Glorious conditions greeted the crews as they arrived at Brands Hatch and luckily a small shower before qualifying soon dried out and the teams took to the 2.43-mile GP circuit. Lacking the ultimate torque of the larger capacity machines, Ben and Tom still piloted their Mitchells of Mansfield Yamaha to second fastest, just a second behind the leaders.

Ben Birchall and Tom Birchall, Mansfield, Mitchells of Mansfield
Round 06 Brands Hatch
British Superbikes
20th – 22nd July 2018

Race 1 started well for the Birchalls who were the fastest of the 600cc machines off the line. By the end of lap two the brothers had made their way into third place. Another strong move took them to second where they would remain until the finish – unchallenged by the larger machines behind.

With the Kentish sun growing warmer, Race 2 got underway with the usual reverse grid. This saw Birchall Racing start from the fifth row in ninth. Following a good start, the impressive corner speed of the Birchall’s LCR Yamaha was obvious – the team carved their way through the pack, chasing down Race 1 winners Kershaw and Clark. Despite setting their fastest lap of the weekend in the closing stages of the race, the Mansfield based Birchalls couldn’t quite catch the leading pair and settled for the runner-up position.

Ben Birchall: “I really enjoyed Brands Hatch, we had a great weekend. While we weren’t quite able to take the overall win against the 1000s, I am happy with the pace we were able to set on the 600 bike. Thanks to our friends and sponsors who came along to support us and thanks to Craig Fitzpatrick for his excellent work on the engine and ignition – the bike was working great! I’m really looking forward to the next BSB round at Thruxton now.”

Tom Birchall: “That was a lot of fun, it always feels good to race in front of your home fans, so thanks to everyone out there for their support. The bike was perfect and Ben was driving really well – all-in-all a really good weekend.”

Birchall Racing’s next outing will be the seventh round of the British Sidecar Championship held at Thruxton on 3-5 August.

2018 British Superbike Championship, BSB BSB R06 Brands Hatch GP, Kent, 22nd July 2018.
Ben Birchall and Tom Birchall, Mansfield, Mitchells of Mansfield

Results – 2018 British Sidecar Championship – Round 6, Brands Hatch

Race One Result
1. Kershaw/Clark
2. Birchall/Birchall
3. Ellis/Richardson
4. Bryan/Hyde
5. Stevens/Charlwood

Race Two Result
1. Kershaw/Clark
2. Birchall/Birchall
3. Stevens/Charlwood
4. Bryan/Hyde
5. Lovelock/Lawrence

Photo credit: Tim Keeton – Impact Images

2018 British Superbike Championship, BSB BSB R06 Brands Hatch GP, Kent, 22nd July 2018.
Ben Birchall and Tom Birchall, Mansfield, Mitchells of Mansfield

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The race started on time but an incident on the first lap caused the red flag to be shown and a full-restart was necessary. With the teams given time to regroup, the starter eventually dropped his flag at 7pm on Saturday evening.

Pushing hard straight from the start, the Birchalls had already opened up a gap of 2.1 seconds over the second-placed pairing of John Holden and Lee Cain by Glen Helen, just over nine miles into the course. They continued to pull away from the field opening up a lead of over 13 seconds at the end of lap one and in doing so, broke their own lap record with an average speed of 117.502mph.

Lap two continued with Ben and Tom setting a sensational pace, doubling their lead over Holden and Cain to a comfortable 26.1 seconds at the end of the lap. Their average speed over the 37.75-mile second lap increased to a stunning 118.694mph in a time of 19m 04.353s.

Posting an average speed of 117.771mph on the third and final lap, the Birchalls continued to increase their lead over the eventual runners-up Holden and Cain. The win is the seventh for the Mansfield-based team and the fourth consecutive victory following their 2016 win and their double a year later in 2017.

Birchall Racing will now concentrate on the Locate.im Sidecar TT race two, held on Friday June 8 – Senior Race day.

Ben Birchall: “I really enjoyed that – what a race. You never really know what pace you can run around the Isle of Man, you just have to take things as smoothly as you can, hit every apex and not make any mistakes. Tom has been faultless and the team have been incredible, supporting us and enabling us to be here so I can’t thank them enough.”

Tom Birchall: “What an incredible race – it’s hard to take it all in really. The pace was so hot after the restart but Ben drove superbly and the whole race was pretty much flawless. After a difficult practice week, the first race can always be a bit tricky. The first lap before the red flag was not so great but, on the restart, Ben got his head down and the speed just comes when everything clicks like that. I have to thank our whole team, sponsors and families as it takes a lot of hard work to get here and be competitive and we couldn’t do it without such a great group of guys and girls behind us.”

