Recently crowned World Sidecar Champions Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze had a weekend of two halves at Oliver’s Mount, Scarborough where they were competing at the International Gold Cup meeting with two strong second places on Saturday offset by two retirements on Sunday.
 
Using the same SMT/Remse Racing F2 outfit that took them to glory in the World F2 Trophy event at Oschersleben, Germany three weeks ago, Tim was making his return to the 2.43-mile woodland circuit for the first time since he made his debut in 2009 whilst Gregory was having his first ever taste of the seaside venue.
 
Nevertheless, they were soon on the pace in practice and qualifying and lined up in third place for Saturday’s two races behind circuit regulars and multiple winners, Ian and Carl Bell and Conrad Harrison/Lee Patterson. The opening six-lap encounter saw the Bells take an early lead to leave Tim and Gregory battling for second with Harrison/Patterson but that became a battle for the lead when the Bells retired on the fourth lap. However, on the final lap, brake fade meant Tim had to slacken the pace and he was unable to challenge Harrison any further, crossing the line in second.
 
With the Bells non-starters for the second race later in the day, it was a straight shoot-out between Tim and Gregory and Harrison/Patterson and there was never more than a couple of machines lengths between the two outfits throughout the six laps. With overtaking opportunities around the narrow, tree-lined circuit limited to say the least though, there was simply no room for Tim to attempt a safe pass and although he posted his best ever lap of the circuit – 1m56.075s – he again finished in a frustrating second.
 
Sunday saw the Anglo-French pairing suffer vastly differing fortunes and they failed to make the start of the third six lap race after a cam sensor failed although they were back on the grid for the fourth and final three-wheel race of the weekend. A perfect start saw them dive up the inside of Harrison/Patterson on the run from the line to Mere Hairpin to move into second and in an ideal position to challenge the Bells. Sadly, it wasn’t to be though as a misfire intervened and they were forced to retire at the start of the fourth lap.
 
Speaking at the end of the weekend, Tim said; “With it only being my second time at Scarborough, and first since my debut in 2009, and Greg’s first ever visit, it’s not been a bad weekend at all. It’s a very tricky circuit and very narrow so we just built things up nicely throughout. The problems on Sunday couldn’t be helped and were unfortunate as we were getting stronger all weekend, putting ourselves in a position to win, and I certainly feel that we could have pushed Ian and Carl for the race wins.”
 
“As it was, luck went against us but I was more than pleased with the two second place finishes on Saturday. We were right with Conrad in both races but it’s just so difficult to overtake and I couldn’t find a place to do it safely. I could have tried a couple of times but it would have been too dangerous so, whilst it was frustrating not to have won, the lap times and results were really good.”
 
“With the World Championship wins in both the F1 and F2 classes in Germany, a podium at the TT and more podiums here, the season’s been really good so we can head to Le Mans next weekend with the pressure off. Clinching my fifth world F1 title a few weeks ago was simply brilliant and something I really wanted to achieve so a big thank you to everyone that’s been involved with my racing this year particularly DFDS Seaways, SMT Racing, H&S Contractors, MJW Kawasaki, Remse Racing, Professor Dr Sallmon, Planet Engineering, Pro-Shift, Aircode and LA Marketing.”
 
Tim and Gregory will be back in action next weekend at Le Mans, France for the final round of the World Sidecar Championship.
 
Photo - Courtesy of Mark ‘Wally’ Walters.