Birchall brothers secure 11th consecutive win in final Sidecar race at Isle of Man TT 2023

Brothers Ben and Tom Birchall have achieved their 11th win in a row during the final Sidecar race at the Isle of Man TT.

The brothers set a new lap record of 120.645mph and finished nine seconds ahead of Pete Founds and Jevan Walmsley, who also broke the 120mph barrier.

Manx pairing of Ryan and Callum Crowe came third.

It was the Birchalls 11th win in a row and 14th in total, the latter figure drawing them level with the great Mike Hailwood.

With overcast skies all around the Mountain Course, the Birchalls led through Glen Helen first time around, their advantage over Founds and Walmsley 2.8 seconds and it was the Crowes who slotted into third on their Haven Homes Honda a further 4.2 seconds adrift.

John Holden and Maxime Vasseur were running in fourth, the Blackburn driver having his final TT race, with Gary Bryan and Phil Hyde, alongside Dave Molyneux and Dan Sayle rounding out the early top six.

Over Ballaugh Bridge and the Birchalls had added a further four tenths of a second to their lead and by Ramsey Hairpin, they’d stretched it out more to 3.9 seconds, but further down the order former winners Conrad Harrison and Andrew Winkle were forced to retire with passenger Winkle suffering with a shoulder injury.

Daryl Gibson and Tom Christie, sixth in race one, were also early retirements having stopped at Barregarrow but the Birchalls were having no such issues and an opening lap of 118.904mph gave them a 4.5s lead over Founds and Walmsley with the Crowes comfortable in third but some 15s adrift of second place.

Holden and Vasseur were still in fourth, but Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes had fought their way back up to fifth after being down in ninth through Glen Helen.

Molyneux and Sayle remained in sixth just ahead of Bryan/Hyde and Steve and Matty Ramsden.

The Birchalls upped the tempo at the beginning of lap two and their lead had gone out to 8.1 seconds at Glen Helen and whilst third to fifth remained the same, the Ramsdens had now moved up to sixth at the expense of Molyneux and Sayle, albeit by just 0.094 seconds.

They were then promoted up a place as Holden and Vasseur slowed with Molyneux and Sayle then retiring at Sulby but as the lap progressed, the Birchalls were on course to better their four-day old lap record and sure enough, they did exactly that as they went 2.8 seconds quicker with a speed of 120.645mph.

That saw them extend their lead over Founds and Walmsley to 11.6 seconds as they themselves lapped at 119.887mph and although the Crowes continued to circulate in third, the changes behind meant that the running order behind was now Reeves and Wilkes, the Ramsdens – who set a new personal best lap of 114.405mph – and Bryan and Hyde.

Holden and Vasseur had recovered to seventh as eighth placed Greg Lambert and Andrew Haynes set their first 110mph+ lap.

On the final lap, Founds and Walmsley were continuing to keep the Birchalls honest, the lead hovering around the 13 second mark, and whilst the Nottinghamshire brothers came home for their second win of the week, the eventual winning margin was 9.1 seconds as Founds and Walmsley joined the 120mph club at 120.079mph.

The Crowes got their first finish of the week in third with Reeves and Wilkes finally seeing the chequered flag in fourth as the Ramsdens finished fifth to round out their successful time at TT2023. Bryan and Hyde, Lambert and Haynes, Wayne Lockey and Matthew Rostron and John and James Saunders completed the top ten.

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