Ballasalla-based sidecar driver Harry Payne and French passenger Kevin Rousseau won the sprint race at the Red Bull Ring in Austria last weekend.

The Austrian Grand Prix formed the fourth round of the 2023 FIM Sidecar World Championship, with Payne and Rousseau lying fifth overall heading into the weekend.

After wet free practice and qualifying, they secured a front row start with P2 for the two races and the duo got off to a perfect start in Saturday’s sprint race.

In the run to the first corner, they pushed past polesitters and current world champions Todd Ellis/Emmanuelle Clément to take first place.

After the second lap they had already built up a lead of more than two seconds and thereafter Payne/Rousseau controlled the race from the front and never let their pursuers come closer than 1.4 seconds.

After 10 laps, they and the Steinhausen Racing team were able to celebrate an unchallenged victory.

Speaking afterwards, a delighted Payne said: ‘I’m just so happy to get this victory, we really needed a boost after all the gremlins of the earlier races - this is for all who support us!’

Payne/Rousseau not only celebrated their first joint success, but they also gave their team boss Rolf Steinhausen a belated birthday present after the two-time sidecar world champion turned 80 shortly before the Austrian GP.

In Sunday’s main 17-lap race there was chaos in the early laps with the Tim Reeves/Mark Wilkes machine colliding with the Ben and Tom Birchall machine which brought out the red flag. Unfortunately, passenger Tom Birchall sustained several injuries and it’s not sure if the 14-time TT winners will be able to contest the next round.

The restarted race was shortened to 15 laps and produced a Titanic battle between the top four teams who were eventually split by a mere 0.5 of a second over the line, with Payne and Rousseau finishing fourth.

Speaking afterwards, Payne commented: ‘This was a fantastic race for us. The Christie bike has about 4/5kph on us down the straights and I really think if not for them we’d have been fighting for the victory again.’

These strong results have moved the team back up to third place in the FIM Sidecar World Championship standings with three rounds to go, the next of which takes place at Assen in Holland over the weekend of August 18-20.