With less than a week to go until the start of the 2016 British F1 Sidecar Championship, reigning champions Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood are all set to defend their title.

Sidecar driver Ricky Stevens, from Portsmouth, and his passenger Ryan Charlwood, from Dover, will head to Oulton Park in Cheshire this weekend for the start of the championship on Saturday 30th April.

Ryan said: “Last season went above and beyond what we expected. This year will be even harder as we are the reigning champions and we are the ones to beat. The target is now firmly on our backs. But following the tests we have done, we are pretty confident in our ability to defend our title. We will not make it easy for the competition.”

Ricky and Ryan have enjoyed a strong programme of pre-season testing, both at home and abroad, over the past six weeks.

The tests weren’t without problems though. During their first session in Val de Vienne, France, in March, they had to switch engines following issues with the front wheel bearings.

A couple of weeks later in Donington Park they encountered further technical issues, which resulted in their practice session being aborted.

Paul Knapton, Team Manager, said: “The guys get plenty of track time during practice sessions to sort out any issues. It is always better to encounter technical difficulties at this stage than during the championship. We have now replaced the faulty part and are confident that the outfit is in top condition.”

Oulton Park was the scene of the first round of the British F2 Sidecar Championship on Saturday (23rd April). Ricky and Ryan took part in the club championship races by way of a last practice session before the start of the F1 Sidecar Championship on the same circuit a week later.

As this was the F2 championship, the majority of the other sidecars were the smaller 600cc machines. Ricky and Ryan drive a 1000cc outfit so they were at an advantage over the other teams. This showed in the qualifying round when they qualified in pole position over three seconds ahead of the others.

Race one saw them dominate from the start and with a huge lead, they pulled in before the finish which allowed the teams competing in this championship to take the points. As a consequence, they had to start at the back of the grid for race two. With 30 machines in front of them over seven laps, Ricky and Ryan made up ground and finished in second place.

Afterwards, Ricky said: “The practice is now all over and we’ll be back here next week starting the defence of our championship so it’s down to us to prove all our hard work has been worth it. We have worthy opponents out there but I can’t wait to show them what we are capable of.”

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
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