Borders ace Kershaw aims to recapture title

Hot on the heels of F1, Moto GP and the BTCC, the much-altered British F1 Sidecar series gets back in action this weekend.

Again in the hunt for the title are last year’s runners-up, Kershaw Racing, from Lauder, who head to Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire aiming to

regain the crown they won convincingly in 2018.

Over the last few months, plans have changed, and changed again. But, finally, a sterling amount of work by series organiser RKB has put together a hopefully achievable championship with all COVID precautions in place.

Unfortunately, Steve Kershaw and the team had to take the difficult decision not to contest the full World series as planned, because of ever -changing quarantine rules, and concentrate only on the British events this year.

But they still hope to go for world domination next season.

Within the team, all the hard work which has been done is regarding team personnel and sponsors.

As the outfit was on board a completely new bike last year, it remains in essentially the same specification, with only a new paint scheme noticeably different.

The big difference for this season is a new passenger, in the shape of former double British Champion, Ryan Charlwood.

After Stuart Clark retired at he end of 2019, Steve’s replacement passenger was unable to fulfil his commitment so at the 11th hour, Ryan stepped in, after splitting from long-time teammate, Ricky Stevens, last year.

A major bonus from this was that Ryan brought in Quattro Plant as a new headline sponsor to the team, alongside all Steve’s current backers

from last year, Santander Salt, Express Tyres, Breedon Quarries and KCP Environmental.

Needless to say, all planned testing through the spring had to be scrapped. But the crew did manage one test day at Knockhill in early July and the new pairing was instantly on the pace, lapping within half a second of the lap record by the end of the day.

Steve is confident the season will get off to a strong start, saying: “Both Ryan and myself love Cadwell and I’ve held the lap record there, so we’ve no concerns about speed or stamina.

“As long as, mechanically, we have no problems and everyone there doesn’t get too over-enthusiastic from being off so long, it has all the makings of a great event.”

This weekend is not part of the BSB series, so the racing is not televised live. But live timing and commentary is available at TSL Timing.com/ BMCRC across the weekend.