​Double win for sidecar racer Steve Kershaw in Norfolk

Saturday was another dreadful day of downpours, delays and crashes, with almost 90 riders across all classes at the Norfolk circuit, also hosting the British Superbike Series, hitting the deck.

Sidecar race one, the last race of the day, was cut to a five-lap sprint around the three-mile circuit.

In pole position were Lancashire’s Lewis Blackstock and sidekick Patrick Rosney team, with Lauder’s Steve Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood alongside and series leaders Samuel and Jack Laidlow just behind.

A slippery, wet track and low sun were to prove a dangerous mix and lap two saw a red flag come out after Northumberland’s Phil Bell and Phil Hyde landed upside down, the former breaking a collarbone in the process.

Sunday dawned much brighter and race one was re-run in more summery conditions, again over five laps, and it was won by the Borderers by just over a second from Blackstock/Rosney, with Cumbria’s Laidlow brothers in third place six seconds back but still well ahead of the chasing pack.

Race two was run over the full ten-lap distance and it went the same way, with the Lauder crew taking the flag by three-tenths of a second from Blackstock/Rosney and the Laidlows, from Dufton, near Appleby, third.

That might have been a morale boosting brace of wins, their first of the championship, for Kershaw and Charlwood, now up to fourth in the standings, but they’re still 58.5 behind the Laidlows’ tally of 180.5 with only two rounds to go.

“That’s more like it,” said Steve on Sunday.

“After another miserable day yesterday, to get two good races in and a double win today has been a real boost.

“We had fuelling problems in race two which cost us time out of the corners but we just had enough to get to the flag first.”

There’s now a gap of almost a month until round five at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire and then an even longer break until the series concludes at Brands Hatch in Kent in mid-October.