A WIN FOR THE BIRCHALLS IN GERMANY The Mitchells of Mansfield supported World Sidecar contenders Ben and Tom Birchall rode to a decisive victory in round three of the FIM World Sidecar championship held in Germany at Sachsenring as part of the support package to MotoGP. This fine victory elevates the Mansfield pair to second place behind current champions Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni. Free practice and qualifying went according to plan with Ben and Tom securing pole position for the start of Sunday’s big race. They were second fastest in the first session and improved to take pole in the shortened final session with a lap time of 1m 29.120s. “We were looking to improve the lap time even more but the session was halted early because of an incident involving another competitor,” said Ben. “But we went to the start line fairly confident we could pull off a top result.” As the lights went out it was Reeves/Cluze who got the hole shot into turn one but they were swiftly followed by Hock/Becker and Zimmerman/Ziegal with Ben and Tom Birchall hanging onto their shirt tails. As the race unfolded Ben and Tom moved into third place and began to chase down the two leading outfits. They took the lead mid race and once in front pulled away to establish an unbeatable lead, crossing the finish line at the end of the 22 lapper with a 7.6 second advantage over Paivarinta/Hanni. Hock/Becker took the chequered flag a couple of seconds later to clinch third place. “We waited for the race to settle down before making a move forward and went for the lead at half distance; after that we had a trouble free race and took a comfortable victory,” said Ben. “We put in a string of consistently fast laps to improved time to 1m 28.6s and felt very much in control out there. “I would once again like to give a big thank you to everyone who helped us recover after our crash at Schleiz, but for their help we would not have been in a position to win here today. The team worked really well again this weekend and the race went like clockwork. It has been a real confidence booster to win here at Sachsenring in front of the massive crowd that support the MotoGP championship and to further our challenge for the championship lead. “We have clawed points back and moved into second place eight points clear of Hock/Becker but are still someway behind championship leaders Paivarinta/Hanni. But there are 75 points still to race for in the last two rounds so it’s not all over just yet.” The next outing for the Birchall Brothers will be at Cadwell Park on August 14 in round five of the Eastern Airways British Sidecar championship prior to the final two rounds of the World Series Oschersleben on August 28 ahead of the season finale at Le Mans on September 24. More, from a press release issued by Pirelli: PIRELLI TRIUMPHS AT 24 HOURS OF MONTMELO Italian tire brand takes three wins and a second in different categories Barcelona, Spain Pirelli completed a weekend of triumphs at the 17th edition of the 24 hours of Catalunya, held at the Catalan circuit this past weekend under constantly changing climate conditions, seeing both intermittent torrential rains and intense sunlight and high temperatures. Riders who were equipped with Diablo Superbike tires from the Italian brand won first place in three of the four categories contested, and a second, dominating the general race classification. This is just a sampling of the excellent performance of Pirelli tires that, thanks to an incredible high pace set by the winning team of Yamaha Folch Endurance, helped set a new circuit record for this test, 749 laps in 24 hours, beating the previous record set in 2009 by one lap. Just as it happened last year and for the 7th consecutive year, the Yamaha Folch Endurance repeated its success in Barcelona with the overall victory as well as second place. The Catalan Police team took victory in Open Superbike class, ranking fifth overall, while in the Stock 600, Team Esperanza finished at the top of the category. Additional triumph came from the Aventure Moto Détente team who managed to close a second place in the Stock 1000 class. During the weekend, Pirelli, in his role as tire supplier offered these teams two front and two rear Diablo Superbike slicks in 17″, medium and hard compounds, a model used as the official tire Superbike World. As well, the torrential rains during the race required the use of Diablo Rain tires, medium compound front and rear. In total, Pirelli supplied teams with up to 600 tires in addition to the technical support of six service personnel to provide tire changes. Start of the Race: ~http://youtu.be/XTphqLCjj_U~ Box: ~http://youtu.be/JyGHxPyTBww~ Paddock: ~http://youtu.be/Wh8yNhKFYyU~ Pirelli wishes to thank the Folch Endurance team, Folch Endurance 2, Catalan police, Stop Aventure Moto, Mas Moto, Team 31, Team Hope and the BCM Racer Team for their confidence in the Pirelli brand and the efforts made during this competition. For more information about Pirelli’s efforts in circuit competition, please visit on www.pirelli.com, or find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/pirelli and follow us on Twitter: @Pirelli_Media.