Ian Durston Plant Services British Sidecarcross Championships 2008
Round 1

After a gap of over seven months the British Sidecarcross championship restarted again on Easter Monday at the Frome Club’s Asham Woods circuit, writes Chris Helm.

The new look championship with its three race format promised more exiting racing and it certainly did not fail to deliver.

Despite the weather being bitterly cold a sizeable crowd turned out to watch the racing and were not disappointed with three excellent races. Stuart Brown / Luke Peters showed that after a long absence they had not lost any of their speed and took the overall win from Paul Pelling / Tim Breacher.

In the first leg the holeshot was taken by Andy Eastman / Steve Kirwin from Pelling and Andy Breacher / Adam Hillyard with Brown, having started from the ‘wrong’ end of the start line, tucked in behind.

By the end of the first lap Eastman led from Scott Wilkinson / Gary Burt, Pelling, Brown and Breacher. John Lyne / Pete Girling who had followed Wilkinson into turn one lost out in turn two and were outside the top ten.

By the third lap Eastman was comfortably in front while Wilkinson was just holding second from Brown. At the bottom of the quarry Eastman hit a very soft patch and the bike stopped dead losing him the lead. At the same time brown pushed past Wilkinson so the order at the front was now Brown, Wilkinson, Eastman & Pelling.

These positions remained the same for the remainder of the race until on the very last lap Wilkinson went missing when his sidecar wheel came off.

The second leg was a superb race with action throughout the full race distance. Lyne took the holeshot from Breacher with Pelling 3rd and Brown 4th. Eastman got involved in a first corner pile up with Dan & Joe Millard amongst others and was relegated to the back of the field. The Millards got going very quickly and were up to 14th by the end of lap one. One lap was all Breacher could manage and he pulled out at the end of it with a damaged shoulder.

After one lap Brown was past Pelling and set off after Wilkinson. For the next three laps Brown was right on Wilkinson’s back wheel but could not get past. Such was their speed that they caught Lyne up by lap six so now there were three bikes fighting for the lead. Sadly just after this point Lyne started to slow with a rear wheel puncture and was soon passed by Wilkinson and then Brown.

At the flag Wilkinson took the win from Brown with Lyne 3rd, Pelling 4th and Jamie Stevens / Scott Grahame an excellent 5th. Millard who did get up to 9th place finally finished in 10th while Eastman could only manage 11th.

Despite the track becoming quite rough 29 machines came to the line for the third leg. This time Pelling took the lead into turn one from Wilkinson, Lyne Eastman and Brown. Before the end of one lap Wilkinson took the lead from Pelling, Eastman was 3rd just ahead of Brown.

By the end of the second lap Brown was up to second and closing on Wilkinson. Pelling remained in a rather lonely third place some distance ahead of Eastman who had now been joined by Lyne and Topp / Geraghty. At the halfway point in the race Brown took the lead and at the same time Lyne passed Eastman to take 4th. Unfortunately for Lyne his passenger took a knock soon after and they had to pull out. Brown took the win from Wilkinson with Pelling 3rd and after a superb scrap Eastman was 4th just ahead of Topp.

The next round is at Desertmartin in Ireland on Saturday, 26th April