Chris Helm writes...

Although the weather forecast for yesterday was for heavy rain the luck of the Irish seemed to be with organisers for the second round of the Ian Durston Plant Services British sidecarcross championship at Desertmartin in Northern Ireland. The weather was nearly perfect with significant spells of sunshine and only very light drizzle near the end of the day. A significant crowd watched the first ever round of the British championship to be held away from the mainland and those that I spoke to were impressed at the standard of racing.

Overall winners on the day were Scott Wilkinson / Gary Burt with 65 points ahead of Andy Eastman / Steve Kirwin on 60 with Paul Pelling / Tim Breacher 3rd on 58.

The first race of the day was led by Eastman from Brown, with his stand –in passenger Colin Dunkley, Pelling and Wilkinson. By turn two Brown was in the lead from Eastman and Wilkinson had passed Pelling for 3rd place. The Millard brothers, Dan & Joe, were in 5th place leading the chasing pack. On the second lap Wilkinson was past Eastman into 2nd and set off after Brown slowly reeling him in over the next few laps.

After 10 minutes Pelling got past Eastman and Lyne / Girling who had started badly in 19th place had now come up to 8th place. With just one lap to go before the end of the 20 minutes Eastman got back past Pelling and held 3rd to the flag. Brown took the win from Wilkinson with Millard finishing 5th, their best finish to date, and Lyne finally coming home in 6th.

Eastman once again got the holeshot in race two having pushed past Brown into the first corner but by turn two it all went wrong for him and he dropped back to 12th place. This left Lyne leading from Brown, Pelling and Wilkinson. Within one lap Brown was in the lead with Wilkinson up to 2nd and Lyne down to 3rd. Disaster struck Brown on lap four when he tipped the bike up on the far side of the circuit injuring Dunkley’s shoulder in the process. (Initially it was thought by the medics that he had either broken or dislocated his shoulder but after a visit to the local hospital it was confirmed that he had only suffered serious bruising) This left Wilkinson in the lead from Lyne with Pelling 3rd and Millard 4th. Eastman by this stage was already up to 7th and closing fast on Hodges.

Eastman continued his progress through the field finally making it up to 4th by the end. Wilkinson took the win from Lyne with Pelling 3rd.

For the third and final leg Brown was able to get Josh Chamberlain to stand in for the injured Dunkley ( who in turn was standing in for the injured Luke Peters) As the track was seriously cut up by now the organisers gave the riders one sighting lap before the start of the race. Again Eastman took the holeshot from Wilkinson with Brown 3rd and Pelling 4th. Lyne’s race was run before the gate dropped when his engine failed.

Wilkinson took the lead on lap two and Brown also passed Eastman to take 2nd. Brown held onto Wilkinson for a couple of laps but soon the gap increased to a point where it was becoming obvious that Brown was happy with 2nd.

With just 5 minutes of the race to go there was a big pile up at the far side of the course involving about half the field. When Wilkinson came round to this point he also got stuck but Brown was able to squeeze through a few seconds later. This now left Brown in the lead from Eastman with Pelling 3rd and Wilkinson eventually rejoining in 4th. The Millards were also involved but to add to their problems their chain broke meaning they had to push the bike back. Brown took the win, Josh’s first ever, from Eastman whilst the Millards bravely pushed their stricken bike all the way back to cross the line and finish 10th.

The top of the championship is now very close with Brown in the lead on 122 points from Pelling on 116, Wilkinson on 112 and Eastman on 110. The next round will be at Torrington next weekend, 4th May.