2009: SACHSENRING
PÄIVÄRINTA & HÄNNI THIRD IN THE THIRD ROUND OF THE SIDECAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 AT SACHSENRING
Summary
Pekka Päivärinta and Adolf Hänni were third in the FIM Sidecar World Championship race held on Sunday 19th of July, 2009, at Sachsenring in Germany.
After a tight battle between the three fastest sidecar pairs during the first ten laps, did the Birchall brothers Ben & Tom run away from the following Tim & Tristan Reeves and Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni. The Birchall brothers did then drive to the victory with a margin of 9,88 seconds to the second Reeves & Reeves and 22,78 seconds to Päivärinta & Hänni third at the chequered flag.
The Birchall brothers are now in the lead with 86 points, Päivärinta & Hänni the second with 81 points, and Reeves & Reeves with 77 points are the third in the points after the third round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship of 2009.
Qualification practises
The third round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship 2009 was held together with MotoGP at the 3 km 671 m long Sachsenring near Chemnitz in the eastern part of Germany. The first qualification practises of the twenty four Superside sidecars were held in a dry weather in the evening of Friday 17th of July. The Birchall brothers were the fastest 0,15 seconds ahead of the Reeves brothers with Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni third about one second behind.
The second qualification practises were held on Saturday evening in a dry weather, but the track was a little damp. Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni were still struggling with the settings of the suspension and were not able to improve their lap time from the first qualification. Päivärinta & Hänni did however qualify as third to start as the last sidecar in the front row behind the Birchall brothers in the pole position and the Reeves brothers in the second start position. No further testing of the settings was possible due to lacking free practise on Friday or warm up on Sunday morning for the sidecars. Pekka Päivärinta was not happy with the lap time results of the qualification and told “I have driven 1,6 seconds better lap times at Sachsenring one year ago”.
Gold Race
The Gold Race of 22 laps did start on Sunday afternoon 19th of July, 2009, in a dry weather with an air temperature of 19 degrees centigrade. The wildcards Kurt Hock & Enrico Becker, starting from the fourth grid position, took the lead in the start but were overtaken after the first curves by Päivärinta & Hänni, the Birchall brothers and the Reeves brothers. After the first and second lap did the four leading sidecar pairs battle near each others in the order Päivärinta & Hänni, the Birchall brothers, the Reeves brothers and Hock & Becker. In the third lap did the Birchalls overtake Päivärinta & Hänni and take the lead, but the Birchalls were in the same lap overtaken by the Reeves brothers, who then kept the lead until the eleventh lap. At the beginning of the seventh lap did Hock & Becker drift out to the sands in the braking into the curve to the right just behind Päivärinta & Hänni as trying to overtake them. So did Hock & Becker fall down from the fourth to the eighth position in the race. In the tenth lap did the Birchall brothers Ben & Tom overtake the brothers Reeves and then run away from the following Tim & Tristan Reeves and Pekka Päivärinta & Adolf Hänni. In the remaining laps until the chequered flag did the Birchalls extend their lead to 9,9 seconds to the brothers Reeves, who in turn extended their gap to Päivärinta & Hänni as third to 12,9 seconds.
This race was again a very good race for the father and son Gary & Dan Knight, who finished in the fourth place ahead of Milan Spendal & Peter Hill fifth and Mike Roscher & Gregory Cluze sixth.
Pekka Päivärinta told after the race :“The new sidecar was difficult to steer in the curves to the left, which kind of curves are dominating at Sachsenring. This was just the opposite of the good function of the old sidecar in the curves to the left one year ago. The Birchalls did run away in the middle of the race and we could not do anything against it”.
Sachsenring Sidecar race results:
1. Birchall & Birchall, GBR
2. Reeves & Reeves, GBR
3. Päivärinta & Hänni, FIN/SWI
4. Knight & Knight, GBR
5. Spendal & Hill, SLO/GBR
6. Roscher & Cluze, GER/FRA
7. Moser & Wechselberger, AUT
8.Hock & Becker, GER
9. Centner & Wolfram, GER
10.Schroeder & Burkard, SWI.
World Championship 2009 points after the third round and four races
1. Birchall &Birchall (86).
2. Päivärinta &Hänni (81).
3. Reeves & Reeves (77).
4. Knight & Knight (44).
5. Pedder & Steadman (42).
6. Spendal & Hill (40).
7. Roscher & Cluze (29).
8. Moser & Wechselberger (28).
9. Centner & Wolfram (22).
10.Knapton & Belsey (17).
Päivärinta & Hänni are second in the FIM Sidecar World Championship points after three rounds of 2009. The next World Championship race of the FIM Sidecars 2009 will be on the 21st - 23rd of August at the Automotodrom Grobnik by Rijeka in Croatia.
