There should be some thrilling action in Rijeka this Saturday 14 June as the teams vie for precious points in this third round of the 2014 FIM Sidecar World Championship.

Inland from the Adriatic coast and with stunning views of the mountains all round the circuit, south of Rijeka in Croatia, the 4.168km “Automotodrom Grobnik” circuit opened in 1978 and the Yugoslavian motorcycle GP was held there until 1990. In the past the track has been known to be hard on man and machine, and the 15-turn abrasive surface is very hard on tyres. Air temperatures get up into the high 30’s and track temperatures can climb into the 70’s.

After round two at Britain’s Donington Park, British pair Ben and Tom Birchall have a four-point lead over rivals Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze who just pipped them to the post on their home turf. These two teams left Donington right after the race to compete at the Isle of Man TT races, where Reeves and Cluze finished race one in third and a good fourth in race two. Unfortunately for the Birchall brothers, things did not go so well on the iconic Island course. Despite a successful week of practice, the brothers were involved in a high speed crash in race one, and both Ben and Tom were airlifted to hospital for treatment. Tom was released from hospital battered and bruised, but Ben sustained severe damage to his right hand. He has undergone surgery and the damaged bones have been plated and pinned. The duo nevertheless hopes to travel to Croatia to defend their World Championship lead.

With only nine points separating the top three teams, and with a two-race format at this meeting, the second and third placed teams will be looking to capitalise on the less than 100% race-fit Birchall brothers’ title lead. Third in the Championship, Jörg Steinhausen and Axel Kölsch from Germany will be hoping for a big points tally here. Fellow Germans Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker looked as if they were going to be on the rostrum at Donington Park until they ran wide at the last corner on the last lap, letting Steinhausen through for third; Hock and Becker sit fourth in the Championship. In the past though, they have not had much luck at this circuit, with last year being their worst ever when a crash dashed their Championship hopes. Only four points behind Hock and Becker is the German-Austrian duo Uwe Gürck and Manfred Wechselberger; they have been getting steadily faster on their new machine, and with the chance of good points from two races here they will be hoping to climb further up the Championship table.

One of three teams who will be hoping for two race results here are the Dutch team of Bennie Streuer and Geert Koerts, as they have only had one result so far this season and are currently ninth in the Championship. Another is the Finnish pairing of Petri Makkula and Harri Asumaniemi who managed to salvage some points in Spain, but are way off the points after a DNF at Donington. Finally, for Janez Remse and Jamie Biggs, two good results here are vital as they have had two DNF’s so far this season. The Slovenian driver Janez will have plenty of support here as this is regarded as his home track.


Will the Burchalls fend off the challengers and will the early season’s lower scorers surge up the field? Whatever the outcome, the fans who gather in Rijeka will witness two suspenseful races at this all-Sidecar event.


Words and pictures by Mark Walters
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