Sidecar Festival: How Payne and Rousseau will become world champions at Oschersleben

So far, this year’s Sidecar World Championship has been dominated by Harry Payne and Kevin Rousseau. The British-French pairing have won seven out of ten races. It was only at the races on the Grobnik/Rijeka circuit – where the Yugoslavian Grand Prix was held from 1978 up to and including 1990 – that they were beaten by Pekka Päivärinta andAdam Christie, and in Cremona they were forced to retire from the main race after their sidecar caught fire following a mechanical failure.

The dominance of the duo from the German Steinhausen Racing team – who also clinched the French championship last weekend with two race wins at Magny-Cours – is evident this year in the qualifying sessions as well. They started each of the ten races from pole position.

To spare themselves any unnecessary stress at the final weekend of the World Championship at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben and to secure the World Championship title for the second time since 2024 even before Sunday’s final race, all that is required is for 34-year-old Payne and Rousseau, who is a year his junior, to cross the finish line ahead of their rivals Päivärinta/Christie (Hänni Racing) and the defending champions Sam Christie/Tom Christie (CES Performance) in Saturday afternoon’s sprint race. However, should this plan fail and Päivärinta or Christie finish first in both races, they will need to finish fourth at least twice.

Whilst Markus Schlosser and Lucas Krieg (Gustoil Sidecar Racing) have secured fourth place overall with a 69.5-point lead over the next-placed pair, Ted and Vincent Peugeot (Seventy Four Racing), the French father-and-son pair still have to defend their fifth place against the Dutch duo Bennie Streuer and Manon Vissenberg, who are just four points behind.

German riders are very much in the mix in the battle for the top places

Markus Venus/Thomas Hofer mit Chancen auf WM-Endrang 7

Foto: Helmut Ohner

As the Briton Todd Ellis and the Frenchwoman Emmanuelle Clément are expected to sit out the World Championship rounds at Oschersleben, following their serious crash in the main race at Pau Arnos, just as they did at Cremona and Assen, it is highly likely that the German Markus Venus and his Swiss co-driver Thomas Hofer (ITW Racing) and the Australian brothers Corey and Danyon Turner – who are currently 0.5 and 6.5 points behind respectively – are highly likely to overtake the two-time world champions.

Following their retirement from racing, which they announced ahead of the event at Assen, the French pair Paul Leglise and Marjorie Cescutti will relinquish their top-10 position without a fight; though the Briton Tim Reeves (Carl Cox Motorsport), who will also be competing at Oschersleben alongside the German Luca Schmidt, will need to get his technical issues under control.

The battle for places 12 to 16 promises to be thrilling. Featuring the German Patrick Werkstetter, who has been out with injury for a long time, and the Frenchman Valentin Pirat (Sattler Motorsport/Bonovo Racing), the British-French pairing Paul Kirby/Ema Salmon (Carl Cox Motorsport KRT), the French-Belgian pair Manuel Moreau and Alice Roba, the German duo Thomas Eder and Kevin Kölsch, and the Briton Kevin Cable and his French passenger Yann Druel (K&W Racing), no fewer than five teams are separated by just four points.

Schedule, Sidecar World Championship, Oschersleben

World Championship standings after 10 of 12 races