The final round of the 2017 Maxxis British Sidecarcross championships took place last weekend at Canada Heights, near Swanley, hosted by the Sidcup & District MCC. The track preparation and presentation was excellent, the weather was warm and dry and a decent crowd turned out to watch the action.
A somewhat depleted number of sidecar crews started proceedings off with their practice session during which the fastest time was posted by Brett Wilkinson / Dan Chamberlain just under one tenth of a second quicker than second placed Stuart Brown / Joe Millard. In third and fourth places were the two crews leading the Experts championships namely Gary Moulds / Steve Kirwin and Michael Hodges / Charlie Ide.
At the start of this meeting Brown led the championship by 32 points from Wilkinson and Moulds headed Kinge / Humphrey by four points in the battle for third place.
When the gate dropped for the start of the first race Moulds led the charge up the slope with Kinge in second place and Brown third. Moulds held the lead into the second lap but was then passed by Wilkinson and Brown. Brown chased Wilkinson for the rest of the race but was not going to take any risks in trying to pass him so they finished in that order. Moulds held third until the last lap when his engine faltered and he dropped to sixth place gifting Kinge third place.
Brown’s lead was now 29 points and in the battle for third Kinge was now one point ahead of Moulds. In the Experts class Moulds now led Hodges by ten points.
In the second moto Wilkinson got the holeshot from Moulds with Kinge alongside. Brown was a couple a places further back. At the end of the first lap Wilkinson was leading from Brown, Moulds and Kinge with Hodges in seventh place. The leading four stayed in that order until the flag meaning that Brown had won the championship and Wilkinson was guaranteed second place again. This was Brown’s fifteenth championship win and Joe’s first. Hodges pulled out after two laps which meant that Moulds was the winner of the Experts class.
The final race of the championship saw only 17 machines come to the line and two dropped out before lap two. Wilkinson got the holeshot from Kinge with Moulds right behind. If Kinge could stay in this position in front of Moulds he could jump above the Irishman in the final table. Unfortunately for him during lap one Brown moved up to second place and Moulds to third. These four held these positions for the duration so Wilkinson took the overall win from Brown with Kinge third. In the final table Moulds held on to his third place.
So another season comes to a close and all those who are currently injured have the winter to recover and all teams start to make plans for 2018.Will Brown make it title number 16? – we will have to wait and see.