Isle of Man TT: Birchall brothers storm to 11th sidecar win
- Published
Ben and Tom Birchall secured their eighth consecutive win at the TT in the first sidecar race of 2022
Birchall brothers Ben and Tom secured an 11th Isle of Man TT triumph in the first sidecar race of the 2022 event.
Driver Ben, 45, and passenger Tom, 35, put in a dominant display, finishing almost 14 seconds clear of the field.
In a close battle for second, Ryan and Callum Crowe pipped Peter Founds and Jevan Walmsley by a tenth of a second.
The race had been rescheduled after being red-flagged on Saturday following a crash in which a French competitor died.
As a result of the schedule changes, the race was reduced from three laps of the 37.73-mile Mountain Course to two.
Setting off first on the road, the Birchalls led the race from start to finish, completing the second lap at a speed of 119.22mph on their Haith Honda outfit, just 0.03 below their own lap record.
The victory marked an eight consecutive TT win for the former world champions from Mansfield.
Speaking after the race, 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."
Reflecting on the performance of second-placed outfit the Crowes, he said: "Fair play - I mean [it's their] second TT here and they're pushing me, it's 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."
Following an early retirement by Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau, the Manx paring of the Crowes kept the pressure on Founds and newcomer Walmsley throughout the race, edging them out on the final stretch of the course.
The sons of five-time TT sidecar winner Nick Crowe, the duo made their debut on the Mountain Course in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic led to a two-year hiatus for the event.
Seventeen-time TT winner Dave Molyneux and Daryl Gibson took fourth, while the pair of Gary Bryan and Philip Hyde and the duo of Conrad Harrison and Andrew Winkle rounded off the top six positions.
Earlier in the day, Michael Dunlop clinched his 20th Isle of Man TT win in the solo classes in the Supersport race.