Words – Dave Tibbles
Photographs – Ste McNorton
A successful first round of the 2021 F.S.R.A. / Wintec Racing Pre-Injection Sidecar Championship took place last weekend at Oulton Park, with fifteen teams taking part on a combined grid of thirty sidecars with many top F600 teams in attendance testing.
In the F2 class it was Rob Fisher (600 Baker Yamaha) who made a successful return to action with dominant wins in both races. However, sadly his regular passenger, Rick Long has been ruled out of competition at the current time owing to (a non-racing) injury, and a last minute replacement Sarah Stokoe did an excellent job, alongside the former British Champion and multi-TT winner.
However, the stars of the meeting were the two new F2 teams Liam /James Saunders (600 Ireson Yamaha) and Bob Dawson Sarah Hulme (600 Derbyshire Yamaha) with two second and third places respectively in their newcomers’ jackets.
The F1 class welcomed back John Shipley / Milo Ward to the PI championship achieving two second places after eventually sorting out their 1000 Yamaha Ireson following a few teething issues. Joe Heys /Gary wheeler (1200 Heys Kawasaki) took the win in the first race, and following a mechanical issue in the opening encounter, the race two winners were the Wintec racing team boss Simon Horton / Jordon Forest (1200 Suzuki).
The second round of this year’s F.S.R.A. / Wintec Pre-Injection sidecar championship heads to Mallory Park this coming Bank holiday Monday (3rd May). Again, due to Covid restrictions, there are unfortunately no spectators, just teams and pit crew are being admitted to the circuit.
Our own report:
So after a long winter we ended up at Oulton Park with the FSRA pre injection series for our first experience on a more modern formula 2 sidecar with Sarah Caroline as a brand new passenger!
From our first outing on the Friday test day to the qualifying on Saturday morning we knocked over 30 seconds off our lap times as we got to grips with the new bike and Sarah found her way around on the platform and the circuit. Qualifying 16th overall in a grid of over 30 outfits. We managed to finish 3rd in class in both races and had some good battles on track.
Big thank you to everyone involved for getting the meeting sorted and able to go ahead, and everyone on our team behind the scenes!
