Reeves and Cluze extend British Sidecar Championship lead

Using Maxton's GP10 rear shock, Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze enjoyed another successful weekend of racing at Snetterton over the Bank Holiday with the Anglo-French pairing extending their lead in the race for the Eastern Airways 'Battle of Britain' British F1 Sidecar Championship. The duo took a win and a brace of seconds to move into a commanding 41-point lead having now taken 4 wins and 2 seconds from the opening six races. After qualifying on pole position, courtesy of recording the fastest time of 1m10.513s in the only dry session run, the opening race was held over 14-laps on Sunday and Tim got off to a great start to lead the field round at the end of the first lap. On the third lap though, the Birchall brothers found a way through and Tim had to settle for second place at the chequered flag, powerless on this occasion to respond. The first race on Monday was held in two parts due to a rain interruption and although he was briefly pushed back to third, he regrouped to take 2nd place and the aggregate times saw the pairing finish just 1.755s down on the Birchalls. There was one last chance for Tim and Gregory to get back on the top step of the podium and it was without doubt the race of the weekend. Battling it out with the Birchalls for the entire 10 laps, the lead changed hands on numerous occasions and on the final lap, they came into the final chicane side by side and with backmarkers to negotiate. Having previously challenged up the inside on previous laps, Tim dived around the outside of both the backmarker and the Birchalls, stealing the line, and the lead. Contact was made between all three outfits, the end result being that the Birchalls unfortunately crashed out allowing Tim to take the win by over six seconds. Despite a protest being made, officials deemed the collision was fair and a racing incident and allowed the result to stand, thus ensuring Tim extended his lead at the top of the Championship table. Speaking afterwards, a pleased Tim said: "It's been a tough weekend with three hard, competitive races so I'm delighted to come away with a bigger lead in the title race. Ben's outfit was quicker than mine along the long straights and he stole a march on me in the first two races but I felt stronger all weekend around the corners so dug that little bit deeper for the final race to stay with him all the way through the race. I'd been going up the inside on a number of laps and he obviously had this covered on the final lap but it was my intention to catch him by surprise and go round the outside instead which worked perfectly. The backmarker compromised things a little and there was a bit of a coming together between all three outfits but I didn't think I'd done anything wrong so I was pleased when the officials ruled it a fair move and was delighted to end the weekend on a high. We've still got a bit of work to do on the bike but we're feeling strong so we can go to Germany in a confident frame of mind." Tim now hopes to get his World Championship challenge back on track with two races being held at Schleiz, Germany this weekend, May 8-9.

Highs and Lows for Maxton at Oulton Park BSB

This weekend was the third round of the British Superbikes at Oulton Park. Riders using Maxton Suspension had up and down weekends. After an operation mid week on his arm (for Tendonitis) Chris Burns of the Spitlath Aprilia BSB team struggled with the injury in qualifying and decided he was not fit enough to race. Using a GP10 rear unit and GP30 fork cartridges Conor Cummins had a mixed weekend in the Superstock class. Conor had another brilliant qualifying session on the Sunday ending up 6th fastest and lapping 1.5 seconds faster than he has ever been around Oulton Park. In the race Conor had an excellent start and was battling with five other riders for second place when he unfortunately lost the front end and slid off. He was obviously disappointed to lose ground on his rivals in the championship, but encouraged by getting the second fastest lap of the race. Using a GP10 rear unit and GP25 fork cartridges Dan Kneen also had a mixed weekend. It started off very well qualifying 1st in the Supersport Cup and 16th overall. His best ever qualifying position. Dan qualified in a time of 1.40.50 improving on his 600 Superstock lap record at the last Oulton Park round in 2009 by a massive 2.1 seconds. In the race Dan had a great start and by the second lap was up to 8th place overall. Unfortunately the conditions were very wet for the race and Dan slipped off whilst in 8th place. Neither Conor or Dan were seriously hurt and are both looking forward to the North West 200 starting on the 11th May.