Rounds four and five of the 2019 FIM Sidecar World Championship, held at Assen in the Netherlands and Grobnik, Croatia have been immensely challenging for the Mansfield-based Birchall brothers. Despite showing impressive speed at both events, bad luck and misfortune hampered the boys’ performance, resulting in less-than-ideal results from both venues. Never a team to give up, the Birchalls still gave 100 percent and will go into the final round of the championship with a fighting chance of victory.

Assen started well for the One Call Insurance backed team – fastest in practice, the boys went on to place their LCR Yamaha outfit on pole position for the race. After a strong start, heavy contact by a fellow competitor into the first corner pushed the boys down to third. With a damaged gear lever making shifting difficult for Ben, the pair nevertheless pushed on and moved into second. Further contact later in the race only made things worse and now with Ben’s shift lever almost unusable and one of Tom’s handles damaged, the brothers decided to settle for second. Having shown dominant pace throughout the weekend, Birchall Racing were unquestionably denied the win, but ever-determined, looked forward to Croatia in the hunt for more points.

With the championship moving on to the Grobnik circuit just one week later, the Birchalls once again impressed by topping both practice and qualifying. Heading the grid into Saturday’s sprint race, the Birchall’s got off to a great start and led into the first series of corners. Unchallenged on track, Ben and Tom increased their lead at the front – Ben driving superbly, the brothers looked to be on for a win. On lap four, the rest of the outfits appeared from the back of the circuit but no Birchalls. The team had been forced to pull off the track when a broken fuel pipe caused their machine to come to a halt. A devastating blow to both their race and their championship.

Sunday dawned hot at the Grobnik track for the Gold Race main event. With the championship at stake, Birchall Racing had no choice but to go for the win. Another great start took the boys into the lead, leaving their competitors to fight for the remaining podium places. Putting in a masterclass of driving on the Croatian track, Ben led the field from start-to-finish to claim valuable championship points and keep them in the hunt for the title.

Going into the two-race final round at Estoril, Spain on October 19, Ben and Tom trail their main championship contenders by just seven points. With 50 points up for grabs and the Birchall’s ‘never give up’ attitude, the title is far from decided.

Ben Birchall: “It’s definitely been a frustrating couple of weeks. We made some changes to the bike before Assen and they have definitely worked – we were easily the fastest outfit at both of the last two rounds, it’s just a shame the results don’t show that. Despite the bad luck, we’re still in with a chance at the title. It’s going to be tough, no question, but we’ll do what we always do – get our heads down and give it our all. I just want to thank the whole team and our supporters for everything they do. We’ve got a good break now before the final round so we’ll go away and get everything prepped before heading over to Spain and giving 100 percent.”

Tom Birchall: “Racing is full of ups and downs and we’ve certainly had our fair share. The last two weeks were tough but on the positive side we have shown that we definitely have the pace to win and the whole team have come together for us to achieve that. Thanks to everyone for sticking by us, hopefully we can get a good run in Spain in October and come away with the win.”

Birchall Racing’s next outing in the FIM Sidecar World Championship will be the sixth and final round held at the Estoril circuit in Spain from October 19 – 20.

Photo credit: Mark Walters

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The sun shone down on Assen for round five of the FIM Sidecar World Championship. Starting early on Saturday morning, Birchall Racing went out on track and after bedding themselves and their machine in immediately began to set the pace. At the end of the first qualifying session they were the only team to break the one minute 45 second barrier.

Qualifying two also went the way of the Mansfield-based family team, enjoying a trouble-free session, the brothers posted a time of 1:44.099 – over a second faster than their nearest rivals.

Finding even more pace on Sunday’s morning warm-up, the Birchalls went into the Gold Race feeling confident of a top result. Firing off the line and grabbing the holeshot, the boys took the early lead and immediately pulled a second over the following pack. With their LCR Yamaha outfit handling perfectly on the famous Assen circuit Ben and Tom looked set to claim another world championship win.

Several laps into the race unfortunately, Ben noticed an issue with the bike. Although seemingly running well, the pair lost point-seven of a second in one lap, enabling the chasing outfit piloted by Tim Reeves to catch and pass them. With the issue momentarily rectifying itself what followed was a titanic battle between the two world champion drivers with over half a lap completed with their machines virtually side-by-side.

Swapping positions with Reeves for the next five laps, the technical issue began to worsen – Ben was unable to maintain the pace needed to fight for the win and was regrettably forced to back-off, ultimately crossing the line in third, salvaging valuable championship points.

Although the team have thankfully diagnosed the issue as a simple faulty throttle position sensor, they are understandably disappointed not to have converted their superior pace over the weekend into a race win.

Ben Birchall: “I am gutted we couldn’t take victory at Assen. Third place is still a great result but after all the hard work the team have put in preparing the machine over the last couple of months its disappointing not to reward them with a win. We did everything right all weekend and had a good advantage over the rest of the field. Unfortunately, despite fixing one issue that has bugged us all season, another small problem arose and meant we weren’t able to perform at 100% when it mattered. On a positive note, the bike was handling superbly and I think we put on a good show for the fans on the packed Assen grandstands. We’ll go back now and start preparing the bike for Croatia and hopefully we’ll be able to carry the speed we had from Assen into the last two rounds of the championship and come away with maximum points.”

