Birchall Racing look back at their hugely impressive 2019 racing season – claiming third overall in the FIM Sidecar World Championship, while successfully defending their Sidecar TT crown by doing the double once again on the iconic Isle of Man Mountain Course.
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Former British Champion and multiple International road race winner Steve Plater is facing a spell of recuperation after a nasty off-road crash on Monday left him with a fractured C1 vertebrae in his neck. The crash happened in the Welsh mountains when the Lincolnshire ace fell from his enduro bike and was hit from behind, the front wheel of the following bike hitting him directly at the back of the head with his neck taking the full force of the impact. Fortunately, his Arai helmet did a superb job in protecting his head but when he was assessed at Aberystwyth Hospital later that day, the fracture was diagnosed.
The assessment thankfully confirmed no further damage, with the C6 vertebrae that Steve damaged in a crash at the 2010 North West 200 completely unscathed but, after being released from hospital on Thursday, Steve travelled to Manchester for further checks and opinion.
Steve would like to express his thanks to Arai Europe, Acerbis UK for their excellent protection and all of the staff at Aberystwyth Hospital.
PLEASE NOTE – MIKE’S EMAIL ADDRESS HAS BEEN UPDATED.
RKB-F1 Motorsport in association with Santander Salt Ltd. has reached an agreement with the FIM (the International governing body of motorcycle sport) whereby they have arrived at an eight round series across seven different countries for the 2020 FIM World Sidecar Championship.
This is the result of extensive discussions between new series promoter Roger Body, the FIM, the circuit organisers, and a large degree of cooperation and advice from German former ace driver Ralf Bohnhorst.
“Bohni” as he is affectionately known, has been very involved organising the series in recent years, building a sound platform from which to move forward.
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By Mark Walters
Multiple champions, Ben and Tom Birchall will be taking some time away from racing in the “FIM World Championship”.
At the last round of 2019 in “Estoril” Portugal, “Birchall Racing” sold their former championship-winning “LCR” Yamaha to Dutch sidecar driver Kees Endeveld. This left some people wondering would the Birchall Brothers, Ben and Tom start the 2020 season with a new “LCR” chassis, powered with Yamaha engines.
Unfortunately, this is not to be. It was decided by the team that it was time to take a break from racing on the world scene to spend more time with their young families, continue to develop their LCR chassis and focus their racing efforts closer to home on the smaller F2 machine.
Driver Ben said, “It was a very hard decision to make, but if I was totally honest, I was not really enjoying my racing at the world level. A lot of things have happened over the last couple of years. By spending more time in the UK, we can focus on racing the F2 outfit as well as having longer to enjoy family life and develop the LCR bikes even more.
There’s definitely more development that we can do to the F2 machine, but as for the F1 chassis, we would like to develop and try to improve that too, but it will be hard, as it’s nearly perfect as it is.”
Ben and Tom have been racing together every year since 2004.
But remember people, this is not retirement; this is taking some time out racing the F1 Chassis. Let’s hope the Birchall Brothers, Ben and Tom, will be back in the world championship paddock very soon.
Mark Walters.
From an FIM Press Release 15/01/20, see the FIM site on the logo above.
The FIM has reached an agreement with Santander to collaborate on the promotion of the FIM Sidecar World Championship. The official contract will be signed soon.
Today FIM and Santander are pleased to announce the 2020 provisional calendar
April 18-19 Le Mans – France
May 16-17 Lausitzring – Germany
June 27-29 Pannoniaring – Hungary
TBA – TBC – Great Britain
August 29-30 Rijeka – Croatia
September 17-20 Assen – Netherlands
October 3-4- Oschersleben – Germany
October 24-25 Estoril – Portugal
Experienced passenger looking for safe ride in the british f2 championship, currently holding clubman licence nearly national licence.
I have passengered most circuits on the F2 championship rota and I am race fit ready to go, I would be happy to do any testing or with the team before hand to make sure we get on and can progress through the year to achieve team goals.
I am hands on with the outfit and with communicating with the driver to work through issues or making adjustments.
Fiona is running 10k in May for her chosen charity Headway. You can read all about Fiona’s story and please donate on the link.
Click here or on the photo below for the link
Thank you
Simon Gilbert is trying to get a list together of sidecar teams who would take part in a 2 day test at Blyton Park (near Gainsborough) end of February/early March.
Simon would have to hire the circuit and get everyone to share the cost – so is looking for at least 10 teams for both days to get the cost down to 300 for the weekend, the more people go the cheaper it will get. This is comparable to a club meeting entry price but of course a load more track time, basically open circuit.
The date is not set yet, this is to gauge interest so speak to Si and when he has a few people interested he will work everything out. You can find more details of Blyton Park on their website, click the logo below.
For Simon’s contact details please click read more!
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Road racing legend John McGuinness will contest the 2020 Isle of Man TT and International North West 200 road races for Quattro Plant Bournemouth Kawasaki with the Morecambe rider having signed a deal today (Friday) to ride for Pete Extance’s British Superbike Championship-winning team.
Continue readingFrom Boris Stroud
Can anyone tell me who has a Baker long bike front end for sale. Looking for full unit, for a buddy of mine
If you can help please email me steve@steveenglish.com
Huge congratulations to Shaun McCain and Jack Hawkins, winners of the 2019 UK Clubsport Sidecar of the Year.
Great to see a team from the Bears win the award and having raced in the BEARS I can truly say an award well earned. Shaun and Jack are moving across to F2 in 2020 I believe, showing how the class can help get racers started.
Well done lads! Now go show the F2 guys how it’s done 🙂
