This Saturday sees the opening round of the Maxxis British Sidecarcross championships and the Cromwell trucks British Quadcross championship take place at Desertmartin in Northern Ireland hosted by the North Armagh MCC.
The sidecar entry is a bit less than last year but most of the top riders have entered for the three twenty minute races. Defending champions Stuart Brown / Joe Millard have changed from the 700cc two stroke Zabel power plant to the 665 cc fourstroke AMS engine. In the meetings they have contested to date there have been very mixed fortunes with an overall win at the Dutch championship event in Lochem down to a double DNF at last week’s GP at Castelnau in France. They will be looking to start their defence of the title with an overall win. Trying their best to beat the champions will be Brett Wilkinson / Dan Chamberlain. They have had better overall results to date but are not fully recovered from injuries sustained earlier in the year.
Leading the contingent of nine Irish teams are Gary Moulds and his new passenger Niki Adair. Gary had a tremendous season last year and will be hoping to continue where he left off. Also in the running are Neil Campbell / Craig Parmenter who will be hoping to remain free of injuries and thus improve on their eighth place finish last year.
A late entry has just been received from the Dutch crew of Jarno van den Boomen / Kenny van Gaalan who should certainly be near the sharp end if they ride true to form.
Practice starts at 09.00 hrs with the first sidecar race due off at 11.30 hrs. The track can be found just off the Draperstown road and the nearest postcode is BT45 5QW.
In the Cromwell trucks British Quadcross championships twenty eight riders will be contesting this opening round in the six round championship. Defending champion Paul Holmes will be hoping to continue where he left off last year but Ireland’s Mark McLernon and Leon Rogers will be trying their hardest to dislodge him.
The U21 championship has attracted a good number of entries with Harry Walker one to look out for.