Round 5 of the 2016 British F1 Sidecar Championship is taking place at Thruxton this weekend, and just three points ahead of the pack, reigning champions Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood are gearing themselves up for a fight to cling on to their lead.

Sidecar driver Ricky Stevens, from Portsmouth, and his passenger Ryan Charlwood, from Dover, will be heading to the familiar grounds of Thruxton, Hampshire this weekend for the fifth round of the championship.

The racing pair have been plagued by bad luck over the last two rounds of the championship, with Ryan injuring his shoulder during a practice session at Knockhill, Scotland. This has meant that their hopes of a comfortable lead in the rankings have been dashed and they now face a showdown with rival team Tim Reeves and Greg Cluze.

Ryan said: “We had such an amazing championship last year, but this year has definitely been a whole lot more challenging, not helped by my shoulder injury.

“We started the season with some good points and we’ve managed to get six podium finishes so far, but we are yet to win a race. We really want a top spot now.

“Tim and Greg have been very strong opponents this year and with just three points between us, we’ll have to fight hard to extend our lead or we risk losing our championship title.”

There are three sidecar races this weekend at Thruxton, two on the Saturday and one on the Sunday. That means there are up to 75 points up for grabs if Ricky and Ryan manage to get ahead of the pack in all three races.

Ricky said: “We like Thruxton, it’s my nearest circuit and one where we broke the lap record last year. It’s a long track with fewer bends to manoeuvre so it’s all about the speed.

“We’re looking at ways to improve the speed of the outfit but at the end of the day, it will be down to me to rev that engine up and push us to the front of the line.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed for a good weekend, we could really use a win now.”

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.

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Sarah-Jane Freni
Account Director
Shooting Star
0117 3131120
sarahjane@weareshootingstar.co.uk

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