Stirling effort from Lyne and Girling
By TMX Archives on 13th Sep 07
THE final round of the French Sidecar-cross championship was held on the GP track at Gueugnon in mid-France last Sunday, with the usual steep climbs, large table tops, fast straights and double jumps that crews expect from a French circuit, writes Tracy Thacker.
As usual this season two British teams joined the action and both British teams qualified without too much difficulty.
John Lyne and Pete Girling had a very successfulday finishing second in the championship. They started the day with achampionship lead of two points, but could not retain the advantagewith their rivals Geert Devoldere and Edward Chereau staying ahead ineach of the three races.
They started the final race of the day just fourpoints behind, but engine problems slowed the team, though they stillearned enough points to take second.
Jean-Marie Ains and Bernard Jayet did not manageto retain the championship title for a second year, but did manage tohold third position.
Jan Hendrickx and Tim Smeuninx took wins in thefirst two races but crashed badly in the last, leaving KristofSantermans and new passenger Steve Van Togerlo to take the overall win.
Devoldere and Cherau took second overall on theday, with Hendrickx and Smeuninx still holding third overall. NealGibson-Barton and Paul Hutchman finished well in all three races,finally taking 16th overall.
RESULTS
Overall: 1 Santermans/ Van Togerlo 22 + 22 + 25 =69, 2 Devoldere/ Chereau 20 + 20 + 22 = 62, 3 Hendrickx/ Smeuninx 25 +25 + 0 = 50, 4 Ains/ Jayet 18 + 11 + 15 = 44, 5 Poirier/ Poirier 7 + 16+ 20 = 43, 6 Boursaud/ Bequillard 11 + 13 + 18 = 42, 7 LYNE/ GIRLING 16+ 18 + 6 = 40, 8 De Smit/ Verbrugge 12 + 12 + 14 = 38, 9 Martin/Guillonneau 13 + 9 + 13 = 35, 10 Gommeren/ Loos 15 + 0 + 16 = 31, 16GIBSON-BARTON/ HUTCHMAN 0 + 5 + 10 = 15,...