Monday October 3, 2011 at 11:58am
The penultimate round of the 2011 Maxxis Sidecarcross championships was held at the Sidcup club’s Canada Heights circuit yesterday. With record temperatures being recorded on Saturday just a few miles away at Gravesend it was going to be survival of the fittest for the riders whilst the club had the problem of controlling dust under the scorching sun. As it turned out the club did an excellent job of controlling the dust with just a just a small amount being kicked up in the final race of the day.
In timed practice Daniel and Joe Millard put up the fastest time just under half a second quicker than Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain with local driver Jack Etheridge and his passenger Ryan Humphrey in third place.
When the gate dropped for the first leg fastest out of the traps was Seemond Stephens / Mike Curnow just ahead of the Millards and Brown / Chamberlain. Brown very quickly took the lead from Millard with Jenkins / Gustavsson now in third place.
On lap two the Millards passed Brown to take the lead but their lead was short lived as on the hairpin bend shortly before the end of lap three their engine stalled. Brown drove straight into the back of them but was able to get away and take the lead.
Millard got going in second place just ahead of Steve and Stewart France who were now third as Jenkins had dropped back. For the remainder of the race Millard tried to close the gap on Brown but could only manage to close it by a small amount each lap. With just a couple of laps to go things started to change with Millard taking five seconds out of Brown’s lead on the penultimate lap and by the finish the gap was just a few seconds. France held on to take third place with Scott Wilkinson / Dan Chamberlain fourth.
In the second race Brown took the holeshot from Wilkinson / Chamberlain with Jenkins in third. The Millards didn’t get away well and were back in eighth place.
By lap three the Millards had forced their way up to third place and were closing fast on Wilkinson. By half distance they were past and up to second place. On the next lap everything changed dramatically. Within half a lap Brown stopped with a broken engine and Millard went out with a broken gearbox. Also out with engine problems was France. This left Wilkinson / Chamberlain leading from Wilkinson / Parmenter with Etheridge up to third ahead of Jenkins.These four finished in this order at the flag with Hyde / Kirwin coming home in fifth and Oldfield / Kinge sixth.
The final race of the day saw Brown again taking the holeshot from Millard with Hyde in third. Within half a lap Millard was past Brown but his lead was to be short lived. As the pair of them came down the hill to the hairpin bend where they lost the lead in race one there was a loud bang from the Millard’s Husaberg and their race was done. Although Brown drove into the back of them again he got away quicker this time to take the lead. This elevated Hyde to second with Wilkinson / Parmenter third and Wilkinson / Chamberlain fourth. These four stayed in these positions until the flag. Behind them Jenkins had been in fifth but with three laps to go he went out with a broken rear suspension.
With one round left Brown now has a fairly comfortable lead of 38 points over Millard with Etheridge in third place. The final round is at Little Loveney Hall, Wakes Colne on Sunday 9th October.