2009: ALBACETE
PÄIVÄRINTA & HÄNNI SECOND IN THE SECOND ROUND OF THE SIDECAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 AT ALBACETE
Summary
Pekka Päivärinta and Adolf Hänni were second in the FIM Sidecar World Championship race held on Saturday 4th of July, 2009 at the Circuito Albacete in Spain. Behind the race winners Tim Reeves and his substitute passenger James Neave, did Päivärinta and Hänni change their positions during the race several times with the Birchall brothers Ben & Tom. At the end of this hard and close battle of the second position did Päivärinta & Hänni succeed to overtake the Birchalls in the last curve of the last lap and finish the race by a margin of 0,2 seconds to the Birchall brothers as third.
Päivärinta & Hänni are now in the lead with 65 points, the Birchall brothers second with 61 points, and Reeves, Reeves & Neave with 57 points third in the points after the second round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship 2009.
Qualification practises
The second round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship 2009 was held at the 3 km 539 m long Circuito Albacete in Spain together with the FIM Endurance World Championship. The first qualification practises of the nineteen Superside sidecars were held in the morning of Friday 3rd of July. Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni were the fastest 0,1 seconds ahead of Ben and Tom Birchall.
The second qualification practises were held in the hot weather of the afternoon and the air temperature was 39 degrees and the track temperature about 60 degrees centigrade. Tim Reeves & James Neave drove the fastest lap time in the last 5 minutes of the qualification and took the pole position for the race and were 0,15 seconds ahead of the Birchall brothers Ben & Tom second in this second qualification. Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni were struggling with the raising cooling water temperatures of the engine to 100 degrees centigrades as trying to increase their speed and were not able to improve their lap time from the first qualification. Päivärinta & Hänni did however get the second starting place for the race, and the Birchall brothers did qualify as third to start in the front row to the race.
Gold Race
The Gold Race of 20 laps did start on Saturday noon in a hot weather with an air temperature over 30 degrees centigrade. Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni got the fifth place to the first curve and were fourth in the first lap. At the middle of the race Päivärina & Hänni managed to raise the position to second as overtaking Ben & Tom Birchall. The Birchalls and Päivärinta exchanged then their positions during the race, but Tim Reeves & James Neave increased the gap to them and made a new lap record in the twelfth lap. Due to the increasing engine cooling water temperature as increasing the speed, Päivärinta did decide to withdraw from the battle for the victory with Reeves and instead drive safer to collect the championship points if possible in front of the Birchalls. At the last lap Päivärinta was behind the Birchall brothers and made a “Valentino Rossi operation” by overtaking the Birchalls in the last curve from inside and won them with margin of 0,2 seconds at the finish line. This race was also a very good race for the father and son Gary & Dan Knight, who finished in the fourth place ahead of Bryan Pedder & Rodney Steadmann fifth and Josef Moser & Manfred Wechselberger sixth.
Pekka Päivärinta told after the race “The sidecar worked well and Adolf Hänni and myself are happy to have achieved the lead in the world championship points after the first two rounds”.
Albacete Sidecar race results:
1. Reeves & Neave, GBR
2. Päivärinta & Hänni, FIN/SUI
3. Birchall & Birchall, GBR
4. Knight & Knight, GBR
5. Pedder & Steadman, GBR
6. Moser, Wechselberger, AUT
7. Spendal & Hill, SLO/GBR
8.Ducouret & Herman, FRA
9.Chaplow-Evanson, GBR
10.Knapton & Belsey, GBR.
World Championship 2009 points after the second round and three races
1. Päivärinta &Hänni (65).
2. Birchall &Birchall (61).
3. Reeves & Reeves/Neave (57).
4. Pedder & Steadman (37).
5. Knight & Knight (31).
6. Spendal & Hill (29).
7. Roscher & Cluze (19).
8. Moser & Wechselberger (19).
9. Centner & Wolfram (15).
10.Chaiplow& Evanson (12).
Päivärinta & Hänni are leading in the FIM Sidecar World Championship points after two rounds of 2009. The next World Championship race of the FIM Sidecars 2009 will be on the 17th - 19th of July at Sachsenring in Germany.
