Mansfield brothers Ben and Tom Birchall were racing at Silverstone over the weekend in the penultimate round of the Eastern Airways British F1 Sidecar championship where they secured pole position in each of the two races, won both and broke their existing lap record twice in the second race.

The Mitchells of Mansfield supported brothers entered the races as wildcards and although they took the win each time the championship rules prevented them from taking the 50 points away from the regular competitors.

Ben and Tom sailed through their free practice and qualifying to start race one from pole position. As the lights went out they were quick to get away and took the hole shot into the first corner. On lap two they dropped back to third place after encountering a problem with the LCR Suzuki but after circulating in third place for another lap the problem cleared and they returned to the head of the field pulling away to take a fine win some 3.6 seconds ahead of Hegarty and Neave.

Ben said: “The engine was running a bit rich during free practice and qualifying and got a bit bogged down in the early stages of the race. But once it cleared its throat the problem disappeared and we were able to get back on the pace.”

The brothers were once again on pole for the start of race two on Sunday and they shot away to take a lights to flag victory breaking their own existing lap record on lap four and going on to shatter that again on the final lap to set a new lap record of 2m 11.793s.

“We were glad we were permitted to ride in another round of the British Championship and we hope to be able to do more rounds next year. The British Superbike championship is high profile and a great event for us and our sponsors who don’t see us race that often.

“We are delighted to have set a new lap record. The existing record of 2m 12.634s set in 2012 was already held by us and we have shaved nearly a second from that today. We have been doing some fine tuning to our outfit in preparation for our 2015 World Championship campaign and the two races here at Silverstone gave us the opportunity to put the outfit through its paces under race conditions.”

Photo by: Dave Yeomans