Tom Birchall: “Obviously it’s so disappointing not to have come away with a win, especially after showing such dominating pace over the course of the event. Ben was driving really well and the team have done a great job on the sidecar – we were just let down by one small part. I’d like to thank everyone for supporting us and we’ll be back even stronger at the next world round at the beginning of September.”

The next event for Birchall Racing will be round six of the FIM Sidecar World Championship from Grobnik, Rijeka in Croatia on September 8-9.

Results – 2018 FIM Sidecar World Championship – Round 5, Assen, Netherlands

Gold Race – 17 laps
1. Reeves/Wilkes, Adolf RS Yamaha, 29:59.042
2. Päivärinta/Vervainen, LCR Honda, 30:01.676 +2.634 seconds
3. Birchall/Birchall, LCR Yamaha, 30:05.664 +6.622 secs

Photo credit: Mark Walters

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The Mitchells of Mansfield supported riders dominated free practice and qualifying to claim pole position at the Cathedral of Speed on Saturday to start Sunday’s 17 lap Gold race from the head of the grid.

The brothers went on to take a lights to flag victory on their LCR/Yamaha. However they didn’t have it all their own way as they were chased from the off by Paivarinta and Kainulainen and the two outfits were in close formation for the first seven of 17 laps.

But Ben decided it was time to pull the plug and shake off the attention of the Finnish pair and began to steadily pull clear. By lap 10 they were into the backmarkers and remained in control of the race to cross the finish line some seven seconds ahead of their rivals with fellow British pair of John Holden and Mark Wilks bringing their LCR/Kawasaki home in third place.

Ben said: “we had a fantastic result at Assen in the world championship in front of a massive 90,000 strong crowd and take one step closer to the world title. Thanks to our sponsors for their continued support and also to the organisers for such a great event.”

The final round of the series is at the Grobnik Automotodrom in Croatia over the weekend of September 8/9 when the Birchall brothers will contest a Sprint race on Saturday and then the Gold race on Sunday. With an advantage of 30 points over Paivarinta and 50 championship points up for grabs in Croatia Ben and Tom need to just finish the first race ahead of their nearest rivals to claim their third world title and their second in the 600cc class.

Prior to that Ben and Tom will be at Cadwell Park on August 20 to take part in the British championship sidecar races which run as a support to the British Superbike championship.

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The F2 World Trophy race is run within the gird of the F1 World championship and after taking pole in their class the Mitchells of Mansfield supported brothers began their campaign from the third row in sixth position overall.

As the lights went out at the start of the 17 lap affair Ben and Tom settled into seventh place behind Holden/Ramsey. When John Holden was forced out after a spin on lap 10 the Mansfield pair were elevated to sixth overall and first in class by a large margin.

Ben and Tom maintained their sixth position and crossed the finish line to take their sixth win in the F2 World Trophy class well ahead of their nearest rivals Guignard/Poux who completed the race in 19th place overall.

Ben commented:

We had another great weekend here at Assen. The event was really well organised and there was a huge crowd to watch the sidecar race.

The bike ran well and we were really happy with its performance; we now look forward to Oschersleben and to hopefully continue our winning ways.

Ben and Tom Birchall have extended their series lead in the F2 World Trophy and having won all six races to date look almost certain to take the World Trophy at the end of the season.

The next round is at Oschersleben in Germany on August 27/28 where the team will have two races to contest. The final round of the championship that will decide the title is on home tarmac at Donington Park when Ben and Tom will be riding in front of their home crowd and sponsors at the British Superbike meeting on September 17.

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Still recovering from the serious hand injury sustained in the accident on the Isle of Man Ben did just enough in qualifying to gain a respectable grid position, saving his energy for the race. The Mitchells of Mansfield supported team recorded four or more laps and set a fast time which was sufficient to start the race from the front row of the grid in second place.

Race day threw up some challenges as just prior to the start of the race there was a rain storm. But the track was drying quickly and the riders opted to go out in damp conditions on slick tyres in the hope the rain would stay away.

Ben said: “The conditions being damp at the start were a little difficult for me as it put a lot of strain on my injured hand; but as the track dried we were able to get up to our normal speed.”

The Birchall boys got the hole shot into the first turn and held the lead for the first couple of laps before being overhauled by Reeves/Cluze. But the leaders did not pull away and Ben was able to remain in touch circulating about three seconds adrift. As the race unfolded the track dried out and Ben was able to push a bit harder setting the fastest lap of the race (1m 42.599s) in his efforts to catch the leaders. But it was a little too late and the Birchall brothers crossed the finish line in second place the gap being just 2.35s.

Ben said: “We were pleased to set the fastest lap but also very pleased it was the final lap. We brought the gap down to just over two seconds but I was so relieved to have finished as it was a long, hard race for me in the circumstances. I need to thank Mike Hayton for his fantastic efforts in putting my hand back together which enabled me to actually race today. To think where we were three weeks ago it’s an amazing effort by the consultant to get me relatively fit. Also to the Hyperbaric chamber in Nottingham and Phoenix Physio and Laser clinic for the work they did leading up to the Assen race. My team have been amazing, everyone has dug in to help so I could rest up and my main sponsor Andy Mitchell even drove the transporter to Assen which was such a help as I couldn’t drive that far. To finish the race on the podium with MotoGP was amazing.”

The second place earned Ben and Tom 20 championship points and puts them back up to second in the overall rider standings. The next round is at Sachsenring in Germany on July 13 and is once again a support race to the MotoGP championship.

pic credit Wally Walters

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