The sixth running of the International Sidecar Revival took place at Cadwell Park over the weekend 3-4 August, with no fewer than five sidecar classes in action. Hosted by the British Motorcycle Racing Club, the three-wheelers were also joined by the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters and GP Originals.
Sunny conditions greeted the outfits during warm up and qualifying on Saturday, and in the British Sidecar Championship it was the pairing of Sam and Tom Christie that set pole position, though just three hundredths of a second faster than Lewis Blackstock and Paddy Rosney, themselves only three hundredths of a second quicker than Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement.
In a 10-lap opener pole-sitters were beaten back to second place on the first lap by Blackstock and Rosney on their Dave Holden Racing LCR Yamaha machine. From there the Christie duo could only give chase, taking the runner up spot by three tenths of a second on their Christie Engineering Services LCR Yamaha.
Sam and Jack Laidlow, aboard their Marin Motorsports LCR Yamaha Cup machine slotted into third off the line, but were eventually overhauled by Ellis and Clement, who took the final podium spot.
An eventual race one on Sunday saw Ellis and Clement take the win by 16 seconds on the Brooklands Sand and Aggregates LCR Yamaha, after Sam and Tom Christie dropped out on lap three.
At the front Blackstock and Rosney looked to be on course for another win, but ran into issues on lap 12 of 14. They kept going, crossing the line in seventh.
The podium was completed by the Bonovo Action and Rich Energy sponsored Adolf RS Yamaha of Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes, and Steve Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood on the Quattro Group LCR Yamaha.
Blackstock and Rosney recovered to lead every lap of race three, but they were pushed all the way by Ellis and Clement, who finished two tenths down at the flag. The Laidlow pairing was third.
With one round to go Sam and Jack Laidlow lead the championship by two and a half points from Blackstock and Rosney.
The ACU FSRA British F2 Sidecar series also enjoyed a runout at the festival, and it looked as though Pete Founds and Jevan Walmsley were set to dominate the weekend’s racing after qualifying over a second and a half quicker than anyone else.
The duo used that clear lap time advantage to storm to victory in race one, taking the chequered flag by a whopping 12 and a half seconds from Lee Crawford and Scott Hardie and Steve and Matty Ramsden.
On the Trustland Construction LCR Honda they made it two from two in the first of Sunday’s races, though a last lap 10 seconds slower than their best due to lapped traffic allowed Crawford and Hardie to close in and chase them across the line, one second down on their Team ARC LCR Suzuki. Clarke and Johnson were third, astride their Eddys Moto CES Yamaha.
After almost slipping up in the morning, they dominated the final race, winning by nearly half a minute. Behind, however, there was a three-way scrap for the remaining two podium positions.
Just over half a second covered the nine wheels, with Clarke and Johnson taking the silver medal and Gary Bryan and Phil Hyde completing the podium. The Ramsden pairing narrowly missed out.
The four available overall wins in the FSRA First Call Refrigeration Pre-Injection Sidecar and British Historic Bear Sidecar races were split evenly between Adria Dawson and David Lissaman and Gary Fairhurst and Billy Andrews.
Dawson and Lissaman topped the podium in both of Saturday’s races on their F2 Derbyshire Yamaha. On both occasions they were joined by Fairhurst and Andrews and Andrew Bingham and Mick Fairhurst. Scott Whitaker and Madison Holroyd took two Bear class wins.
On Sunday it was Fairhurst and Andrews that doubled up, first winning from Danny Quirk and Sharon Reeves and Jack Fairhurst and Mark Burns, and then from William Gilroy and Taylor Oldroyd, with Fairhurst and Burns again third.
Whitaker and Holroyd secured another double in the Bear sidecar class, to make it four from four.
The European classic series Camathias Cup enjoyed three races around the historic Cadwell Park circuit, and Quirk and Reeves were back in action to win race one on a Bellas Vincent.
Marvin Vermeulen and Troy Klinker were second on a Triumph Bonneville-powered outfit, ahead of Seppe Noel and Kobe Dehouck
Vermeulen and Klinker went one better in race two, bettering Quirk and Reeves and Jon Perkins and Ian Nickels’ JPR Roland DKW 750, before the final race was won by Alastair and Patricia Lewis, riding a Bellas Nourish. Perkins and Nickels were second, Jan Beens and Gabrielle Arends third.
In the British Motorcycle Racing Club’s F1 and F2 Sidecars Rupert Archer and Phil Hyde qualified quickest, but failed to complete the opening lap of race one.
The win went to the F2 pairing of Ross Buchanan and Adam Evans on their Bull Inn Racing Lumley Kawasaki. Greg Lambert and Andrew Haynes were second, and third went to F1 class winners Chris Wright and Paul Bailey.
After the disappointing start to their weekend’s racing, Archer and Hyde won races two and three, on each occasion they took the F1 class win.
They were joined on the podium by Wright and Bailey and the F2 winners of Lambert and Haynes in the second of Saturday’s races, and Lambert and Haynes and Rob Handcock and Basil Bevan in Sunday’s opener.
Wright and Bailey ended the weekend with a win, taking the flag first in the final race, ahead of Charlie Morphet and David Ryder and Buchanan and Evans.
Breaking up the three-wheeled action were the DFDS Yamaha Past Masters and the GP Originals.
In the Yamaha exclusive class Anthony Johnson collected a hat trick of victories, after missing out on the win in race one to series leader Kevin Wholey after retiring on lap five.
Wholey was three times second to Johnson, while David Ball took a second and three thirds, and Richie Welsh took third place in race one.
Phil Atkinson dominated the GP Originals, winning all four races, and Josh Wainwright was second in all four outings. Roy Chapman bagged two thirds, with Chris Moore and Andrew Taylor taking one apiece.
The next round of the BMCRC season takes place at Snetteron on 30 August - 1 September.