Croatia free practice from Wally

[steve-e]

FIM Sidecar World Championship,
Grobnic, Croatia.
Reeves and Cluze top free practice times.
The third round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship, taking place at Grobnik, Croatia, with grey clouds all round the circuit it looked if it could rain, thankfully though the rain stayed away and the sun shone.
Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze were to set the fastest time of 1:35.994 on their “Team E-Aide Motorsport” LCR, Kawasaki. Reeves however is suffering from a reoccurring back injury, he had to receive medical treatment before taking to the track, Reeves said later “I hope we can continue this weekend, my back is giving me big problems, we will see how it goes.”
Second fastest is John Holden and Ashley Hawes on their “John Holden Racing” LCR, Suzuki, they set a time of 1:37.475. Both Holden and Hawes were happy with their day. John said “It is great Ashley is able to help us out this weekend, he is a former world champion, so he should be up for it, I know he has not raced for a few months, but he is doing a great job on the bike”. Ashley also said,” When John phoned me to help I jumped at the chance, I have not been in the chair since I broke my wrist at Assen late last year, I hope that i can do a good job for the team”.
Third fastest was Uwe Gurck and Manfred Wechselberger on their “Polizei Sport Verein Wels, Gurck Racing” LCR, BMW, they set a time of 1:38.113. Both Gurck and Wechselberger were happy with the day and are hoping to improve in qualifying tomorrow.
Fourth fastest time was set by Bennie Streuer and Geert Koerts on their “Team Streuer” LCR, Suzuki, their time of 1:38.740 was set at the end of the session. Bennie said after “I could not get any grip from the rear tyre, we were sliding all over the place, okay it was old tyres we were using but normally here old tyres are good”.
Pekka Paivarinta and Kirsi Kainulainen set the fifth fastest time on their “44-Racing” LCR, BMW. They too were to suffer from the same problem as Streuer/ Koerts, no grip with the rear tyre. Paivarinta tried all adjustments with the rear suspension, but to no avail. Pekka said “We will try some more adjustments for tomorrow and maybe a different tyre compound.”
Slovenian Milan Spendal and French passenger Freddy Lelubez on their “Remse Racing” LCR, Yamaha set a time of 1:41.167 for sixth place. Spendal was happy with the place, but he too complained from the lack of rear grip.
Fellow Slovenian, Janez Remse and English passenger Stuart Ramsay on their “Remse racing” LCR, Yamaha, set a time of 1:41.249. They had a steady free practice, just getting their machine set up for qualifying tomorrow.
The New Zealand pairing of Colin Buckley and Robbie Shorter on their “Carl Cox Motorsport” Windle, Suzuki set a time of 1:42.094 for eighth place. The pair were really happy, and hope that they can greatly improve on this time in qualifying.
There will be two qualifying sessions and a ten lap sprint race tomorrow, (Saturday)