Two more podium placings fail to prevent Borderer Steve Kershaw’s British sidecar F1 title hopes fading

Lincolnshire’s Cadwell Park hosted round four of seven making up this year’s British F1 Sidecar Championship on Saturday and Sunday, with Lauder’s Steve Kershaw, accompanied by Merseysider Rhys Gibbons, bidding to remain in contention for a third title but ending up falling further behind defending champions and series front-runners Lewis Blackstock and Oscar Lawrence.

Current world champions Sam and Tom Christie, there for a one-off ride, were also among 16 crews competing but the even the East Yorkshire pair were unable to stop Lancashire’s Blackstock and Lawrence keeping up their 100% start to the season.

Steve Kershaw and Rhys Gibbons in sidecar action at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire at the weekend (Photo: Kershaw Racing)

placeholder image — Steve Kershaw and Rhys Gibbons in sidecar action at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire at the weekend (Photo: Kershaw Racing)

Qualifying saw Blackstock/Lawrence claim another pole position, with Kershaw/Gibbons second and the Christies third.

With less than a second covering the top three, it looked like some close-run racing was on the cards, but Blackstock/Lawrence had other ideas and kept up a fast and furious pace all weekend that the crews trailing them just couldn’t match.

Kershaw/Gibbons’ Triumph engine wasn’t sounding as crisp as usual but they were able to take another second place after brake-fade forced the Christies to retire on lap nine of 14, 21 seconds behind Blackstock/Lawrence but 23 in front of Cheshire’s third-placed Rob Biggs and Ferry Segers.

Some overnight work in the Kershaw garage to repair a leaking exhaust offered a little bit of hope of better things to come for race two on Sunday but it wasn’t to be as Blackstock/Lawrence took their ninth win from nine starts, with the Christies second and Kershaw/Gibbons third.

With three rounds to go, starting on Anglesey at the end of August, Kershaw/Gibbons remain second in the standings 27 points ahead of Biggs/Segers on 146 but a whopping 79 adrift of runaway leaders Blackstock/Lawrence’s 100% haul of 225.

Reflecting on the weekend’s two podium placings, Kershaw said: “Qualifying was good but the leaking exhaust was killing the top speed in race one so to get second was a real bonus.

“Race two was better and our best lap was half a second faster, but Lewis and Oscar went nearly a full second faster, so we were never in it.

“For them to take 12 seconds off the world champions in that race shows just how good they are right now.”