spectators during 2020.

The current regulations on crowd attendances at non-seated venues are set to be lifted on June 20th, so MSVR has taken the bold decision to postpone the start of the new season until the legions of loyal fans can return in force to support and celebrate a quarter of a century of the series.

Intrinsically linked with this decision, the British Sidecar Championship will also benefit from the returning hordes of spectators. The traditional Oulton Park season opening race will now move to the first available restriction-free weekend, that being 25-27 June.

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Molson British Sidecars

New talent going for 2021 glory in “Generation Game”

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Fresh ground was broken at the end of the 2019 season when a youngster, almost a rookie in fact, beat all the established stars to the British Championship title. Todd Ellis, partnered by the experienced Chaz Richardson set the paddock alight, and made everyone sit up and notice. It’s a known fact sidecar crews can continue racing at a high level far longer than their solo counterparts, and that has led to the age profile in the paddock tending to be higher. The number of youngsters coming into the sport is small, so when we do get real talent at an early age it is something to be celebrated and promoted. In most cases, the younger element is attracted by family involvement with the youngsters growing up alongside three wheels rather than two. For 2021, three such riders will be hell-bent on making their reputations and following in the footsteps of Todd Ellis.

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Molson British Sidecars

Three makes of F1 Chassis on the grid in 2021

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Four decades of top-level F1 sidecar racing around the globe have seen one chassis manufacturer dominate.

Such is the level of his engineering prowess and innovation that Louis Christen’s monocoque LCR design stood head and shoulders above anything else available at the time, setting a standard which could only be emulated.

In its illustrious history, LCR has won no fewer than thirty-six FIM World Championships. That statistic alone speaks volumes.

There have been other manufacturers present, and indeed the late Terry Windle produced a chassis which claimed five world titles in the hands of George O’Dell, Jock Taylor, Darren Dixon and Steve Abbott.

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