|
Current world champions Tim and Tristan Reeves were racing alongside the MotoGP event at Sachsenring in Germany on Sunday in the fourth round of the World Sidecars Championship where they rode to pole position, smashed their existing lap record and rode a couple of fantastic races to net two glorious victories.
But they were denied the double win when, after the podium ceremony, race officials controversially stripped the Kent brothers of their win in the Gold race after awarding a 20 second penalty for an overtaking manoeuvre made at the final corner resulting in Tim and Tristan being dropped down to third place.
Despite the disadvantage of a 20kg weight penalty imposed on them for winning previous rounds Tim and Tristan sailed through qualifying and took pole position for the start of the 11-lap sprint race.
Tim got the hole shot and the pair headed the field from lights to flag to take a comfortable win with a three second advantage over nearest rivals Manninen and Kuismanen.
A further weight penalty was added to the Reeves machine in readiness for race two, the 22 lap Gold race and it took its toll on the brothers at the first corner when they ran a little wide onto some loose ground, slid across the grass to end up in the gravel trap.
Tim and Tristan were quick to get the outfit back on track but found themselves down in 17th position when they re-joined the race.
There followed a spectacular display of skilful riding from the brothers Reeves that had the crowd on its feet cheering them on as they ploughed their way through the backmarkers. For nine consecutive laps Tim smashed his own lap record set in the sprint race the previous day.
As they began the final lap Tim and Tristan were nearly on terms with Manninen who held the lead. Tim had a plan to catch and pass the Finnish pair at the last corner but his plans looked to fly out of the window when they came across a backmarker. |
|
Tim was all set to settle for second place but then Manninen drifted wide leaving a gap for Tim to overtake. But as Tim committed himself to the move Manninen drifted back and the pair rubbed fairings. Although not enough contact was made to cause damage to either machine it was sufficient to see Manninen run wide and across the grass leaving Tim and Tristan to take the victory with a slight advantage over Manninen who finished second.
No more was said until after the podium celebrations where the champions were presented with their winners trophies, but Tim and Tristan were summoned into the office to be told of the decision to award a 20 second penalty for the last corner move.
“Obviously I have had to accept the penalty,” said a disgruntled Tim Reeves. “But everyone who saw it said it was just a racing incident. We looked at the footage and pointed out what had happened but it was useless as they had decided to penalise us and that was that.
“We rode well and the crowd seemed to agree with that. They invaded the track on the slowing down lap forcing us to stop. They completely mobbed us and it took us 15 minutes to get back to pit lane.
“Everyone said that it was the best sidecar race they had seen in years and for that we are grateful.”
The first and third place give Tim and Tristan a further 36 championship points and they still head the standings but with a decreased advantage of just 13 points.
The next round is in Austria at the picturesque Salzburgring circuit on August 5/6.
|
