The world famous 7,004 km Spa- Francorchamps circuit in Belgium will hold the third round of the FIM World Sidecar championship from the 2nd June to 5th June.
Again, there will be two races towards the championship. The world sidecars will be supporting the FIM Endurance World Championship for solo bikes, just like the first round in Le Mans. It has been a few years since world sidecars have been at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. For sure it will be a sight as the sidecars jostle for position through the “La Source hairpin” then the flat out run up through “Eau Rouge.
Leading the championship by a slender 4 points is Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement from the 2021 Champions Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries, 86 points. The Anglo French team of Ellis and Clement will want to try and increase their championship lead over the Swiss team of Schlosser and Fries.
Third in the championship is, Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau. They will not compete here in Belgium. The team will contest the IOM TT races. News from the team earlier in the year was, they would not contest the remainder of the championship this year.
Fourth place team in the championship is Stephen Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood with 50 points. With Reeves and Rousseau not competing, Kershaw and Charlwood will want to capitalize on this and try to increase their points tally; and possibly get up into the top three, the team has been battling up front with the leading teams throughout the championship so far, they will hope this continues.
Another Swiss team, Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer are sitting with 36 points in fifth place. They have increasingly been getting faster as the season has progressed, and have been is some great battles so far this year.
Sixth place is Harry Payne and Mark Wilkes, they have 31 points, a credit to the team after a huge qualifying crash in Le Mans could have sidelined the team for the rest of the season, but no, they are battling on. It will be interesting to see what the team plans are as they will contest the IOM TT races, as well as this event.
Ted and Vincent Peugeot, who are sitting in seventh place in the championship will manage to contest this event, it was not sure whether this would be possible due to other circumstances. The team has had some great battles so far this season. Also, the team will be on a high, with wins at their domestic French championship recently.
Dutch driver, Bennie Streuer with his German Passenger Kevin Kolsch have put their disastrous French GP well behind them, they have been fast throughout, they will be looking for success here at Spa.
What a home GP circuit for the Belgium team of Cedric and Arnaud Pierard. The team have been getting to grips with the Sidecar World Championship’s long races, a lot longer than they are accustomed to. They have been finding out how to manage tyre life, machine set up, and the energy it takes to contest the full race distance. They will be hoping for a great weekend in front of the home fans, and increase their points tally, keeping them in the top ten of the championship and maybe better.
Claude Vinet with Sebastien Arifon will be hoping for a good weekend, they are only 1 point behind the Belgian team. It was the first time passenger, Arifon, had been on with Vinet last time out at Assen, they will have had time to discuss that meeting.
Kevin Cable and Charlie Richardson will have their race heads on as they have been competing in Assen on route to Spa. They will hope to get good points to lift them up into the top ten of the championship.
Janez Remse and Manfred Wechselberger will hope for a better weekend here than in Assen, and the last round in the German IDM championship, where they had an off track excursion, thankfully with no injury or big damage.
There will be more sidecar teams here from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands not wanting to miss the opportunity of racing at this world famous circuit.
Thursday will be a busy day for the teams, after administrative and technical checks, there will be two free practice sessions followed by two qualifying sessions.
Friday, we will see the first of two races, starting at 14:45 pm local time. Saturday, the second race for the weekend, starting at 11:25 am.
Mark Walters