Donington preview for front from Mark Walters
Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:42 am
FIM Sidecar World Championship 2015.
The 2015 FIM Sidecar World Championship kicks off at Donington Park on the 11th and 12th of April, run on the national circuit over 3.149km, and runs in a clockwise direction. The circuit was part of the Donington Hall Estate, and in the 1970s it was revived by Tom Wheatcroft, and has hosted some of the great sidecar races, with riders like Webster and Biland winning here.
The 2015 season will consist of ten races, over eight race weekends, at some of the best race circuits in the world. Also for this season there will be two new race tracks that the sidecar teams have not raced at, the “Pannoniaring” in Hungary and the “Paul Ricard-Le Castellet” in France.
The sidecar teams have had a long winter to get ready for the new season and a lot of teams have been doing a lot of testing. Current Champions Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze missed a test in Croatia due to an injury to driver Reeves, however the team did manage to test in France and all reports say things went very well for the team, they stick with the “LCR” chassis and Kawasaki power. Great rivals to Reeves and Cluze, the Birchall Brothers Ben and Tom have been very busy over the winter, maybe not for themselves though, they are making the famous “LCR” Chassis, they did however manage to get some testing in, they managed to go to France, and it seemed to go well, as the team won the first race of the year in the British Championship held at Donington Park over the Easter weekend, they stay the same as last year with the “LCR” chassis and Suzuki engines. Third in last year’s championship, Uwe Gurck from Germany and Manfred Wechselberger from Austria will be back to try and improve on their third place, they will still be running their “LCR” chassis with BMW power. Past Champion Pekka Paivarinta will be back for a full season and will have Kirsi Kainulainen for his passenger; they have “LCR” chassis and BMW engines.
Apart from the top teams there will be some one event entry’s to look out for, young team Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood will be hoping to mix it with the World Championship regulars, they stood on the podium at the recent British Championship round, Tony Brown and Sam Christie finished in the top five, and Ben Holland and Lee Watson will be hoping to get up with the top teams.
The 2015 FIM Sidecar World Championship kicks off at Donington Park on the 11th and 12th of April, run on the national circuit over 3.149km, and runs in a clockwise direction. The circuit was part of the Donington Hall Estate, and in the 1970s it was revived by Tom Wheatcroft, and has hosted some of the great sidecar races, with riders like Webster and Biland winning here.
The 2015 season will consist of ten races, over eight race weekends, at some of the best race circuits in the world. Also for this season there will be two new race tracks that the sidecar teams have not raced at, the “Pannoniaring” in Hungary and the “Paul Ricard-Le Castellet” in France.
The sidecar teams have had a long winter to get ready for the new season and a lot of teams have been doing a lot of testing. Current Champions Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze missed a test in Croatia due to an injury to driver Reeves, however the team did manage to test in France and all reports say things went very well for the team, they stick with the “LCR” chassis and Kawasaki power. Great rivals to Reeves and Cluze, the Birchall Brothers Ben and Tom have been very busy over the winter, maybe not for themselves though, they are making the famous “LCR” Chassis, they did however manage to get some testing in, they managed to go to France, and it seemed to go well, as the team won the first race of the year in the British Championship held at Donington Park over the Easter weekend, they stay the same as last year with the “LCR” chassis and Suzuki engines. Third in last year’s championship, Uwe Gurck from Germany and Manfred Wechselberger from Austria will be back to try and improve on their third place, they will still be running their “LCR” chassis with BMW power. Past Champion Pekka Paivarinta will be back for a full season and will have Kirsi Kainulainen for his passenger; they have “LCR” chassis and BMW engines.
Apart from the top teams there will be some one event entry’s to look out for, young team Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood will be hoping to mix it with the World Championship regulars, they stood on the podium at the recent British Championship round, Tony Brown and Sam Christie finished in the top five, and Ben Holland and Lee Watson will be hoping to get up with the top teams.