Eighth win in a row for Birchalls at Isle of Man TTs

Mansfield's legendary Birchall brothers Ben and Tom produced an 11th Isle of Man TT triumph in the first sidecar race of the 2022 event on Monday.
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Driver Ben, 45, and passenger Tom, 35, put in a dominant display, finishing almost 14 seconds clear of the field.

It continued their dominance of the TT’s Sidecar class with a flag-to-flag victory in what was a shortened two-lap race.

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The Birchalls have won all eight races they have contested in a row since the second sidecar race of the 2016 TT.

Ben and Tom Birchall - another victory at the Isle of Man TTs this week.Ben and Tom Birchall - another victory at the Isle of Man TTs this week.
Ben and Tom Birchall - another victory at the Isle of Man TTs this week.

On Monday they won by 13.989 seconds from Manx brothers Ryan and Callum Crowe.

The race had been rescheduled after being red-flagged on Saturday following a crash in which French sidecar passenger Olivier Lavorel died.

On the final lap the Birchall’s appeared to be on lap record pace and there was speculation they may smash the 120mph lap once and for all, but in the end, they clocked a speed just shy of their own lap-record at 119.22mph.

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Ben said: “I always find two laps tough to be honest, and they were keeping me honest, you know, and I was shoving on and shoving on and I just thought 'calm down and see what happens now'.

“But what a great day to be out there, the people that are waving. Fantastic”

Tom added: “Just to click them two laps off, clean and fast like that I'm so happy. To get back to something like record pace, that's awesome as well.”