Lauder’s Steve Kershaw still front-runner in British Formula 2 Sidecar Championship after three second places but with lead almost halved

Kershaw and Gibbons went into round five of the championship, the seventh annual International Sidecar Revival meeting at Lincolnshire’s Cadwell Park on Saturday and Sunday, 37 points clear at the top of the leaderboard, but three wins out of three for Newcastle’s Lee Crawford and Scottish sidekick Scott Hardie near Louth saw them close the gap on the Borderer and his Merseyside passenger to 22 points.

Round six follows at North Yorkshire’s Croft Racing Circuit on Saturday and Sunday, August 23 and 24, and the series concludes at Leicestershire’s Mallory Park on Sunday, September 7.

Kershaw, 38, remains hopeful of securing his first British title after maintaining momentum at the weekend despite falling short of top spot on the podium, saying: “It was a fantastic meeting around a fantastic track.

“The racing was hard but clean and we’re delighted that we seem to have cured the problems we had.

“Crawford’s bike just had the edge on top speed, so that’s what we need to work on now.

“If we finish just behind him in the last four races, we could win the championship, but I don’t want to do it by being second.”

Recent reliability issues with their Honda 600 engine, in a Louis Christen Racing chassis, had led to Kershaw’s team spending the two weeks following round four at Brands Hatch in Kent modifying their sump and oil system in the hope of averting further failures and that work paid off as they weren’t faced with any mechanical problems on their way to securing pole position in qualifying, leaving them free to concentrate on racing.

Saturday’s race one was late in the day but conditions were good and Kershaw/Gibbons got a good launch from the start-line.

Crawford/Hardie had other ideas, however, and swept into the lead from P2 on the grid, with the Lauder pair trailing.

North Yorkshire’s Kieran Clarke and Andrew Johnson were struggling to keep up in third place and were focused more on stayind ahead of local heroes Carl Fenwick and Jake Roberts than trying to make up ground on the race’s vanguard.

A lap record pace was being set at the front as Crawford/Hardie went on to win by six seconds, Kershaw/Gibbons taking a lonely second place over 20 seconds ahead of Clarke/Johnson in third.

Sunday’s race two followed a heavy shower an hour earlier, and on a drying track once again Crawford/Hardie took an early lead, steadily pulling out a safe margin over Kershaw/Gibbons, who just couldn’t maintain their pace and finished in that order. The gap was under four seconds that time round, however, giving the Borders team hope that they could challenge for the win in race three.

Clarke/Johnson again finished third from East Yorkshire’s Bob Dawson and Matt Sims after Fenwick/Roberts retired with engine trouble.

On the last race of the weekend, the Lauder crew nailed their start to sweep into the lead out of the first corner and for five and a half laps kept Crawford/Hardie behind.

As the front two duelled it out, Clarke/Johnson hung on just over a second back, waiting for a mistake so they could pounce.

The red flag came out on lap six for an accident downfield, leading to a four-lap restart and Crawford/Hardie went toe to toe into the fast turn one with Kershaw/Gibbons, but Crawford found the line to lead onto the park straight. This time, they couldn’t escape and the two rivals raced line astern for the remaining distance but Kershaw’s machine just didn’t have the legs to make a pass. Clarke/Johnson showed better pace, finishing three seconds back.