Harry Payne and fellow Englishman Mark Wilkes recorded two excellent top-10 finishes in the Dutch Sidecar GP at Assen last weekend.

It was another solid weekend for the Ballasalla-based driver in his KelProperties-backed LCR, closing the gap on the leading crews each time out.

After qualifying ninth in his first time driving at the famous circuit, and only second time riding this bike, Payne grabbed a lightning start in Saturday’s opening race. He and Wilkes were up to eighth position into the first corner, tagging onto the back of fast Frenchmen Ted and Vincent Peugeot.

They inherited sixth after Wilkes’s former driver Tim Reeves and new ballast Kevin Rousseau had a coming together with Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement.

Payne and Wilkes finished 27 seconds behind the race winners in sixth place, but a post-race inspection revealed that the outfit of Bennie Streuer and Jeroen Remme was 6kg under the minimum weight, promoting Harry and Mark to fifth place.

Sunday was even hotter and another good start saw the English pair slot into seventh behind Rob Biggs and Jeroen Schmitz. They were running a really strong pace until lap eight when they encountered a gearbox problem. The bike jumped out of gear entering the hairpin, dropping them back to eighth.

Payne decided to avoid using first gear for the remaining laps, costing him and Wilkes a good few tenths per lap, but they inherited seventh place when Reeves/Rousseau retired.

They then held their position to the end of the race, finishing 21 seconds behind the winners.

’I was very happy to leave Assen with a best lap of 1min 44.2sec under our belts - six tenths of a second off the best lap of the race,’ said Harry.

l The team will be back on their Formula Two machine in a little over one week’s time at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire for the fourth round of the ACU FSRA British F2 Sidecar Championship.

l The next local race meeting at Jurby Motordrome is on Sunday, August 15.