Schleiz, Germany was the latest stop for Tim Reeves and Ashley Hawes in their quest to win the 2012 World Sidecar Championship and it proved to be an up and down weekend for the duo with victory in Saturday's race offset by a collision and DNF in Sunday's second encounter.
After qualifying in fifth place, well within touch of pole position men Ben and Tom Birchall, two close races were again expected with less than a second separating the top six but rainfall before the first race added a new dimension to proceedings. However, it mattered little to Tim and Ashley and with a super start and first corner, they grabbed the lead of the 11-lap race, something they wouldn't relinquish. Reading his pit board, Tim was able to control the gap to second placed Jorg Steinhausen/Gregory Cluze and any time the German-French pairing closed up, he was able to pull away almost immediately eventually taking the chequered flag 1.6s clear for his third win of the season.
The victory increased his lead in the Championship to 19 points but that was wiped out as soon as Sunday's 22-lap race got underway. Tim and Ashley made another great start and with some bumping and barging at the first corner, they opted for the outside line to stay out of trouble - or so they thought. Further back in the pack, Josef Moser/Dan Evanson had left their braking a little too late and, after hitting the back of the Birchalls, they hit Tim side on and punted him out of the race. Ashley was knocked clean out of the outfit, luckily escaping with bumps and bruises whilst the LCR also emerged relatively unscathed.
However, with Pekka Paivarinta/Adolf Hanni winning the race, they've now joined Tim on 120 points at the top of the Championship table and with the Birchalls and Steinhausen equal in third on 114 points, just six points split the leading four crews with just three races to go.
Speaking later, Tim said: "The weekend was really good - and then it was really bad! Moser must have been doing 20-30mph more than what I was doing and he practically came out of nowhere. I got a great start but couldn't find any room so went for the outside line and it was working until, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him come flying up the inside. He went straight into the side of Ash and we were out straightaway so it was very, very disappointing especially with Pekka going on to win. It's made the Championship very tight!"
"Prior to that, everything had gone perfect. Fifth in qualifying was spot-on and I didn't want to keep throwing tyres on so was more than happy with our pace. I got a great start in the first race and just went up the inside of everyone at the first corner! Steiny wasn't too far behind but I was able to control the race from the front and just kept my eye on my pit board. It enabled us to extend our lead further but that, of course, has now disappeared. It would have been nice to have still had a good cushion going into the last two rounds but, on the plus side, the bike's flying and I'm really happy with how I'm driving so I'm confident of some more wins."
"It's a case of winner takes all now and whoever can win races and be the most consistent will win the World Championship. We're heading to Assen now for the Gamma Race Day meeting where we'll get some decent testing done and then head to Oschersleben all raring to go. The team did a great job again this weekend so big thanks to everyone involved especially Ash, the Haith family, H&S Contractors and everyone at Dave Hudspeth Carpets."
The next round of the Championship sees Tim and Ashley return to Germany with the Oschersleben circuit hosting two races on the weekend of August 10-11.
Picture by Mark 'Wally' Walters
