Beverley Brothers Sam and Adam Christie competed in round five of the “FIM Sidecar World Championship” at the TT Circuit Assen in the north of Holland. Commonly known as the “Cathedral of Speed” the 4.542 km circuit is a favorite with all racers, fast and flowing.
Arriving in Holland, driver Sam with passenger Adam had a nice surprise before they even took to the track. At a previous meeting at the “Sachsenring” in Germany Sam and Adam finished two races in fourth place.
However, after tests done by the organizing body, the “FIM” on certain machines, it was found that three teams were using fuel that was not compatible to the organizers rules. One of the teams were in the top three of the results for the two races.
This team was excluded from the meeting. With this decision, it meant that Sam and Adam would have stood on the podium twice, as they were awarded two third places. The team was happy with the decision, but that was all in the past, they had a job to do in Assen.
Unfortunately there was to be no free practice, so it was straight into two qualifying sessions to determine where Sam and Adam would start the race with their “C.E.S Powerbiking” Yamaha powered “LCR” chassis sidecar. Qualifying one went well for the brothers; they did not have any problems with their machine and the set a time of 1:48.116, which was good for sixth place on the grid.
With warm and dry conditions, just like in qualifying one, Sam and Adam set of for qualifying two. The only difference with the weather was the wind had got stronger. Driver Sam found that this made a big difference to how the sidecar handled in the fast corners, he had to wrestle with the machine at times, this was not ideal, and the other factor was that the brothers had old used tyers on their machine.
Sam and Adam improved their qualifying time by over one second, this was good, but the other teams improved their times too, so this was to leave Sam and Adam starting the race from the middle of row three in seventh place.
Sam and Adam took to the grid for the start of the seventeen lap race. As the lights went out for the start, Sam and Adam did not get the start they wanted, they went backwards to tenth place. It was going to be a long race, so the possibility of climbing up the field looked good for the brothers. Unfortunately they were to get locked in a battle with seven other teams, this was great for the large spectator attendance filling the grandstands, and they were to be treated to some spectacular racing.
There was to be some “fairing bashing” during this battle, but this is quite common in sidecar racing, there was no harm done, but it did slow the team a little. By half distance in the race Sam and Adam had made their way back up to eighth place, but were still locked in battle with four other teams, they would swap places throughout the rest of the race with these teams. As the chequered flag came out it, Sam and
Adam crossed the line to take a solid ninth place, maybe not the placing they had hoped for, but good points for their championship campaign.
The Beverley Brothers, Sam and Adam will head to the next world championship round in Croatia on the 8th and 9th of September with 76 points, and lying in fifth place in the championship.
Sam and Adam with all of their team would like to thank all their sponsors and helpers, who without them they would not be able to compete in the “FIM World Sidecar Championship”
