The third round of the MAXXIS British Sidecarcross championships took place yesterday at Milton Moto Park hosted by ACU Events Ltd. With no rain in the week leading up to the weekend the track was very dry on Saturday but some heavy rain and many hours of watering by the organisers made sure that dust did not become a problem.
Timed practice for the thirty four sidecar competitors was a new experience for everyone as no sidecars had ridden on this track before. The fastest time was set by the defending champions Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain over five seconds faster than second placed Nick Jarvis / Dan Chamberlain. In third place were Brett Wilkinson / Steve Kirwin.
When the gate dropped for the first race Wilkinson took the holeshot from Brown with Jarvis third. A pile up on the first corner involved amongst others Pannel / Parmenter and Bradford / Peters. Wilkinson held the lead for the first two laps but Brown got past on lap three and never looked back. The leading five crews, Brown, Wilkinson, Jarvis, Grahame / Lloyd and Pelling with his third passenger of the year, Nick Morgan, held these positions to the finish. Bradford worked his way up from 27th on lap one to finish eighth.
In the second moto Brown took the holeshot from Wilkinson with Grahame third. Jarvis appeared to get his handlebars clipped in the start straight which caused them to come together with Bradford / Peters. Once the dust had settled it became clear five machines had come together just before turn one but fortunately all were able to continue. Brown piled on the pressure at the front and slowly pulled away from Wilkinson who in turn was pulling away from Grahame. By half distance Grahame was now coming under pressure from Campbell who in turn was being closed down by Jarvis. Bradford who had started 30th after the pile up was still out of the points at this stage. Campbell got past Grahame on lap seven and two laps later Jarvis also passed him. These five held these positions to the flag with Keane / Horton taking sixth and Bradford coming home in 11th. Incredibly during this race Chamberlain parted company with the Brown sidecar twice but they still managed to win by nearly 43 seconds!
The final race of the day saw an incident free start with Wilkinson taking the holeshot from Bradford and Jarvis with Brown in fourth. Brown passed Jarvis on lap two and Bradford on lap three and set off after Wilkinson. He caught him just after half distance and on lap seven he was past. Bradford held on to third with Jarvis holding fourth. Pelling had been in seventh for the first four laps then he passed Campbell to take sixth but lost this place on the next lap. As the race drew to a close it was obvious his passenger was in real trouble but incredibly he held on and they were rewarded with a ninth place finish.
At the half way point in the championship Brown now leads the series by thirty three points from Wilkinson with Bradford third a further thirty five points behind.
In the National Experts championship Grahame took the overall win from Walton / Barnes with Kinge / Snell third. Grahame now leads the championship by 65 points from Moulds / Gardner who are just one point ahead of Pannell / Parmenter.
The fourth round of the championship is a Toddington on 26th July.