The Birchalls now have 50 points and extend their lead to 16 over Nichols/Tilley.

The Mitchells of Mansfield supported riders dominated free practice and qualifying in their class and started the first race from a third row grid position of the mixed grid of outfits.

Saturdays Race

Ben and Tom began their campaign in sixth place overall on lap one but moved up a place to fifth on lap two and held station to lap 10 when they moved up a place to fourth.

In their efforts to catch Walker and Hawes, Ben made a mistake and took to the grass on the back straight. They lost a few seconds on Walker but maintained their fourth place and on the final lap made up nearly six seconds to complete the race in fourth place just 0.8s away from the top three. They won their own class by a huge margin of 16 seconds

Ben Commented:

“That was a good race and it would have been even better if we hadn’t gone grass tracking down the back straight!

“That lost us quite a bit of time but although we managed to make it up we couldn’t quite make it past Walker. It has however placed us in a good position on the second row for the race on Sunday.”

Sundays Race

As race two got underway the Birchall brothers quickly became embroiled in a battle for position with Walker /Hawes with the two outfits exchanging places throughout the first four laps. But Ben spun the LCR Honda at Murrays and lost time as he got the outfit back on track. They dropped down the order to eighth overall but maintained their lead in their own class and gave chase to the outfits ahead.

On lap six they were on the back of Guy/Pilmoor-Brady and one lap later overtook them. Two teams retired therefore Ben and Tom were promoted to fifth place overall before the red flag brought the race to an early end after a F1 outfit spilled oil onto the track after a machine failure.

Ben and Tom head directly over to the Isle of Man to take part in the Southern 100 races which run over the next few days and then return in time to travel to Thruxton for the next round of the British championship on July 24.

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As we waited for the start of today’s race, news filtered through that there was to be a delay to the start time, due to sea fog on the west of the Island. Originally, the race was planned to start at 10:15am but the race was delayed for over 3 hours before we finally got underway with a new start time of 1:30pm.

We had a full field of starters prior to the race but as 1:30pm drew closer, more and more teams started to withdraw. A whole host of teams announced that they would not be lining up for a variety of reasons but the main contenders weren’t going to miss this shot at TT glory.

Unfortunately numbers 26, 27, 31, 32, 36, 45, 46, 48, 51, 52, 56, 57 did not make the start line, see the list below for the partially revised race line up.

As the teams lined up, it was Ben and Tom Birchall who were set to start in second position behind Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle. Ben and Tom were looking calm but determined as they waited for the signal to start this long awaited Sure Sidecar race 2.

Manx radio grabbed a quick word with the brothers on the start line, just moments before they were due to set off.

Tom Birchall:

“Yeah we’re looking forward to it, there’s a great turn out and it’s going to be good to be out in front of all these fans. Hopefully, we can do better than we did on Saturday!

Ben Birchall:

“I’m Just going to give her a go today and hope she’s smiling on me”

Lap 1

And we’re away for the final Sidecar race of the 2016 Isle of Man TT.

As they approach the first corner at Glen Helen, it’s Dave Molyneux’s outfit that comes into view first 1.542 seconds in front of the Birchall Brothers with Holden and Winkle right behind them.

Ballaugh Bridge was the next time check on the road with Molyneux and Sayle coming through in pole position, ahead of Tom and Ben Birchall who were 2.360 seconds behind them, this left the IEG sponsored outfit in third place in the early timings but the star pairing from the first weeks qualifying sessions and race one winners, Holden and Winkle, were right up the back of the Birchalls LCR Honda. in third position on the road.

Nothing between them

At Ramsay, it was Holden and Winkle from Molyneux and Sayle with Ben and Tom rounding out the top 3, but with just 1 seconds separating the top 3 teams, we were set up for a fabulous race.

As we went through Bungalow it was Molyneux and Sayle leading with Tom and Ben moving into second place in the timing and on the road but Holden and Winkle were also right there in the mix, with only fractions of a second separating the top three pairs.

