Brothers take Combe double (From This Is Wiltshire)

Brothers take Combe double

2:15pm Friday 16th June 2006 in

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MOTOR SPORT: THOUSANDS of motor racing fans descended on Castle Combe as the circuit hosted its first ever world championship event.

The crowds saw the finest sidecar competitors in the world when the British round of the FIM Superside World Sidecar championships came to north Wiltshire at the weekend.

Sidecar racing is one of the world's most extreme team sports, with the passengers travelling up to speeds of 175mph on a platform no bigger than a tea-tray. Castle Combe sales and marketing manager Rodney Gooch was delighted the circuit was chosen to host such a prestigious event.

He said: "It was absolutely terrific. The racing was sensational and the reaction of the crowd and volume of support was superb. "On the Saturday, with the World Cup being on, we had a slightly lower number of spectators than we were expecting, but on the Sunday a lot more people turned up, and they were certainly an excited and enthusiastic crowd."

One motorsport enthusiast travelled 12,000 miles from Australia to get to the event. He came to Britain specifically to see the TT Races in the Isle of Man, followed by the sidecars at Castle Combe.

Brothers Tim and Tristan Reeves took the honours in both of the sidecar races. With previous circuit knowledge from their wins in national events at Castle Combe in 2004 and 2005 and having already won the opening round in Germany, the siblings were event favourites.

In both the 10 lap sprint and the 22 lap Gold' race, the brothers' LCR Suzuki was only briefly challenged by the similar outfit of Andy Laidlow and Patrick Farrance.

The expected challenge from Finnish riders, Tero Manninen and Pekka Kuismanen, championship leaders prior to the event coming to north Wiltshire, never materialised, with the pair finishing a lowly eighth and ninth in the two races.

The sole Wiltshire pairing in the event, Marlborough's Roger Lovelock and Rick Lawrence, improved from 11th on the grid and a 14th place finish in the sprint race to a superb sixth overall in the Gold' race on their Big Bear/TCR Racing Suzuki 1000.

Last time the World Sidecar championships came to Britain two years ago, only 450 supporters turned up, so Castle Combe proved popular with competitors. Said Gooch: "Tim Reeves, who won both races, said it was great to come to a course where those taking part were made to feel welcome.

"Riders and passengers found Castle Combe a challenging track because it's slightly shorter and has more corners than some of the circuits they are used to competing on."