The sun shone once again for round 2 of the SMCA British Clubman Sidecar Championship in West Sussex. Twickenham & DMCC hosted an excellent meeting at Stammerham Farm near Rusper for twenty nine sidecars, four being non eligible to score points in the championship.
Local brothers Steve and Chris Pannell finally found lady luck after a mixed season so far mechanically! Although Nick Bowers and Pete Batt took all three holeshots team Pannell took all three wins. With Shaun Mallows, and his stand in passenger Steve Kirwin, heading the championship after round 1 not riding it was inevitable a new leader would emerge! Despite the three wins Pannell/Pannell were unable to come out on top and are now in second place but only three points behind the new leaders Bowers/Batt.
Bowers/Batt took the holeshot for race 1 with Pannell/Pannell just behind and emerging in the front after the second corner. They began to pull away leaving Bowers/Batt battling for second with Stephen Parr/Josh Haynes. The next group, including Jonathon Pannell/Neal Bann, Wayne Delves/Darren Elcocks, Arthur Walton/Faye Barnes, Neil/Michael Franks, non eligible for the series, and Mark Banks/Steve Kirwin, were very close and all wanting to claim fourth. It was Jack Etheridge/Scott Grahame, as a non-registered team moving up through the field from the second row, who joined the head of the group and eventually crossed the line second. Pannell/Pannell stayed ahead and took the flag as winners with Bowers/Batt and Parr/Haynes as second and third clubman and although Franks/Franks crossed the line next it was Banks/Kirwin who claimed fourth.
Race 2 once again saw Bowers/Batt out front at the first corner but also as in the first race Pannell/Pannell quickly took over the lead. Banks/Kirwin in third began to chase and pulled out a small gap on Walton/Barnes, Pannell/Bann and Parr/Haynes. Etheridge/Grahame came through along with Franks/Franks but with neither team being able to score points it made no difference to the clubman teams! Etheridge/Grahame moved up and this time got past Pannell/Pannell to take the win with Franks/Franks a little way behind in second on the track. First clubman was Team Pannell followed by the battling duo of Bowers/Batt and Banks/Kirwin. A fine battle it was too with Banks/Kirwin passing into second but Bowers/Batt wasn’t going to accept third and returned the favour on the final corner before the flag!
It seemed nobody could beat Bowers/Batt out of the gate with once again them making it round the first corner in the lead. But as in the previous two outings Pannell/Pannell relieved them of the front spot and began to pull away. Chasing hard was Parr/Haynes and trying to ignore Etheridge/Grahame and Franks/Franks breathing down their necks. Both teams got by leaving Parr/Haynes to keep Bowers/Batt at bay. Once again Etheridge/Grahame got out in front and behind them Pannell/Pannell had the Franks brothers on their sandrail. Parr/Haynes pulled away from Bowers/Batt but couldn’t make up the distance to the teams ahead but with two not counting they took the second clubman place at the flag. Banks/Kirwin were once more battling with Bowers/Batt and with the third clubman spot up for grabs it was close racing. Problems then beset them however when they were forced to stop eventually rejoining and finishing eleventh. This allowed Shane/Paul Horton to take over the battle and by the end of the race they managed to pass Bowers/Batt to take third. Out front Etheridge/Grahame seemed to be having it easy until they suddenly stopped as Etheridge was taken ill and required medical attention. Franks/Franks finally got up into the lead to take the chequered flag first but with no points on offer for them it was Team Pannell who took their third clubman win of the day.
The next round is at Landrake near Plymouth on June 9th
SMCA British Clubman Sidecar Championship Standings after round 2
1 Nick Bowers Pete Batt 122
2 Steve Pannell Chris Pannell 119
3 Jon Pannell Ian Sheppard
/Neal Bann 97
4 Arthur Walton Faye Barnes 90
5 Wayne Delves Darren Elcocks 82
6 Roger Blackman Eric Maguire 78
7 Shaun Mallows Colin Dunkley 75
8 Stephen Parr Josh Haynes 73
9 Mark Banks Ross Parmenter/
Steve Kirwin 70
10 Shane Horton Paul Horton 68
11 Tom Smith Andy Smith 57
12 Danny Gray Lewis Gray 45
13 Tony Grahame Scott Lloyd 45
14 Scott Balsillie Jo Reynolds 44
15 David Millard Paul Bishop 40
16 Barry Lobb Richard Dixon 36
17 Matthew Avis Kyle Mossman/
Brian Gray 33
18 Rob Wade Dan Wade 30
19 George Kinge Zak Snell 30
20 Tilo Maguire Ben White 18
21 Malcolm Collins Chris Huntley 18
22 Alan Sturt Chris Sturt 14
23 Mark Waters Blake Waters 14
24 Chris Tye Dave Tye 13
25 Joe Gingell Nick Hillier 13
26 Steve Jones Rob Jones/
Lisa Jones 2
27 Neil Warringon Chris Whatmore 0
28 Andy Charman Mark Alp 0
Report and photos
Ann Reynolds