Cronk-ny-Mona saw the same three teams go through at the front of the race with the Birchalls on a charge, and as we made our way to the Grandstand to finish the first lap, it was Moylneux/Sayle and Birchall/Birchall that were starting to pull away from the rest of the field, with the Holden and Winkle slipping back to 3.745 seconds behind.

Lap 2

As we breathlessly raced down towards Glen Helen for the second time, it was Molyneux and Sayle who led by the slimmest of margins, from the Birchalls who were now within sight of the red, Molyneux machine but a few corners later Ben and Tom were also ahead in terms of time. It looked ominously like Ben and Tom were finding their form from the first race and they began to grind down the deficit between themselves and the machine of Molyneux and Sayle.

Ballaugh Bridge was swiftly dealt with by the front two teams, who were now right up against each other and battling hard for first position on the road. Molyneux had given away 3,238 seconds to the Birchalls as they looked to extend their time margin over the DMR Honda.

Pushing on regardless

Clocking 146.8MPH through the Sulby speed trap it was looking serious for the rest of the field as Ben and Tom started to tighten their grip on the race. With retirements coming thick and fast, it was fingers crossed time for the Birchalls as they pushed on regardless with the memory of Saturdays disappointment firmly in the back of their minds.

Through the Ramsay hairpin it was the Birchalls who were stretching out their lead to 4.526 seconds. As they sped up the mountain, Molyneux and Sayle were in sight, it would now only be a question of time before they were caught and passed but tenacious work from Molyneux was keeping the Mansfield brothers at bay.

Bungalow came and went in a blur of colour and noise as the Birchalls started to turn the screw, taking another second out of Dave Molyneux’s outfit, but the race was stretching out behind with the 3rd place crew having completely lost touch with the leading pair. Cronk-ny-Mona saw the gap holding steady at 5.542 with top speeds just a whisker away from the 120mph mark.

As we went through the grandstand it was the Birchalls who now looked to be in full flight, not holding anything back, they catapulted across the line at a furious pace with a new lap record seemingly at their mercy, they made a second lap of 116.615, within a whisker of the lap record they achieved in the previous race.

Lap 3

The final lap was at the Mansfield duo’s mercy and the appearance of the TV helicopter whirring away overhead, signalled that the fastest sidecar at this years TT was about to enter Glen Helen for the final time, it was, of course the pairing of Ben and Tom Birchall who appeared out of the murky distance first.

Surprisingly Dave Molyneux was nowhere to be seen as Holden and Winkle sped past a good while later, it transpired that Molyneux and Sayle had retired with a mechanical shortly after the Birchall’s had passed them at Greeby, but the real news was that the leading pair had stretched out an incredible gap of 21.745 seconds now that the meat had been removed from the sandwich.

Image credit Dave Kneale

Would thoughts now turn to machine conservation, in mind of race one’s early retirement? Not a bit of it! These boys are relentless and they shot through Ballaugh Bridge with a lead of 24.143 seconds, tearing another 2 and a half seconds away from their nearest rivals.

With news of an incident at Ballaugh spur it was obvious nothing but a red flag would halt the Mansfield duos charge and once again they came hammering through the Sulby speed trap at exactly the same velocity as the previous lap. It was clear that there would be no letup from the all conquering Birchall brothers.

At the Ramsey hairpin, the boys were surely aware that they were in a commanding lead, but they weren’t hammering the revs when exiting the hairpin, was this a sign that machine conservation was now in Ben Birchalls mind? It wasn’t apparent that the brothers had noticeably slowed because again, they had now put yet more time into their nearest rivals.

https://twitter.com/demontweeksmc/status/741263934406164480

The final climb up the mountain was dealt with in impressive fashion by the LCR Honda and the Mansfield team were left with a seemingly unassailable lead. First again, through Bungalow, it was now turning into something of an embarrassment, as the boys murdered the competition with a performance that can only be described as remarkable.

