A wet track. A cool breeze. The unpleasant second sidecar practice session at the Hockenheimring offered no chance to improve on the times set on the dry track the previous day. Although the teams were mixed up in the standings, they were about 15 seconds slower per lap than on Friday.
In pole position for tonight’s sidecar race, at 6:20 p.m., are Tim Reeves/Kevin Rousseau ahead of Markus Schlosser/Marcel Fries and Pekka Päivärinta/Emanuelle Clement. In the rain, Schlosser fell short of the leaders. What if it’s wet again tonight? “Then we’ll start on new rain tires and be in a completely different position. In qualifying, we used the same tires we had at the Lausitzring again.”
Schlosser leads the IDM Sidecar class up to 600 cc by a comfortable margin. “Still, of course I want to win races. But I won’t take any unnecessary risks, because when it rains, my head kicks in and I start thinking about the equipment—I don’t want it to get damaged.”
Pekka Päivärinta and Emanuelle Clement held onto third place ahead of Josef Sattler and Luca Schmidt. The Germans had even posted the second-fastest lap time during the wet practice session.
Things also went better for Bennie Streuer and Ilse de Haas in the rain. The Dutch rider is really hoping the weather stays this way today. “This was the first time we’ve ever ridden the bike in the rain, and it went really well. At first, I had to work a bit on the balance between the front and rear, but I can adjust it using the knob to the left of the handlebars. You can always do that on a straightaway. Now everything’s just right.”
Anna Burkard and Mike Roscher are leading the IDM Sidecar class up to 1000 cc, but despite their perfect record so far, even another victory won’t be enough to clinch the title early.
IDM Sidecar Hockenheimring, Qualifying
Q1 + Q2 Results, 600cc Class
1. Reeves/Rousseau (GBR/FR) Yamaha, 1:33.175 min.
2. Schlosser/Fries (CHE/CHE) Yamaha, +0.089 sec.
3. Päivärinta/Clement, Yamaha, +0.198 sec.
Q1 + Q2 Results, 1000 cc
1. Roscher/Burkard (GER/SUI), BMW, 1:36.043 min
2. Kapeller/Billich (AUT/AUT), Suzuki, +2.461 sec
3. Lingen/Prudlik (GER/GER), Suzuki, +1.720 sec