British F1 Sidecar champions Ricky Stevens and Ryan Charlwood squeezed in a practice round at Oulton Park this weekend which gave them some much needed confidence ahead of round two of the Hyundai Heavy Industries British Sidecar Championship on the very same circuit.

Sidecar driver Ricky Stevens from Portsmouth, and his passenger Ryan Charlwood from Dover, made a good start to their title defence by securing two second place finishes during round one at Brands Hatch. However, the champions admitted that they didn’t race at their best and had suffered from a slight lack of confidence.

Ryan said: “We are racing on a brand new bike this year so we were still finding our feet at Brands Hatch and we weren’t necessarily at the top of our game.

“After nearly rolling it in the warm-up lap in the first race, we had to make a cautious start which gave the Reeves brothers the advantage and that dented our confidence a little.”

The team headed to the Wirral 100 Motorclub meeting at Oulton Park this past weekend to get a few more laps on the new outfit under their belt. It gave them the opportunity to fine tune their machine further and become more familiar with it.

Ricky said: “It was good to get some more practice with the new bike. Practice makes perfect, doesn’t it?

“We were really happy with how the weekend went and it’s boosted our confidence ahead of round two. It was also rather convenient that we were on the very same track!

“Now we just need to get out there and enjoy the racing. The rest should follow naturally.”

Ricky and Ryan are headed to Oulton Park from 29^th April to 1^st May. Round 2 of the Hyundai Heavy Industries British Sidecar Championship is a one-race event. The qualifiers will take place on the Sunday followed by the main event on the Monday.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• Ricky and Ryan are the reigning Hyundai Heavy Industries British F1 Sidecars champions.
• They raced to victory in 2015 with Ricky Stevens, from Portsmouth, as driver and Ryan Charlwood, from Dover, as co-rider.
• In 2016, they successfully defended their title after joining the Bournemouth Kawasaki team with Quattro Plant and Cool Milk as headline sponsors.
• Ricky and Ryan are re-joining the Bournemouth Kawasaki team in 2017 under the banner of JG Speedfit Kawasaki. They will be in the company of BSB riders Leon Haslam and Luke Mossey and road racer James Hillier.

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