By now, it was only a matter of time before Tom and Ben were crowned 4 times TT winners and that proved to be the case as they ate up the road in front of them with the chequered flag poised to welcome them across the line.

Ben and Tom Birchall crossed the line a mile ahead of their nearest rival to rapturous applause from everyone in the grandstand. What we witnessed here, this afternoon, was an almost faultless performance from one of the finest sidecar teams in modern memory.

After crossing the line the brothers excitedly jumped into the air, hugging one another, their joy clear for all to see. Ecstatic family members, sponsors and supporters rushed to join them as they celebrated this remarkable achievement.

 Ben Birchall:

“Brilliant, I can’t thank my team enough!  We want to thank all of our sponsors who’ve made it possible for us to be here at the TT, we also need to say a big thank you to IEG who are always brilliant when we come here to race and thank you to everybody else who’s helped to put us here today. It’s been brilliant”

“I just thought, calm down now and I actually gave Dave Molyneux a kiss on the way through Greeby so I hope he’s alright, but I was just weary of what happened in the first race but today was so different, the bike was a bit sluggish at the start but as we got down the fuel we got quicker and quicker”.

“To win like that around here is incredible”

Tom Birchall:

Absolutely jubilant, we were a bit steady to start with but as it is round here, we just waited for it to come to us and that’s what happened but the support on the last lap was awesome.

Let the Champagne flow

As the popular winners received an ovation from the crowd, the boys embraced once more and kissed the TT Sidecar trophy as they stood, victorious on the podium. A sweet moment after the devastation of not finishing the first race.

As the national anthem finished, the crowd gave generous applause and Champagne was sent sprayng through the air, as the celebrations continued unabated, Tom Birchall cheekily poured champagne inside the back of Tim Reeves’s leathers, helping to cool him down, no doubt.

A fitting end to one of the best and most enthralling TT sidecar competitions in recent memory.

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Firstly we heard on Friday that Conrad Harrison had to withdraw from the race after losing two passengers in a week and just before the race got underway on Saturday we heard the sad news that Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle would not start Race 1 due to a technical issue.

The show goes on

First away from the start line were Ben and Tom Birchall, on their IEG Sponsored LCR Honda, they blazed away from the line and into the distance on the way down to Bray Hill and as the teams sped their way into Glen Helen it was Holden and Winkle to emerges first, ahead of the Mansfield team. As they races toward Ballaugh, Holden and Winkle had drawn out a significant gap of +4.583 over the Birchall Brothers with Reeves and Farrance following on +2.834 further back.

Next up was the Sulby speed trap and it was Holden and Winkle again topping the chart with a top speed of 145.6mph ahead of Reeves and Farrance at 144.9 followed by Ben and Tom Birchall clocking 143.4

By the time we approached the Ramsey hairpin, Holden & Winkle had stretched their lead further to over 6 seconds, continuing the fine form they had shown in the run up to the race in qualifying. Tom and Ben fought to stay in contact and seemed to have stemmed the flow of lost time as they got to the Bungalow where they were again 6.5 seconds behind, but as the race started to take shape, the red flag was out.

There had been an incident at Rhencullen and the race was stopped, Ben and Tom were safely out of the way of the incident and made their way slowly up to Parc Ferme to await further instruction.

Flags out at Governor’s as the sidecars came round on lap 1 #iomtt #iomtt2016 pic.twitter.com/WGM73227gL

— Isle of Man TT (@iom_tt) June 4, 2016

Take a look at the video below to see action from 2011 with Holden and Winkle on the way up to Rhencullen, the scene of todays incident.

