WORLD CHAMPIONS TAKE DECISIVE WIN AT ASSEN Current world sidecar champions Ben and Tom Birchall rode to a decisive victory at Assen in Holland after being invited by the Dutch Sidecar Racing Association to race as guest riders. The Mitchells of Mansfield supported brothers dominated proceedings throughout the weekend setting pole with a lap on one minute 48.241 seconds just under three seconds ahead of Janez Remse and Jamie Biggs with Colin Nicholson and Jarno Van Lith just a fraction behind in third place. Ben and Tom took a lights-to-flag victory in the MCA Speed Challenge race crossing the finish line with a massive 48.315 second advantage over Nicholson and Lith with Remse and Biggs a further eight seconds adrift in third place. “We really enjoyed racing at Assen,” said Ben. “I would like to extend my thanks to the Dutch Sidecar Racing Association and also to the Assen circuit for their very warm welcome. We were made to feel very much at home by all the circuit officials etc which is nice. “We covered a fair few laps at Assen and this came in very handy for us as we have a world championship race in Croatia at the weekend and the time spent on track was useful to make sure the bike is set up and there are no problems in preparation for the two races in Saturday and Sunday.” Ben and Tom are now well on their way to Rijeka in Croatia where they will begin their world championship weekend with free practice on Friday followed on Saturday by two qualifying sessions prior to the first race to be run over 11 laps of the course at 4.50pm (CET). The feature race is scheduled to run over 20 laps on Sunday at 12.45pm (CET). Ben and Tom have won there on two occasions in the past and can take the series lead if they can repeat this performance this time around.