Results – 2018 Isle of Man Locate.im Sidecar TT Race 1

1. Birchall/Birchall, LCR Honda, 57:33.635
2. Holden/Cain, LCR Honda, 58:20.767
3. Reeves/Wilkes, LCR Honda, 58:42.668

Photo credit: Mark Walters

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The event will take place on the 4.168km circuit of Grobnik in Croatia, just south of Rijeka and although there are two races, the Mitchells of Mansfield supported brothers only have to complete the first race ahead of their nearest rivals, Paivarinta and Kainulainen to be crowned world champions.

Ben and Tom have spent the last couple of weeks preparing the LCR Yamaha R6 outfit for their final campaign and are confident it is in perfect condition and ready for the challenge.

Ben and Tom in Croatia last year

Ben said: “we are excited to be challenging for the world championship this weekend, the outfit is fully prepared and in perfect condition so it is just down to us two to make sure we maintain our winning streak and bring the world title back to Mansfield.”

The timetable is as below but remember that Croatia is one hour ahead of the UK.

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Starting the Sprint race from pole position it was the Birchall Brothers who got the perfect start into the first series of bends on their Birchall Racing LCR Yamaha. Paivarinta/Kainulainen slotted into second place and gave chase to the Birchall Brothers with Streuer/De-Haas following just a fraction of a second behind.

As the race wore on the Mitchells of Mansfield supported brothers began to pull away and crossed the finish line well ahead of Paivarinta who followed them home in second place. Holden/Wilks reeled in and passed Streuer to finish the race in third place.

In the gold race on Sunday Ben and Tom didnt get a clean getaway at the start but once into their stride took the lead by the end of the first lap. They soon pulled clear of the pursuing pack and extended their lead throughout the 20 lap affair to take the chequered flag over 27 seconds ahead of Paivarinta/Kainulainen with Holden/Wilkes again finishing in third place.

Ben said:

“We have enjoyed our time in Germany and are delighted to have secured the win in both races.

The outfit is running really well and things couldn’t have gone any better for us. All the hard work and preparation we put in over the closed season is paying off nicely.

Ben continued:

“Oschersleben is a great circuit and we were really pleased we were able to take pole position, both wins and the lap record.

Thanks go to our hard working crew members who have pulled out all the stops again this weekend. Thanks also to our sponsors and supporters; we are delighted to have been able to reward them for their loyalty with a brace of wins this weekend.

“We’re off to the TT now so we cant wait for that”

The next round of the World Sidecar championship is in Hungary over the weekend of June 17-18 when once again there are two races for the brothers to contest.

The TT gets underway with practice starting on Saturday, May 27 to Friday, June 2. The first three lap sidecar race takes place on Saturday, June 3 with a provisional start time of 2pm. The second race is on Friday, June 9 at 10.15am.

We’ll be putting together an IOM TT race page so you can find all the latest IOM TT news and results as soon as they happen. Check back on the website later for details.

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Fresh from their victory in the first round of the World Sidecar championship at Le Mans, the team headed to Cheshire to contest the second round of the British championship. Because of a date clash they were unable to ride in the first round at Brands Hatch but were keen to make up for that by securing a win at Oulton Park.

Within the mixed grid of F1 and 600cc Cup competitors the Mitchells of Mansfield supported brothers posted some fast laps during qualifying and were fastest in class, fifth overall and placed on the third row for the start of the 12 lap race on Monday.

After qualifying Ben commented: “It was tricky out there as the track was damp and I was unable to get a clear run to elevate myself further up the grid but on saying that I was really happy to be only 1.2 seconds away from pole which, considering I was giving away 400cc to the F1 teams who were running 1000cc engines, was excellent.”

As the race got underway the Birchalls were baulked by a number of machines as they went into Hizzy’s chicane resulting in the outfit being pushed onto the grass. They were quick to recover and began the chase in eighth place overall and first in their class. On lap two they were up to seventh and then sixth as the field began to string out.

By the midway stage of the 12 lap affair they were up to fifth place and honing in on the F1 outfit ahead. They had just moved into fourth when one of the F1 passengers fell from his machine resulting in the red flag curtailing the track action and a result declared at 10 laps distance. The Birchall brothers were awarded fourth place overall and were the convincing winners of the 600 Cup over 34 seconds ahead of the second Cup competitors Founds/Walmsley.

Ben said:

“It was a great weekend for us at Oulton Park as we continue with the development of the new machine.

Craig Fitzpatrick of CF Motorsport spent some valuable time with us over the weekend to further improve the performance of the Yamaha R6 engine that he supplied to us for our World Championship campaign in readiness for the second round at Oschersleben shortly.

The weekend was helpful to keep our skills sharp battling with the F1 machines.

Thanks to our sponsors for their continued support and it was nice to be able to repay them in England with a convincing win.

“We now turn our attention to the TT machine and over the next two weeks will continue our test schedule before leaving for Oschersleben and then the TT.”

The next race for the Birchall brothers is the second round of the FIM World Sidecar championship at Oschersleben which takes place over the weekend of May 20-21.

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