The third round of the Maxxis ACU British Sidecarcross championship was held at Wattisfield Hall near Diss on Sunday hosted by the Diss MCC. The weather was kind with no rain on Sunday and occasional periods of sunshine and the track preparation by the hard working club members was just right.
Practice started right on time with the 36 teams familiarising themselves with the compact, natural track. During the fifteen minutes of timed practice Brown / Chamberlain were quickest.
In the first race of the day Jarvis / Nilsson took the holeshot from Wilkinson with Brown back in about sixth place. By the end of lap one Jarvis had a comfortable lead but Brown was now up to fourth and right in the wheeltracks of Grahame / Lloyd. Leading the Experts class was Bowers / Phelps from Oldfield / Barnes. Brown very soon passed Grahame and by lap four was right behind Wilkinson. At half distance Wilkinson took the lead from Jarvis and on the next lap Brown was past as well. Bowers was still leading the Experts but was now under pressure from Hodges / Hodges and Etheridge / Grahame. With five minutes to go Brown took the lead and went on to take his first win of the day. Wilkinson was second just ahead of Jarvis. Hodges won the Experts class from Etheridge.
Immediately after the lunch break the gate dropped for race two and this time Brown took the holeshot from Wilkinson and Jarvis with the leading Expert, Etheridge, in fourth. Wilkinson took the lead away from Brown almost immediately and held that lead for the first couple of laps. Having driven through the night from a meeting in Ireland on Saturday the Irish teams were a bit subdued but Campbell / Parmenter got a good start in this race and were in fifth place.
The five leaders held their positions to the flag and local rider David Keane and his passenger Paul Horton worked their way up to sixth place. In the early stages Bowers held second place in the Experts but just a few laps into the race his seat fell off and he slowly dropped back finally finishing in eleventh. Hodges took second place in the Experts finishing in eighth place. Incredibly 33 teams were listed as finishers with just the Dutch driver Mike Keuben and his passenger Ryan Humphrey plus Pelling / Pannell missing out, both because of machine problems. Because of Keuben’s ongoing machine problems Humphrey teamed up with Gary Moulds for the final race as his passenger Alan Gardner had been injured in Ireland the previous day.
The final race of the day saw Brown take the holeshot from Jarvis with Wilkinson third and Grahame fourth. By the end of lap two Etheridge was past Grahame and these five held their places to the flag. Behind Grahame Moulds was just ahead of Bowers who was now coming under attack from Campbell. By half distance Campbell was up to sixth just in front of Moulds. For the rest of the race Moulds held off Bowers, Keane, Pelling, Hodges and Kinge. Once again Etheridge had won the Experts class from Bowers and Hodges.
Brown took the overall win on the day with Wilkinson second 11 points behind and Jarvis third. In the Experts Etheridge took the win from Hodges with Bowers third.
After this round Brown leads the championship by fourteen points ahead of Wilkinson with Etheridge now third. In the Experts class Etheridge leads by 33 points from Bowers and Kinge in third place.
The fourth round is at Milton Park on 26
th June.