Fresh from their recent victory in the second round of the World Sidecar Championship, the Team E-Aide Motorsport pairing of Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze were back on the top step of the podium on Bank Holiday Monday when they won the British F1 Sidecar Championship race at Oulton Park.

With Tim having his first outing at the Cheshire venue on an F1 bike since 2010 and Gregory having only his second visit to the undulating circuit, it certainly didn’t show and a perfect qualifying session on Sunday evening saw them continually set the fastest lap of the session. Indeed, with a time of 1m43.291s, they were not only half a second quicker than nearest rivals Ricky Stevens/Ryan Charlwood, they were also half a second inside the class lap record.

Duly lining up in pole position for Bank Holiday Monday’s 14-lap race, a strong opening lap from the Anglo-French duo saw them cross the line just over a second clear of Tony Brown/Sam Christie. By lap five, the gap had extended to over three seconds as they continued to lap in the 1m42-43s bracket on their LCR Kawasaki and by the end of the race, their winning margin over Sean Hegarty/James Neave was a commanding 10.379s.

They also set a new class lap record at 1m42.571s and although they won’t be contesting the full series, the win moves them onto 45 points and up to fifth place overall in the Championship table.

Tim Reeves: “It’s the first time I’ve ridden Oulton on the big bike for five years and I’d forgotten two things – one, how physically demanding the circuit is but two, what a great circuit it is to drive on. It’s proper old school and it’s a shame there aren’t more tracks like it but it really is hard work as there’s no time for a rest anywhere. You can't lose concentration for a split second and have to really focus hard. The circuit’s quite bumpy too so the outfit is quite a handful as it wants to jump all over the place and it was certainly 14 hard laps. It was a great race though and really enjoyable so it’s great to take another win for Team E-Aide Motorsport and all my loyal sponsors.”

Tim will now turn his attentions to the Formula Two outfit as he builds up his preparations for the Isle of Man TT with passenger Patrick Farrance. The duo will take part in next weekend’s British F2 Championship round at Silverstone before having a further test session at Aintree.

The two TT Sidecar races take place on Saturday 6th June and Wednesday 10th June.

Picture by Glynne Lewis.