As news started to filter through it still wasn’t clear who had been involved in the incident or if there had been any significant injury.  The incident was quickly cleared but had left oil on the track and as such, was going to take time to clean up. It was later announced that the organisers were hopeful of a restart and another announcement was to be made at 3pm

Sidecar race is red flagged, on the bright side it makes them easier to film at brandywell! pic.twitter.com/fdtswgl4rb

— Red Renna (@MissRedRenna) June 4, 2016

News slowly filtered through that the Sure Sidecar Race 1 would have a full re-start at 4pm but worryingly we still had no news as to the status of either the driver or passenger of the sidecar involved in the incident.

Race 1 Restart

Everyone lined up for the second time with Ben and Tom Birchall once again starting from the front followed by Holden and Winkle and the pair of Reeves and Farrance making up the first 3 starters for the second time.

As we headed down to Glen Helen the first machine into view was the Birchalls IEG LCR Honda, followed a second later by Holden and Winkle and they were also quickly followed by a visibly quick but ragged Reeves and Farrance.

The top 3 teams went through Ballaugh Bridge in a flash but still in the same order, with the Birchalls just over 0.7 of a second in the lead. The Sulby speed trap saw the teams go through at 144.9 for the Birchalls and 145.9 for the other two followers.

The Birchalls flew into Ramsay hairpin at tremendous speed, closely followed by their nearest rivals Holden and Winkle but the Birchalls were putting in a tremendous effort and had opened up a gap of 2.354 seconds. The Mansfield team seemed to be putting in a more determined effort as they sensed the Holden/Winkle duo slipping back and that was certainly the case as they went through bungalow with the lead now stretched out to 4.374 seconds

Cronk ny Mona saw the gap extended further as the Mansfield duo pulled the pin and went at the course to fire into a lead of 7.046 seconds and this was again upped to 8.1 seconds at the Grandstand, posting a lap of 115.543 (19:34:565)

Ben and Tom Birchall tackle the tricky corner at Governor’s Bridge #iomtt #iomtt2016 pic.twitter.com/2Ycr4FE9ij

— Isle of Man TT (@iom_tt) June 4, 2016

Lap 2

As the Mansfield leaders hurtled through Glen Helen for the second time on the LCR Honda, it was clear that the lead was now becoming significant, we had to wait 9.228 seconds before we saw the chasers came through. Ballaugh was almost blur as the flying Birchall brothers blasted through 10.579 seconds ahead of their nearest rivals.

The Sulby speed trap proved how consistent these guys are with the top 2 fastest teams posting exactly the same speed on the second lap and the Birchalls being just 0.3 mph slower than the previous lap.

13.054 was the gap by the time they made it through Ramsey and this was further extended to  18.324 as the Birchalls showed what a classy outfit they are but there was no sign of the brothers slacking off the pace as they were the quickest pairing through Bungalow.

As we completed the second lap it was clear that the Birchalls were now in full flight, putting in a new lap record of 116.798 and nonchalantly riding away into the distance, leaving the rest of the field in their wake.

Lap 3

By now it was becoming something of an embarrassment as the Mansfield double act carved their way through Glen Helen with an impressive gap of 29.087 seconds.

As the lap progressed it was clear that last years winners were not thinking about conserving their machine and the gap between themselves and the next nearest pairing of Holden and Winkle further increased, with a new lap record under their belt and a win more or less in the bag, inspired riding bought the LCR Honda through a full 34 seconds ahead of their rivals.

But it wasn’t to last as disaster struck at the Sulby crossroads and the Birchalls were forced to pull up and retired with a technical issue.

https://twitter.com/ProntoDesigns/status/739122925647888384

Victory was handed to Holden and Winkle with the duo of Peter Founds and Jevon Walmsley, over 54 seconds back and crossing the line almost at the same time as his brother Alan founds with passenger Aki Aalto.

What a race! But it’s not won until your across the line. So well done to Holden and Winkle for taking the victory but ultimately we can only feel gutted for Ben and Tom when they had clearly decimated the field for the whole of the race.

https://twitter.com/CaseyEndeveld/status/739124624806576129

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Ben and Tom Birchall set out to retain IOM TT crown

All week the sidecar boys have been out late into the evening to get a feel for the IOM TT track and to fine tune their machines in readiness for Saturdays first race.

