Gremlin overcome for victory

Photo: Doug Cornes Photography

Hamilton-based sidecar driver Aaron Lovell left for the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed at Sydney Motorsport Park last week unsure how his Swiss Louis Christen Racing (LCR) bike would stack up against similar machines across the ditch.

He and "swinger" Dennis Simonsen returned safe in the knowledge they very well may have at their disposal the fastest sidecar in Australasia.

The duo rode through a "gremlin" causing coughing, spluttering and backfires between 8000-10,000rpm to capture wins in the opening two races spanning Friday and Saturday, before the bike badly misfired while on pole for Saturday afternoon's third race.

"We had a little gremlin there, so we went out on the Saturday and looked for it. We couldn't find it and didn't know what it was," Lovell said.

"We kept changing the coils and plugs, so went out with the miss still there, and ended up riding through it."

The third race mishap resulted in a meritorious fifth-placed finish after the Kiwi team had been forced to start from the back of the grid in the 17-bike field.

The miss persisted again during the fourth race held on Saturday afternoon, but did not prevent Lovell and Simonsen from prevailing again.

Worse luck was to come, with the bike failing at the start of the fourth race on Sunday with the Oceania Challenge title already in the bag.

"The bike just didn't want to run at all - we went out and did the warm-up and then took off from the line and pulled in so we didn't finish at all.

"In the end it was good - it forced us to find the gremlin. It was a little plug that connects the alternator to the charging system and we fixed it and got a blinder of a start in the final race.

"The crew was saying when we came around we were that far in front that we were coming off the front straight before the other drivers had come on to it."

The duo won the race by more than 14secs, coming within two seconds of the lap record in the process.

Lovell plans to return for the second round of the Australian series in August where he hopes Australia's top rider will make himself known.

"The top guy from Australia wasn't there, but talking to the Australians I think we would have done quite well against him. It would be fairly close, I'd say. It was a fantastic team effort - everyone got stuck in together and did the best we could. It ran so nice in the last race it was unbelievable."

Photo/ Doug Cornes Photography