The 2014 FIM Sidecar World Championship will kick off on 11 April at the Motorland Aragon, Spain. The season will play out over eight rounds and ten races at some of the world’s best circuits including England’s Donington Park, where Sidecar will share the venue with World Superbike. The two rounds at Assen (Netherlands) and Sachsenring (Germany) where the event is teamed with GP, will be followed by the last two of the season at FIM World Endurance venues Oschersleben (2 races) and Le Mans. The fourth round in Grobnik-Rijeka (2 races) will be an all-Sidecar affair.

All the teams have been working through the winter break to get their machines ready in time and some have managed to get some testing done over the last few weeks.

The first round will take place at the 5.344km Motorland Aragón track in Spain, which runs in an anti-clockwise direction. Last year was the first time World Sidecars raced at this track, and as last year the FIM Sidecar World Championship will share the weekend with the FIM Super Bike World Championship. Last year, all the teams enjoyed the very fast flowing and undulating circuit.

The 2013 champions Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni will not be defending their title this year. After an accident at the last round in 2012, Hanni underwent hospital treatment for an injured shoulder. Remarkably, he managed to race with Paivarinta, and win his third World title, in 2013. Although he will not be racing he will be assisting German driver Mike Roscher, who has Swiss lady passenger Anna Burkhardt on board this year. Anna passengered the first all-female team to compete at World Championship level in 2013. Roscher and Burkhardt will be racing with BMW engines. Four-time champion Paivarinta might make an appearance later in the year as a wild card entry, if he can get a machine package sorted.

Could this be the perfect start to the 2014 season for the Birchall Brothers? They had a bad start to last year with mechanical problems, but by the end of the season there was no stopping them. They finished the season with seven race wins, and, with race and lap records, they were to finish the championship in second spot. Brothers Ben and Tom want the top spot in the championship again after getting their day in the sun in 2009. They will be running Suzuki engines in the LCR chassis.

German driver Jorg Steinhausen has been knocking on the door of championship success for the last two years. He will have Axel Kolsch for his passenger this year; the pair have raced together in the past, and 2011 was the last time. “Steinhausen Racing” will have BMW power and a new LCR chassis. Winter testing has gone well for the team and they hope that this year, the hard work over the winter will pay dividends for their championship hopes.

Another German team “Hock Racing” will have Suzuki powered engines and the LCR chassis. Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker have had some cruel luck in their championship title fights over the last two years. In 2012 they were dogged by mechanical and electrical problems. Then, a crash last year put an end to their title hopes, although they managed to regroup and finish 5th in the championship.

Philippe Gallerne and Julien Chesneau, the only all-French team in the Championship, will be racing Suzuki engines in the RCN chassis. This will be the fourth year that the team have contested the World Championship.

The young Dutch pairing of Bennie Streuer and Geert Koerts, who finished in eighth place in the championship in 2013, will have a new LCR chassis with Suzuki power. 2013 saw the team improve on lap and race times. Koerts had a shoulder injury at the last round in 2013, but the winter break has given him time to recover, and he and Streuer will be hoping that this season will be trouble free, leaving the way clear for a good result in the championship.

Uwe Gurck from Germany will have Manfred Wechselberger for his passenger this year. Wechselberger, who is Austrian, passengered Michael Grabmuller in 2013. Grabmuller will not contest the championship this year. Gurck and Wechselberger will be racing an LCR chassis bought from Jorg Steinhausen, and will have BMW power.

The long-standing team of Slovenian driver Janez Remse with British passenger James Biggs will have new Yamaha engines this year in the LCR chassis. They will be hoping that the new Yamaha power will be reliable and boost their championship chances. Although from Slovenia, Remse regards the circuit at Grobnic in Croatia his home track, and with two races there this year the team will be hoping for a good points tally towards their championship challenge.

The all-Swiss team of Jacob Rutz and Thomas Hofer will be racing Yamaha engines in the LCR chassis. The team, who were ninth in the 2013 championship, will be hoping their always immaculately prepared machine will prove efficient and reliable and propel them further up the championship table in 2014.

Seventh in last year’s championship, Finnish driver Petri Makkula will once again be in contention this year with the LCR chassis and BMW engines. A change of passenger for him though, as fellow Finn Harri Asumaniemi will join the team. The duo will be fighting hard to realise their championship hopes.



Words & Pictures Mark Walters
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