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PODIUM JOY FOR REEVES AND FARRANCE

Author: Helen Pask
Posted on: Tuesday, Jun 03 2008



Already acclaimed as recording the fastest ever lap by a newcomer in the sidecar class during practice week, the Kent world champion upped the anti even more in Saturday’s race, posting a fastest lap of 111.606mph on the second of the three laps.

After their impressive results in the qualifying sessions the current World and British champions were moved up the starting order from 17th to 10th and with bright, sunny weather bathing the Island, conditions were perfect for racing.

As the Sure Mobile Sidecar A race got underway Reeves and Farrance got away to a smooth start and headed off down Bray Hill towards the first checkpoint at Glen Helen.

By the time they crossed the line to start the second of the three 37.73-mile laps the world champions were in sixth position and recorded a fast lap of 110.394mph.


One lap later they were up to fourth with a lap of 111.606mph and with plenty to play for they headed into the final lap with a podium finish in sight.

As they passed the Glen Helen check point they were clocked as being in third place but Phil Dongworth was right with him, just two seconds separating the pair. The battle for third place continued throughout the lap and Reeves’ advantage was reduced to less than half a second as they headed over the mountain mile. But Tim responded and upped his pace to stretch the gap to two and a half seconds, which he maintained to cross the finish line in third place.

“To get on the podium in my first TT race tops anything else I have ever achieved, including my world championship wins. I am over the moon with this result; I just can’t believe it. The bike was a bit over geared but we will make that right for the next race on Wednesday,” said an emotional Tim Reeves. “I always believed in myself, ever since we decided to come to the Isle of Man TT races. We have had a lot of help and advice from Nick Crowe and Dave Molyneux, which has been a great help. So many people knocked us and said that although we are World champions we wouldn’t be able to cut it on the Island, but I think we have just proved the doubters wrong.”

Patrick Farrance added: “This just goes to show that all the hard work we put in through the winter has paid off. Every opportunity we got we came over to the Island and put in lap after lap to help Tim learn the course. We have had so much encouragement and help from all the family and mechanics and everyone has done an absolutely fabulous job. We had discussed our chances and although we never said anything publicly we did think we had the chance of a podium. Tim has done more laps than anyone else during practice and I think that has paid dividends for us. We got a lot of track time in and the last four sessions we covered full race distance and reaped the fruits of our labours”

Saturday’s race result made a little bit of history As Reeves and Farrance recorded the first podium finish by a newcomer in the sidecar class since Jock Taylor in 1978.


Race two is on Wednesday at 1.15pm.


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