THE High Wycombe-based Brian Gray Powerbiking Race Team made the trip to Knockhill in Scotland for round four of the British Sidecar Championship last weekend.

The triple header of races on the shortest track in the series were to be badly affected by the weather.

Gray

and Jason Pitt from Portsmouth did not have the best of qualifying after an off-track excursion in their LCR Yamaha left them stuck in a gravel trap. It meant they could only qualify in 15th position on the grid which gave them a lot of work to do with such short laps on the tight and twisting circuit.

The first lap into the hairpin was real hectic stuff as 18 sidecars tried to get round, including one on just two wheels. Gray and Pitt did manage to make up a couple of places there but they were also coming under attack from Ben Holland and Lee Watson, plus Chris Walker and Ashley Hawkes as they came onto the start and finish straight for the first of 12 laps.

They managed to out-drag Dean Nicholls and Kenny Cole and then Kevin Cable and Kyle Masters but in turn were taken by Simon Gilbert and Jed Pilmoor-Brady, who were on a charge up the field.

The pace was fast and furious and at one point Pitt had an arm trapped between two outfits as they clashed.

The High Wycombe duo finally had to settle for 12th place but still in the points.

Heavy rain then arrived and the racing was completely disrupted with the second race, scheduled for 8pm, cancelled after further downpours.

The weather conditions on Sunday was more of the same but, by the time the sidecars lined up for their 15-lap race, a dry line was appearing. Gray opted for intermediate tyres and it looked like it worked.

Starting from 12th position on the grid, the duo set about moving up the field and were soon engaged in a battle with Gilbert and Pilmoor-Brady, and for a while Andy Peach and Ken Edwards.

This time they got the upper hand in a race-long battle as they crossed the line to take seventh place, enough to move them up to eighth in the British Championship.

The team

also supports 16-year-old Caleb Smith, from High Wycombe, in the Junior Supersport races, with four on his 320cc Yamaha - giving 80cc away to the larger Kawasaki's.

Smith took 30th in the first race on Saturday with the second falling victim to the weather, and then 27th and 32nd on Sunday.

Elsewhere, in the sidecar World Championships at the Pannonia Ring in Hungary, Sam and Adam Christie had two great races for fifth and sixth, bettering their lap and race times from last year. They are now fifth in the world standings.