Monday September 26, 2011 at 11:36am
At the annual sidecarcross team event, held this year at the spectacular Am Hahnenberg track at Jauer in Germany, Team GB performed brilliantly and came home with the bronze medal for third place.
In Saturday’s qualifying races Brown / Chamberlain and Etheridge / Humphrey both rode well finishing sixth and eighth respectively. In the Group C race Daniel and Joe Millard started in sixth place and worked their way up to fourth by lap three. On the next lap they tried to overtake the young French team of Giraud / Musset and landed in some very soft ground throwing both Daniel and Joe over the front of the bike. Daniel landed on his head and was dazed for a short while. Sadly their race was over but they were both confident that they would be fit for Sunday’s races.
In the first race for group A & B Brown rode a solid race to finish seventh. He was elevated to sixth after the race when the Dutch rider Bax was penalised for failing the noise test. Etheridge picked up a puncture part way through the race and dropped to 24th place. He finally finished 20th.
The second race was contested by Brown and Millard who came home in ninth and fifth respectively. Two good results in the third race would mean the twentieth place would be dropped and a possible podium finish might be achieved.
In the final race Millard and Etheridge rode brilliantly both achieving strong finishes. Millard started in fifth and worked his way up to third whilst Etheridge started fifteenth and worked his way up to ninth.
This meant the 20 points were dropped leaving the team with a total of 32 points – enough to secure the bronze medal.I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating Team GB and their manager Chris Reilly on a superb performance.