Sidecar racers off to a flying start
KINGSCLERE racer Oscar Lawrence made a flying start to the much-delayed racing season at Mallory Park. Passenger Lawrence and his driver George Holden have had to kick their heels all summer because of the coronavirus.
But after two days testing at Blyton circuit in Gainsborough and three more at the Bemsee Club Test at Brands Hatch, the pair travelled to Leicestershire for the first racing weekend of the campaign.
And Lawrence and Holden, in only their second season of racing, produced a devastating display against rivals including TT winners and World Championship outfits.
They won two races and were black-flagged – disqualified – in the other two for exceeding noise limits.
The Team Holden duo faced a huge field of 36 crews, which meant the entry was split into two groups of 18.
In their first qualifying outing, they set quickest time of the session before being black-flagged for a noisy exhaust, but that still left them on pole for the first race. Lawrence and Holden opened up a five-second lead after five laps, only to be called in by officials because of the noise problem.
The pair’s fathers – both former racers themselves – worked hard to rectify the issue, but the young racers had to start in 13th place for the second race.
After the initial race was redflagged due to an accident, they again started the rerun – cut to six laps – back in 13th.
But Lawrence and Holden stormed through to take the lead after five laps and they powered away to victory.
In Sunday’s first race, the pair started from pole, but were given a five-second penalty for jumping the start.
But such was their dominance that they crossed the line 12.5secs clear of second place over 10 laps to take the win by seven seconds. Holden complained of a loss of power, so they reverted to the original set-up for the second race.
They again pulled away from the pack, but were again blackflagged after four laps.
Over the weekend, the pair set the third fastest time and led in all four races.
Last weekend, they were trying to iron out their problems in another test session at Darley Moor in Derbyshire. figures of 8-1-21-5.
With club colleague Simon Myles claiming 2-22, the visitors finished on 143-9.
Former Sussex 2nd XI player Myles had earlier top-scored with 48 in Berkshire’s all-out total of 171.
They were 105-6 before the lower order contributed some useful totals with Dave Goodman making 18no, Andy Davis 17, Steve West 15 and Andy Freeman 14.
Andy Isaacs was the pick of the visiting bowlers, taking 4-22 from eight overs.
I Another Berkshire CB bowler in good form this week was Phil Ridgeway, who took 5-23 in the Over-60s match win over Buckinghamshire CB.