IDM Sidecar: The Right Tire Choice Leads Christies to Victory

Despite challenging weather conditions, Sam and Tom Christie won the first race at the Schleizer Dreieck. Ted and Vincent Peugeot took home the full points.

The IDM Sidecar sprint race at the Schleizer Dreieck was a tough one right from the start. Light rain began to fall even before the start, and it intensified during the first lap. Race officials therefore decided to suspend the race immediately. After consulting with the riders, the start was rescheduled for 15 minutes later to allow enough time to switch to rain tires.

However, the weather made tire selection a bit of a gamble, as some sections of the track were only slightly wet, while others were much wetter. After the restart, it quickly became clear who was on slicks and who was on rain tires.

Sam and Tom Christie (Hannafin/LCR Yamaha) started from pole position and held off Schlosser’s overtaking attempt before the first corner. While the brothers pulled away in seven-mile increments, Markus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt (Team Schlosser/LCR Yamaha) fell further and further behind. The difference lay in their tire choice: The Christies were on slicks, while Schlosser had switched to rain tires earlier. However, since the track didn’t stay wet long enough, Schlosser and Schmidt were gradually overtaken by all the teams on slicks.

While the Christies at the front were already out of reach for the rest of the field, Pekka Päivärinta and Adam Christie (Hänni Racing/ARS Yamaha) put pressure on Bennie Streuer and Kevin Kölsch (Team Streuer/ARS Yamaha), who were running in third place. The Dutch-German team held off the pressure for a long time, but five-time world champion Päivärinta remained tenacious. On the sixth of eight laps, the decisive pass finally came, and Streuer was powerless to stop it. But Pekka kept picking up speed and set his sights on Todd Ellis/Emanuelle Clement (Team Ellis/Clement Racing/LCR Yamaha). In no time at all, he closed in on the reigning world champions, and there might even have been a showdown between the two teams had Päivärinta had one more lap. As it stood, the podium remained unchanged with Sam and Tom Christie in first place, Ellis/Clement in second, and Päivärinta/Christie in third.

Streuer/Kölsch finished fourth, followed by Ted and Vincent Peugeot (Seventy Four Racing Team/LCR Yamaha). Since all the teams ahead of them were participating as guest starters and therefore did not count toward the standings, the French father-son duo earned full points in the IDM standings for the fourth consecutive time.

Behind Schlosser/Schmidt, who finished in sixth place, Patrick Werkstetter and his substitute passenger Enrico Roick (Team Bonovo Action/Sattler Motorsport/ARS Yamaha) took seventh place and second place in the IDM standings, followed by Markus Venus/Ondrej Sedlacek (Sidecar Team Venus/LCR Yamaha).

Lennard Göttlich and Lucas Krieg (Bonovo Action Junior-Team ADAC Sachsen e.V./ARS Yamaha) took just a little too long to get into their stride under these difficult track conditions. In the end, they finished ninth overall and secured fourth place in the IDM class.

Guest starters Enrico Wirth and Werner Leo Lüttke (Zweirad Wirth Racing/LCR Yamaha), as well as Rogier Weekers and Remco Moes (R&R Racing/LCR Yamaha), rounded out the results in tenth and eleventh place.

The main race continues on Sunday at 4:20 p.m. You can watch the sidecar and motorcycle races live and for free at www.idm.de/live.

IDM Sidecar Race 1 Results