Since the last instalment from Treasure Racing Adam Treasure & Darren Dewhurst have competed in 2 rounds of the IDM/German Championship. The 1st of these was at Oschersleben. Oschersleben was a new track for both Adam and Darren and is quite a technical track to learn with many corners having multiple apexes.

The temperature was cold, with both Friday and Saturday barely at 8 Deg C and raining. The sidecars received 1 free practice session on Friday afternoon, which was held in dry conditions. With each lap Adam improved his lap times while attempting to commit to memory not only which direction the next corner would be but also trying to find his braking markers and the correct line through each corner. Meanwhile the Mick DeWith tuned Suzuki engine was revelling in the cold temperatures to provide an abundance of performance for the boys to play with.

Saturday saw the sidecars have 2x qualifying sessions in the rain, Adam, who has had limited riding experience in the wet approached the qualifying sessions with a very methodical learning process in mind. As each session progressed the number 39 sidecar (unfortunately 38 is being used in the IDM) moved its way forward on the grid to eventually qualify 12th.

Photo by Linda Beumer

Sunday turned out to be a fantastic day, weather wise, no rain and a positively balmy 13 Deg C. Adam who has never raced a Formula 1 Sidecar in the wet managed to maintain his unbroken record and the boys fronted the start line for a dry race. Memories of the Jump start and the penalty that was incurred at the 2nd round of the world Championship at Schleiz were still fresh in the minds of the team which led to a slight hesitation off the line and Treasure Racing found itself dropping back a few places by the 1st corner. A race long battle behind the #65 sidecar of Steffes/Walker and the #20 outfit of Kiser/Engelmann ensured. It was an enjoyable but also frustrating race with Adam unable to find a way past the 2 teams until the 11th lap which unfortunately coincided with a race stoppage due to a crash involving one of the lead teams as it attempted to pass a lapped rider.


Photo by Linda Beumer

Photo by Linda Beumer

The restart for a further 6 laps found Adam & Darren again behind Kiser/Engelmann and Steffes/Walker. This battle continued on as it had done in the 1st part of the race, with Treasure Racing having more pace but unable to find a way past until the last lap saw some brilliant riding by Adam who put a fake passing move up the inside of Steffes/Walker going into a series of 3 left corners, as Steffes had done countless laps before, moved down onto the line to cover Adams passing move Adam changed to the outside and went round the outside with a very clean and well executed pass followed by a pass on Kiser/Engelmann 3 corners later pulling out of a chicane to cross the line in a very commendable 6th place. The lap times in the race were the quickest times for the whole weekend for Treasure Racing.

The 2nd of the IDM rounds that Treasure Racing attended was held at the World Famous Nurburgring. The Nurburgring is an amazing facility, bathed in huge buildings that feature stores from Ferrari, BMW and Mercedes to mention a few. It has its own museum and the pit facilities are 2nd to none.

The track was an easier layout to learn than Oschersleben and while the weather was cold there was no rain about, like there had been at Oschersleben. Friday saw the sidecars again on the track for 1x free practice session which allowed Adam & Darren a chance to learn the track layout, this being another new track for both team members.

Adam receives setup tips from Louis Christen, designer & manufacturer of the LCR Sidecar

Saturday’s 2x qualifying sessions had Adam & Darren improving there lap times and qualifying position as each session wound its way towards their conclusion. The end result being a qualifying and start position of 10th. While at Nurburgring Adam and Darren took advantage of the great service provided by Arai and had their Arai helmets cleaned & serviced by the Arai Technicians at the track.

Sunday morning had Treasure Racing go out for morning warm up in the rain and their warm up time was quite good and made for a promising race result in the wet. As the day went on the rain came in bursts followed by large dry spells. Leading upto the sidecar race had been a large dry spell with the track surface completely dry, but looking towards the heavens an ominous big dump of rain looked to be on its way.

For the race all teams lined up in the staging area, all on slicks but with trolleys on the dummy grid loaded with wet weather tyres. As soon as the sidecars rolled out onto the track the rain began to fall and by the time the bikes got to the start line to grid up there was absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was going to be a wet race and all teams worked feverously on changing to wet tyres on the start line. It was here on the start line that Treasure racing Sponsor Albert Raesfeld of B & R Tyre Service helped out with a hands on approach helping Adam & Darren change from slicks to Wet tyres on the start line. Adam’s wet race virginity was about to be broken.

Photo by Linda Beumer

When the lights went green, a great wall of water was thrown up from all the sidecars in front of Adam & Darren, knowing that this was going to be a long race Adam used caution heading into turn 1 for the first time having dropped back quite a few places in the run to turn 1. Once the mayhem of the first few laps had settled down Adam began to move forward through the field catching the bikes in front quite quickly but hesitating when making passes on the other teams. With large gaps between bikes visibility was good allowing Adam to ride faster but once caught up to a bike or even a group of bikes visibility from the spray coming off the bikes in front made passing a hazardous affair, the boys eventually finishing the race in 14th when it was red flagged due to an accident near to the racing line.

Darren, ready for a wet race at Nurburgring.
Photo by Linda Beumer

With Treasure Racings 1st ever wet race completed Adam & Darren learned a great deal of knowledge which they will apply to any future wet races so that they will be better prepared. A wet weather racing kit has now been prepared, with essentials needed like “rain X” for the visors to aid in water repelling for better visibility among other little secrets we don’t wish our competitors to know.

Photo by Linda Beumer

As this media release was being written, Adam and Darren were on their way to Rijeka in Croatia for the 3rd round of the World Championship. This race meeting is generally known for its hot weather but at the moment the weather forecast for the weekend is for rain….

Yours in Racing
Adam and Darren.

Treasure Racing
F1 sidecar #38

P.S To keep track of Treasure Racings racing as it is happening & keep upto date with Live Timing & race results check out Steve English’s website at www.steveenglish.com