Both of the upcoming 3 lap races promise to be nothing short of breathtaking as 3 times TT winners Ben and Tom Birchall take on the early front runners from the first five sessions, John Holden and Andrew Winkle, Ian and Carl Bell and the ever competitive Tim Reeves and Patrick Farrance, but as we know, the TT is a uniquely competitive race and plenty of teams will be out there trying to capture TT silverware.

Set up ready for action

Conditions for racing at this years TT have been just about perfect for the first few days, seeing warm, sunny conditions that have bought out the spectators in their droves.

As always, Ben and Tom were set up early and ready to tackle the course and the rest of the field in their beautifully turned out IEG Sponsored Sidecar.

Mondays practice

The formula two Sidecar class got it’s first taste of action on Monday evening, with the evening sun still shining and with pleasant summer temperatures, the much anticipated first session got underway.

Early stand outs were the re-united Lancashire pair of John Holden and Andrew Winkle, separated at last years TT by injury, they wasted no time in showing the massed crowds of spectators what they could bring to this years TT, opening proceedings with what turned out to be the fastest lap of the night, 112.055 (20:12.158)

Ben and Tom Birchall weren’t too far off the pace coming in third quickest at 108.981mph, sandwiched between them with the only other time of the night to break the 110mph barrier were the impressive father and son team, Ian and Carl Bell with a time of 20:14.829 (111.808mph)

Trouble on Tuesday

With the first session out out the way it was time for Ben and Tom to start thinking about fine tuning the bike and familiarising themselves with the TT course, as you probably already know, the TT course is well known to both Ben and Tom but fate was to have a hand in Tuesdays practice.

With perfect racing conditions for the 8:05pm start it was the previous days fastest pair who set the tone once again. John Holden and Andrew Winkle managed 113.15mph to top the leaderboard for the second day and were closely followed in second by Ian and Carl Bell who were only marginally slower at 112.98mph.

Unfortunately Ben and Tom were forced to retire with a blown engine and therefore failed to finish the first lap of the session.

Wednesday

Wednesday bought better luck for Mansfields Birchall racing. After a quick engine change and some work on niggling problems the brothers were once again ready to test themselves on the TT circuit.

However, Ben and Tom started slowly on the first lap, no doubt feeling out the new engine and the changes made earlier in the day and opened with 99.263mph.

The second lap was different again with Ben and Tom putting in their fastest lap of this years TT, a performance that puts them squarely in contention for Saturday’s opening Sure Sidecar Race and slotted into third on the leaderboard after a lap of 113.514mph

Thursday

After a busy day preparing for Thursdays practice Ben and Tom had a slow first lap but they were clearly holding something back because their second lap was much faster, maybe they were just bedding something in on the first lap as the second time around the course they lapped in excess of 113mph Proving that they are right on the pace and looking good for Saturdays race.

Beautifully turned out

Faster on Friday

The Sure Formula two Sidecar competitors continued to be blessed with ideal racing conditions as they lined up for the start of this weeks final practice run.

Early pace setters John Holden and Andy Winkle look to be the duo to beat after recording the fastest lap of the week on Friday at 115.349mph. They were closely followed by the Birchalls on 114.657mph, the third fastest lap of the week, showing that Tom and Ben are building their speed nicely in preparation for Saturdays 3 lap race.

Ben and Tom Birchall pitted prior to their second lap but only managed to get to Union Mills on their second lap before a mechanical problem struck, we don’t have confirmation from the team as to why this was but we are assured everything will be in place and ready for Saturdays Sure Sidecar Race which is scheduled to get underway at 2pm (GMT).

You can follow all of the qualifying and racing around the Mountain Course via the live timing on the official TT website and live Manx Radio commentary which is available via iomtt.com.

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