2025 FIM Sidecar World Championship at Assen, The Netherlands © Mark Walters
Following an anxious six-week wait, the action resumes in the FIM Sidecar World Championship with competitors travelling to the fabled TT Circuit Assen – widely referred to as the Cathedral of Speed – in the Netherlands this coming weekend (18-20 September) for the fifth and penultimate round.
After a dramatic fourth round at the beginning of August in Cremona, Italy, that saw series leaders and 2024 champions Harrison Payne (ARS Yamaha) and Kevin Rousseau suffer a race-two DNF, the British/French pairing start this weekend with a super-slim advantage of just four-and-a-half points with the title fight wide open.
Leaders since the opening round in Le Mans in April, Payne-Rousseau have set the pace from the outset, but the DNF in Italy has slashed their advantage and they now have Finnish rider Pekka Päivärinta (ARS Yamaha) and his British passenger Adam Christie applying serious pressure in second position with defending champions Sam and Thomas Christie (LCR Yamaha) also in striking distance, just fifteen-and-a-half points adrift of the lead.
Päivärinta, whose remarkable career that has so far earned him five gold medals was celebrated in 2024 when he was awarded the accolade of ‘FIM Legend’, has been in vintage form this season alongside Christie and dominated round two at Grobnik-Rijeka in Croatia. However, there are no question marks surrounding the speed Payne/Rousseau have been carrying this season and the veteran Finn, who is chasing his first crown since 2016, knows there is no room for complacency.
The last of the three crews still in with a realistic chance of the 2026 crown, the Christie brothers took full advantage of the leaders’ retirement last time out to dramatically reduce the deficit to the top and the pairing know that nothing less than one hundred per cent will do at Assen.
Of course, while the title may be out of reach for the rest of the field, there is no shortage of crews that would like nothing more than to take their place on the podium at the end of the weekend.
Although they are currently back in fifth in the title race, the French son and father team of Ted and Vincent Peugeot (LCR Yamaha) achieved their first podium together in Italy and will be looking to build on this momentum and do not discount former champion Markus Schlosser (LCR Yamaha) from Switzerland and his German passenger Lucas Krieg who hold fourth in the standings.
Champions in 2022 and again the following season, Todd Ellis (ARS Yamaha) from Great Britain and his French passenger Emmanuelle Clément lie sixth after sitting out the previous round and are just four points clear of the Dutch pairing of 2015 champion Bennie Streuer (ARS Yamaha) and his passenger Manon Vissenberg.
Other crews to watch out for in Assen include the German/French pairing of Patrick Werkstetter (ARS Yamaha) and Pirat Valentin, Germany’s Markus Venus (LCR Yamaha) and his Swiss passenger Thomas Hofer, Australian brothers Corey and Danyon Turner (ARS Yamaha) and the French team of Paul Leglise (LCR Yamaha) and Marjorie Cescutti.
