Ricky and Ryan Maintain their Lead at Assen
F1 sidecar champions Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood faced challenging conditions in Assen this weekend but managed to maintain their lead nonetheless.
Sidecar driver Ricky Stevens, from Portsmouth, and his passenger Ryan Charlwood, from Dover, were racing at the Dutch TT circuit in Assen for round 8 of the Hyundai Heavy Industries British F1 Sidecar Championship.
Despite tricky weather conditions and some technical difficulties the pair, who currently top the rankings, managed to grab a solid second place in both races. In doing so, they achieved their goal of maintaining a comfortable advantage over their main title challengers, world champions Tim Reeves and Greg Cluze and Ben Holland and Lee Watson.
Ryan said: “It’s been a challenging weekend for a number of reasons. We damaged our engine during qualifying and just about managed to secure a position three start.
“We then had to spend all of Saturday ensuring the outfit was back up to racing form. We were very nervous going into the first race.”
On Saturday the weather was dry for most of the day until a rain shower passed over Assen just an hour before the race. The weather then cleared up again but it made it very difficult for the team to decide which tyres to use.
Ricky said: “As soon as we got on the track, it felt really greasy and we knew we had to race tactically. We stand to lose a lot and have nothing to gain by being foolish. In those conditions, although we would obviously have liked to win, we were still pleased to have come second.
“We have a good advantage in the championship table going into the final round and hopefully we can take the top spot again at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks’ time.”
Despite a front row start in race 2 on Sunday, the team faced yet more challenges when the outfit suffered technical issues midway through the race. Through dogged determination they managed to come second again behind Reeves and Cluze.
With just two races to go, Ricky and Ryan are now 47 points ahead of the world champions. The next round will be at Brands Hatch from 14th to 16th October where double points are at stake in both races.
Motors TV will screen the action from Assen on Thursday 13th October at 9.25pm. For further information and to check the schedule visit www.motorstv.com
Ends
Notes to editors:
• Ricky and Ryan are the reigning British F1 Sidecars champions.
• They raced to victory in the 2015 championship for team AOS/Be Wiser with Ricky Stevens, from Portsmouth, as driver and Ryan Charlwood, from Dover, as co-rider.
• In 2015, they also beat the world champions by four seconds, effectively making them the best F1 sidecar racing team in the world at present.
• For the 2016 season, Ricky and Ryan have joined the Quattro Plant Cool Kawasaki team. The newly sponsored team has a new livery and the backing from Bournemouth Kawasaki. The Quattro Plant Cool team also includes British Superbike riders Luke Mossey and Filip Backlund and Supersport rider Andy Reid.
For media information contact:
Sarah-Jane Freni
Account Director
Shooting Star
0117 3131120
sarahjane@weareshootingstar.co.uk
[RickyRyan16Assen]
