Scorching victory for Borders pair

As the old song goes: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” and so it was at Lincolnshire’s Cadwell Park for round one of the 2020 Molson British Sidecar Championship last weekend.
Ryan Charlworth, left, and Steve Kershaw celebrateRyan Charlworth, left, and Steve Kershaw celebrate
Ryan Charlworth, left, and Steve Kershaw celebrate

There were no such worries for Lauder’s Steve Kershaw and new passenger, Ryan Charlwood, who topped the timesheets every session to qualify for the first race in pole ahead of team-mate, last year’s champion and Cadwell native Todd Ellis, who was back with Chas Richardson again on the chair.

Row two had World Series runners Blackstock/Rosney and the Christie brothers ahead of the Birchall brothers trying out their prototype 2021 TT outfit.

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Race one on Saturday evening saw Blackstock/Rosney take the lead from row two ahead of Ellis/Richardson and Kershaw/Charlwood along with the chasing pack.

These three teams pulled out a sizeable lead before Ellis sneaked to the front on lap four as Kershaw shadowed his every move and went second shortly afterwards.

On lap seven, Kershaw pounced and, once ahead, pulled away to win with a sizeable 10-second margin by the flag.

Ellis/Richardson could not shake off the determined Blackstock/Rosney who hounded them all the way, just managing to stay in second.

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Only 10 crews completed the full 14 laps, showing just how tough the day had been.

It was back to a more familiar damp and overcast day for Sunday and race two.

Starting again from pole, the Lauder aces got the Quattro LCR off the line first ahead of Blackstock/Rosney, who got the jump on Ellis/Richardson again.

It took Ellis five laps to get into second and gap the SBR team-mates Blackstock/Rosney and Holden/Lowther, who started their own battle for team honours.

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Ellis/Richardson used all their local knowledge to their advantage and, by lap seven, were right on the back of the leaders. For the next four circuits, lap times dropped as each tried to break the other.

On the final lap, Kershaw put in the fastest lap of the race to win by 1.3 seconds and end the event with the double victory and a 10-point series lead. Ellis took second, with Blackstock again maintaining third.

“It’s a perfect start to the year and all the fitness work we’ve done really paid off,” said Steve.

“We improved the bike set up for race two and that helped us to the win. Ryan and I felt comfortable from Friday and that gave us the confidence to really go for it!”

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So it was Buck’s Fizz to the victors, who head to Snetterton in Norfolk on August 22 for round two, back with the BSB series live on Eurosport Player.

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