FIM Sidecar World Championship Le Mans

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Entry list

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Schedule

Thursday 17th

1305 - 1335 BST Free practice
1720 - 1740 BST Qualifying one

Friday 18th

1130 - 1150 BST Qualifying two

1435 BST Race one

Saturday 19th

1050 BST Race two

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Results link

https://www.its-results.com/its/2025/d3 ... 40972b65d6

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Live timing

https://www.its-live.net/#/live/its/202 ... tosup/live

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Preview from Mark Walters

FIM Sidecar World Championship 2025.

Preview, Round One, Le Mans.

The long winter is over and another year is upon us. A few sidecar teams from last year have changed their chassis, invested in new ones. Some other teams have changed passengers for the 2025 season. There was a week long test at the end of March and a few of these teams were there getting their machines ready for the new challenge of the 2025 FIM Sidecar World Championship. Some teams have even managed to get some racing done too.

Round one will take place at the 4,185km “Bugatti Circuit” at Le Mans over the weekend 18th, 19th of April.

The 2024 champions will be back to defend their title, Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau, they have a new chassis, things seem to be going well for them as they stood on the podium at the first round of the French championship in Le Mans a few weeks ago. Their great rivals from last year Markus Schlosser, who lost his 2023 championship title to Payne and Rousseau, and with Luca Schmidt in the chair they will be wanting the title badly, they also stood on the podium a few weeks back. The two teams battled all through the 2024 championship, and it went down to the last race to decide who would take the title. Could it be the same this year?

Add a few more teams who have the potential the battle for the championship and we should be in for a great championship.
The Christie brothers Sam and Tom, third last year, another team with a new chassis, they are up for the battle. Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement, they want that championship to add to the two they already have. Pekka Paivarinta and Adam Christie, Paivarinta a five times champion in the past will be starting his 21st year at the top level, Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch, Streuer a past champion, they will want things to go smoothly this year. Back this year to battle for the championship is eight times champion Tim Reeves with his passenger Mark Wilkes. Seven teams for sure who will be fighting at the front. But there are other teams who could upset these seven, Sam and Jack Laidlow, new chassis for them and 2024 British sidecar champions. French, father and son team, Ted and Vincent Peugeot, they took the 2024 French and German sidecar championships. The French pairing of Paul Leglise and Marjorie Cescutti, they like Le Mans and if they have no problems will be fast. Markus Venus has teamed up with the very experienced passenger Thomas Hofer this year, Venus a grass track champion decided to give this championship a go last year and is here again, he has Schlosser’s 2023 championship chassis, a well proven machine. Patrick Werktetter and Valentine Pirat are a young team who were keen to battle at the front last year, but technical and some mechanical problems hampered them.

Other teams up for the challenge this year, Lennard Gottlich and Lucas Krieg, they had a good test week and are looking forward to Le Mans. Rupert Archer has a new passenger for this year, Ondrej Sedlacek from the Czech Republic, this will be his third year in the championship.

Kevin Cable and Charlie Richardson start another championship year, and if past years are anything to go by, they will be battling with Archer and Sedlacek, also Claude Vinet and Leane Marsal.

French passenger Ema Salmon has had a good couple of year’s passengering for Lucas Wyssen, however Wyssen decided to hang his leathers up half way through the winter months, leaving Salmon looking for a job! Paul Kirby stepped in and offered, they seem to be getting on well and they will hope Le Mans is good for them.

Two new teams will be joining the championship this year, Finnish father and son team, Joni Manninen and Tero Manninen, Tero is no stranger to the world championship he drove in the early 2000’s. Another new team is Lewis Nicol and Clement Conil, now I am not sure if they will manage to start in Le Mans, they had a fire with their machine a few weeks ago causing a fair bit of damage, let’s hope they can get all sorted and get a start.

Being in Le Mans, there will be a good grid, and the French teams will be there, including Philippe Gallerne with Benjamin Luneau, Cyril Vinet and Gerald Vinet, Stephane Gadet and Florian Colombin, Tristan Gadet and Adrien Blaise..

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Timetable

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Thursday Free Practice

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Practice report from Mark Walters

FIM Sidecar World Championship.

Le Mans,

Free practice.

Conditions were good for the first outing of the 2025 FIM Sidecar World Championship teams. The sun was out and a slight breeze.
A lot of teams had old tyres on so their lap times were not as fast as they would be normally. Qualifying will be different, new tyres will be getting fitted.

After free practice it was the current champions Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau who set the fastest time, a 1,43.622.

Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt were second fastest with a time of 1,44.137.

Sam and Tom Christie set the third fastest time, a 1,44.199.

Pekka Paivarinta and Adam Christie were fourth fastest with a time of 1,45.011.

The fifth fastest time was set by Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement, that was a 1,45.493.

Qualifying one will take place at 18.20 local time today.

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Qualifying one

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Qualifying one report from Mark Walters

FIM Sidecar World Championship.

Le Mans,

Qualifying One.

The sun was starting to get low, but this was not a problem for the sidecar teams as they took to the track for qualifying one.

At the beginning of the session it was busy out on track, it was hard for some teams to get a clear track to get a good qualifying time in.
However, it was a great qualifying for Sam and Tom Christie, they had no problems throughout the session, they worked away at it and on their sixth lap they set a time of 1,43.687, this time would put them at the top of the table. The team were happy with this and hope to continue like this for the rest of the weekend.

Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt had some niggling problems with their machine throughout the session, the team think it could be an electrical problem, but still they managed to set the second fastest time in the session, that was a 1,43.687.

Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement were having some handling problems with their machine in left hand corners, the chair wheel was getting some good air time, this was hampering their progress, but the team will work on this issue before tomorrow. They still managed to set the third fastest time despite this problem, their time was a 1,44.435.

Pekka Paivarinta and Adam Christie set the fourth fastest time of 1,44.890. The team were reasonably happy with this but were looking at electrical and mapping issues they felt were giving them a problem, they hope to improve these small problems before tomorrow.

Ted and Vincent Peugeot were really pleased how Q1 went for them, they had no problems with their machine and would check things over and see if any adjustments would help them improve on their fifth fastest time of 1,45.005.

Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch set the sixth fastest time of 1,45.272. The team were not so happy with this as they know they can go faster, they will be looking where they can improve for tomorrow.

A good first qualifying for Patrick Werkstetter and Valentin Pirat, they had no problems and work away steadily and set a time of 1,45.461, good for seventh.

Sam and Jack Laidlow set the eighth fastest time of 1,45.729. The team were not so happy with this with driver Sam thinking that he messed up the qualifying for the team, he was not happy with how he approached the session. He hope to do better tomorrow.

Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes were not happy with their qualifying, they set the ninth fastest time of 1,46.050. They worked hard for this; their machine was not running at full revs, they lost speed all-round the circuit. The team are not sure if it is an electrical, or mapping problem, they are working on this and hope to sort for tomorrow.

Rounding off the top ten is Rupert Archer and Ondrej Sedlacek, they set a time of 1,46.910. They were happy with this and will check over their machine for tomorrow’s second qualifying session.

Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau had gear change problems with their machine finishing twelth with a time of 1,48.266. Problems for Lennard Gottlich and Lucas Krieg, they stopped with mechanical problems, but they did set a time of 1,48.316 good for thirteenth.

Qualifying two will take place at 12.30 local time, then there will be an 11 lap sprint race starting at 15.35 local time. There is mixed reports on what the weather could be, possible rain in the afternoon, we will see.

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Qualifying two

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Combined qualifying

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Qualifying two report from Mark Walters

FIM Sidecar World Championship.

Le Mans,

Qualifying Two

The rain stayed away for Q2, it was cloudy and a slight breeze, but dry conditions for the sidecar teams.

Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau top the time sheets today, the team are really happy and with no problems with their machine they are looking forward to the race, their time was 1,43.158.

Again, another happy team, Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt, they too had no problems, their time was 1,43.368.

Pekka Paivarinta and Adam Christie set the third fastest time, they are happy with this, their time was 1,44.136.

Sam and Tom Christie had a bit of a nightmare Q2, they took to the track but were in traffic, they could not get a good lap in, but still the fourth fastest time of 1,44.146 is good.

Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement set the fifth fastest time of 1,44.258, they are happy with this.

Ted and Vincent Peugeot set a time of 1,45.004, good for sixth, they are pleased with this.

Sam and Jack Laidlow had a better qualifying today, driver Sam is a lot happier with how things went, their time was 1,45.099.

Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes went a lot better today, but they still want better. Their time was a 1,45.177 good for eighth.

Patrick Werkstetter and Valentin Pirat set the ninth fastest time, a 1,45.722, unfortunately for them they tipped their machine upside down, no harm to driver or passenger, but they will be checking over their machine before the race.

Tenth fastest time went to Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch, they know that they can go faster, they will hope for a good race..

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Grid for race one

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Race one

New lap record Schlosser/Schmidt