British Championship Sidecars set to star at Brands once more This weekend sees the Eastern Airways British F1 Sidecar Championship make a return to Brands Hatch and with another 3 races to be held, it promises to be another action packed 2 days of racing, especially with the full Grand Prix circuit in use. Indeed, there’s a bumper programme in store for race goers and with the British Historic Championship and MRO National series also in attendance, there’s no less than 33 races, solos and sidecars, being held over the two days! Held on the 2.6-mile historic GP circuit, it’s the second round of the Championship for the sidecars after their season got underway in spectacular style at the Kent venue over Easter and, with an eight lap ‘sprint’ race on Saturday and two 12-lap encounters on Sunday, it should again serve up some hectic thrills and spills with the best drivers in the country again in attendance. A month ago, it was the turn of local hero Tim Reeves to dominate and, with Frenchman Gregory Cluze in the chair, the Kent driver blitzed the field to take both race wins and start his Championship defence with a maximum 50 points. The triple World Champion was in fine form at Easter but since then machine issues have left him with work to do and 4th and 5th at the opening round of the World Championship event in Germany was not what he was expecting given such a strong start to the year. The reigning Champion will be hoping to get back into the winners’ circle this weekend. The rest of the field will come to Brands with great optimism and, with current Championship runners-up Ben and Tom Birchall expected to be missing after a crash at the same GP meeting, the event really is wide open and any number of crews can take advantage and step onto the podium. Leading that charge, and eager to make amends for their opening round disappointment, will be Barry James and Jamie Winn. The duo took a superb pole position last time out but failed to finish either race so will be looking to get some decent points on the board this weekend whilst Scott Lawrie/James Neave and Roger Lovelock/Rick Lawrence both took podiums over the Easter weekend and will be hoping for more of the same over the GP circuit. As well as the aforementioned, other expected front runners should include Ben Holland/Lee Watson, Phil Bell/Ashley Hawes and Steve Kershaw/Robin Wilson as well as local driver Andy Peach. His 2011 campaign got off to a mixed start at the opening round when, after a very strong drive into 5th in the first race, he got no further than 100 yards in the second when a technical problem with his 1000cc LCR Suzuki outfit caused him to grind to a halt. With Charlie Richardson in the chair, he’ll be determined to score points in both races this time around and get his Championship challenge back on track. Saturday’s 15-race programme kicks off with practice at 09.00 with the first of the Eastern Airways F1 British Sidecar Championship races scheduled to get off at race 13. The action on Sunday starts slightly later with the morning warm-up sessions at 10.00am and the two 12-lap Sidecar events will be races 7 and 16 on the busier 18-race programme. Current Championship positions: 1st Reeves/Cluze 50pts 2nd Birchall/Birchall 40pts 3rd= Lawrie/Neave 29pts 3rd= Lovelock/Lawrence 29pts 5th= Holland/Watson 20 pts 5th= Bell/Hawes 20pts 7th Kershaw/Wilson 17 pts 8th Peach/Richardson 11pts 9th Parkinson/Tritton 10pts 10th= Lambert/Schofield 9pts 10th= Chaplow/Evanson 9pts