Ben and Tom Birchall were awarded the 2009 FIM Sidecar World Championship at Le Mans in France on Sunday 6th September.
They finished in second place behind former champions Pekka Paivarinta and passenger Adolf Hanni, and this was enough for them to secure the title.
Tom became the youngest passenger at 22 years, 257 days to win a World Sidecar championship. The brothers were consistent with their results finishing on the podium in all seven races. Three wins, three second places and a third completed their bumper season.
Going into the final round at Le Mans, the Birchalls held a 14-point lead over Paivarinta and Hanni. No one else came close leaving the two teams to fight it out.
It didn’t all go the Birchalls way as Paivarinta sealed pole position and got the hole shot. He held the lead throughout the 18 laps while the Birchalls were content to remain in second place through the opening few laps before being overhauled by former champion Tim Reeves.
By lap ten, driver Ben decided to make a move and powered back up into second place and began to reduce the gap between himself and the leader, who had stretched his lead to more than ten seconds. Birchall was unable to catch the race leader and crossed the finish line 8.9 seconds in arrears. However this was sufficient to secure the world title by seven points.
The ACU would like to extend its congratulations to the successful pair on their World Championship achievement.