FIM World Sidecar Championship Round two Sachsenring 03/05 May

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Gold race

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IDM

Gold race

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Gold race report and photos from Mark Walters

“Double for Payne and Rousseau”

There was rain in the air!

About an hour before the sidecar teams were to start their second race it started to rain. It rained enough for the track to be totally wet. The rain stopped. With no sidecar teams having wet tyre testing it was agreed that they would get ten minutes extra before the race to try the wet tyres. Some teams had wets on, some not, some had cut slick with full slick on the back. The pit lane was a busy place in the ten minuet slot they had, most teams decided to fit slicks, with some keeping cut slicks on the front and chair wheel, with a slick on the back. There was a very thin dry line on track otherwise it was very slippy, but the track was drying.

As the lights went out for the 20 lap race it was the Christie Brothers Sam and Tom who gingerly led the rest of the field into the first corner, they were followed by Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt, then it was Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau. Paul Leglise and Marjorie Cescutti had a great start they slotted into fourth, Pekka Paivarinta and Adam Christie were in fifth with Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kolsch sixth, Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement seventh. Sam and Jack Laidlow were eighth with Lukas Wyssen and Ema Salmon alongside, Ted and Vincent Peugeot were right behind the Laidlows..

Lap two saw a change, Payne and Rousseau took the lead from the Christie Brothers with Schlosser and Schmidt keeping third, Paivarinta and Christie moved up to fourth followed by Streuer and Kolsch, and Ellis and Clement putting Leglise and Cescutti down to seventh. Wyssen and Salmon had moved up too, eighth for them.

Payne and Rousseau started to break away at the front leaving The Christie Brothers trying to keep with them. There was a good battle brewing behind them between Schlosser/Schmidt, Paivarinta/Christie, Ellis/Clement, Streuer/Kolsch. This battle was to last well into half way distance. After their great start Leglise and Cescutti were to DNF on lap three.

Ellis and Clement managed to battle their way up to fourth dropping Paivarinta/Christie, and Streuer/Kolsch, this gave them a chance to have a go at the Christie Brothers Sam and Tom.

Further down the field, Kevin Cable and Charlie Richardson came into pit lane, they were to change tyres this left them trailing at the back of the field.

After their great battle, lap eleven saw Streuer and Kolsch spin off track, their rear tyre had deflated, lucky for the team their machine stayed upright, but passenger Kolsch had to be stretchered off to the medical center for checks, he is back in the paddock battered and bruised, Streuer was all okay.

Two laps later at the same corner Rupert Archer and Ruben Janssens spun off track; this resulted in the red flags coming out. The race was declared.

After slowing up a little, then having to get going again as the perusing teams were catching, Payne and Rousseau took another solid race win, the team are so happy with how the weekend has gone for them.

After a testing weekend for Ellis and Clement, their machine not handling well, they battled on and took a great second place to the delight of the team.

The Christie Brothers took another podium place in finishing third, another good result for them.

Paivarinta and Christie took a great fourth place, they are very happy with this result as they had a lot of work to their machine over the weekend.

Schlosser and Schmidt had to be content with fifth place, still good points for the championship though.

A great sixth place for the Peugeot’s, they battled away for this result and are happy with this.

A great result for Patrick Werkstetter and Valentin Pirat, their first time at this level and a seventh place.

The Laidlow Brothers took a great eighth place despite have a heart stopping moment coming out of the last corner, they ran wide onto the grass but managed to control the situation and continued for this result.

Wyssen and Salmon were to finish the race in ninth place, not what they wanted but they are looking forward to the next round in the Czech Republic.

Markus Venus and Ondrej Sedlacek took tenth place. The team are very happy with this result.

Lennard Gottlich and Lucas Krieg had a nightmare of a day, they will regroup for the next round, they finished eleventh.

Pierre Leguen and Christophe Darras took twelfth place, they were one lap down.

Cable and Richardson although they were 3 laps down due to their pit stop, did cross the line for thirteenth place.

The next round will be at Most in the Czech Republic, which will be in June.