The first ever Steve Webster International Trophy Race was an eagerly anticipated event at Donington Park, running alongside the prestigious British Superbike Championship.
The race would be the first time many of the British teams from the Superside FIM World Championship would be in action this season, and the first time they would face each other on track.
As expected current World Champions Tim & Tristan Reeves planted their LCR-Suzuki firmly on pole position for their new Eastern Airways team with a stunning lap time from the only dry session, on Friday. In bitterly cold conditions and on a machine that was only completed and bedded-in a few days before the event, the brothers unofficially broke Webbo & Woody's 4-stroke Lap Record around the sweeping Grand Prix circuit. Scotsman Stuart Muldoon and passenger Paul Knapton were second fastest on Friday, but revelled in the tricky damp/drying conditions of the second qualifying session, held on the Saturday, to head the time sheets from Reeves - but it wasn't quite quick enough to snatch overall pole position.
"I'm surprised at how well it all going" said Tristan "We only finished the machine on Tuesday, then loaded it into the van, drove to the Val de Vienne test session in France and got a few laps in just to set everything up, before driving back home that night and then coming straight here. It's been a hectic week!"
The Hänni Racing Team squad were in full force at Donington. Mike Roscher & Adolf Hänni making the long trip from Europe to support the event, while Tom Hanks & Phil Biggs made the much shorter trip from nearby Birmingham for their first outing of the year on the second of the Hänni Racing machines.
Rosher & Hänni qualified a respectable 11th, while Hanks & Biggs suffered from a mystery misfire and could only qualify in 8th at their local track, one place behind Team Advan Excalibur's Dan Morrissey and Phil's younger brother Rob Biggs who were now on the ex-Webster machine that won the 2004 World Cup, European and British titles.
"The new bike is amazing. The power is really good, and the chassis feels very sorted" explained Dan "But obviously having one of the best machines in the World brings a lot of expectations. But there's No Pressure on me.. much!"
Richard Gatt & Paul Randall, and Steve Norbury & Scott Parnell - debuting their new Windle chassis - completed the second row, with Team LFR's Andy Laidlow & Patrick Farrance, and former Superside riders Roger Lovelock & Rick Lawrence on row 3.
After several delays and race stoppages throughout the day due to the variable English weather, the grid finally lined up on a soaking wet track at 17:30hrs. Although the rain had stopped, the cold, windless conditions and standing water on track meant that everybody was on full wet tyres as the race got underway.
With a full grid 30 sidecars, the first corner was surprisingly incident free. But a third of the way around, Stuart Woodard & Wayne Stevens spun their Woodard Racing Windle-Yamaha at the Old Hairpin, causing mayhem as the follow machines tried to avoid them. Unfortunately the Redline Superbikes team of father & son Gary & Dan Knight were unable to avoid contact, and suffered a heavy impact putting them out of the race on the spot, along with three other machines in the gravel trap - one being the luckless Mike Roscher & Adolf Hänni.
Meanwhile at the front, a slower starting Tim & Tristan Reeves had already moved into the lead ahead of Muldoon & Knapton, as both Woodard and Roscher were able to get back on track, albeit a long way behind and both with significant damage to their machines. But with three sidecars stuck in the gravel the Safety Car was brought out for the first time in a sidecar race.
The top six closed up behind the safety car, but there was confusion further down the field, as the other riders didn't close the gap to the teams in front, spreading everybody out before the race resumed two laps later. Unleashed once more by the Safety Car, Muldoon made a small mistake exiting the final corner, sliding the SMR LCR-Suzuki sideways onto the start / finish straight and allowing the Reeves boys to open up a slight advantage going into the first turn.
It was a costly mistake, which meant that from that point on, Muldoon was always having to try too hard in the terrible conditions to close the gap back up to the reigning World Champions. Despite setting the fastest lap of the race on the penultimate lap, the Scot ran out of time, crossing the finishing line just 0.8 second behind the smooth riding Reeves brothers who took their first of undoubtedly many wins of 2006.
"Once we took the lead on the opening lap we did just enough to keep in front of Stuart and win. The conditions were really awful out there and I really don't want another like that this year" said Tim after the race.
Third placed Andy Laidlow & Patrick Farrance were involved in a great tussle in the early stages with Roger Lovelock & Rick Lawrence on the Charlwood Racing LCR-Suzuki; Tom Hanks & Phil Biggs - who seemed to have overcome their ignition problems on the second Hänni Racing Machine; Steve Norbury & Scott Parnell on their Lockside Engineering Windle-Suzuki; and Richard Gatt & Paul Randall - before the GRS Racing LCR-Suzuki was forced to park up in the pit lane.
"We had absolutely no grip at all. I was struggling to keep the thing on track even behind the safety car!" explained Gatt "So it wasn't worth risking a crash before the start of the World Championship".
After the 'eventful' Safety Car period Hanks quickly moved up to third position and began closing on the two leaders, but on lap 6 the black machine snapped sideways going under Starky's Bridge, spun and travelled on it's side for some distance before coming to rest.
"That was really disappointing" said passenger Biggs "Everything was starting to go well, but without any warning the back just stepped out - and from then on there was nothing we could do. It's not been a very good weekend for the team, has it!"
Formula Two riders John Holden & Andy Winkle earned themselves the 'Yokohama Men of the Race' award with a superb 4th position on their 600cc Honda, which was ideally suited to the conditions, while veteran and former GP competitor Tony Baker with passenger Jimmy White on the F2 Baker-Yamaha just held of fellow F2 riders Tony Thirkell & Roy King for 7th position.
The conditions certainly provided a difficult start to the season for the teams, and many will have a lot of work to do on their machinery before the Superside FIM World Championship starts at the end of May in Schleiz - but the first Steve Webster International Trophy race provide excitement from start to finish. With the Reeves brothers continuing from where they left off last season. But their were plenty of determined teams showing they can push them to the limit in the right conditions. So the stage is set for yet another exciting Superside season, starting just 6 weeks time at Schleiz in the East of Germany.
Result;
- 1st - Tim Reeves/Tristan Reeves, LCR-Suzuki
- 2nd - Stuart Muldoon/Paul Knapton, LCR-Suzuki
- 3rd - Andy Laidlow/Patrick Farrance, LCR-Suzuki
- 4th - John Holden/Andy Winkle, DMR-Honda (F2)
- 5th - Roger Lovelock/Rick Lawrence, LCR-Suzuki
- 6th - Steve Norbury/Scott Parnell, Windle-Suzuki
- 7th - Tony Baker/Jimmy White, Baker-Yamaha (F2)
- 8th - Tony Thirkill/Roy King, Ireson-Honda (F2)
- 9th - John Clarke/McGrath, LCR-Suzuki
- 10th - Gordon Shand/Stuart Graham, LCR-Kawasaki
Fastest Lap: 66 Muldoon/Knapton 1m 58.551s 75.91mph/122.17kph.
