Only two teams remain in contention for the world title at this weekend’s (October 28–29) Sidecar World Championship finale in Estoril. Exactly 22 points separate Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement from the Birchall brothers, Ben and Tom. The 4.182-kilometer Autodromo do Estoril will be the venue where the title is decided.
On Thursday afternoon, Luca Schmidt’s flight took off for Portugal. For the 20-year-old German from Zeulenroda, a long-cherished wish is coming true at the end of this year’s Sidecar World Championship. He will get to ride alongside Pekka Päivärinta one more time, as Päivärinta’s regular passenger, Ilse de Haas, is unable to compete. That was also the case last time, and Schmidt was on cloud nine back then. He is no longer competing for the title with the five-time world champion. The Finn has secured sixth place in the World Championship.
After twelve of fourteen races, Ellis and Clement are the leaders and defending champions. Their 22-point lead over the Birchall brothers is impressive. The British-French duo has won five races so far. The Birchalls are keeping pace with four wins. And they’ve also had some bad luck. After their crash at the Red Bull Ring, Tom first had to recover from a serious ligament injury in his right shoulder. Although the British duo have now traveled to Portugal in top form, even two wins alone won’t be enough to snatch the title from under Ellis/Clement’s noses—other teams would have to play into their hands as well.
In the event of a Birchall one-two, the defending champions would only need to finish third and fourth to win the championship—which would mark a first. Emmanuelle Clement would become the first woman to win two consecutive championship titles in this discipline.
Scotland's Stephen Kershaw and his British co-driver Ryan Charlwood are battling for third place in the overall standings. Their rivals are Sam and Tom Christie, as well as Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau.
Multiple world champion Tim Reeves is out. It’s all over. The world’s most successful sidecar rider at the moment has withdrawn from the final, even though he would have loved to race. But he hasn’t fully recovered from his mountain bike accident just before the Sidecar Festival in Oschersleben. During a fall, Reeves had rammed the end of the bike’s handlebars into the back of his knee and was unable to move his left leg. To see how far his recovery had progressed, he completed one last test in mid-October with disappointing results. He is not yet at the level required to race at the World Championship level again.