'˜Tough' weekend for Stevens & Co

The Portsmouth-based outfit were competing in the fourth round of the British Sidecar Championship in Lincolnshire.

Yet, it didn't go according to plan, with Stevens and passenger Ryan Charlwood suffering a crash in race two which ruled the latter out for the remainder of the meet.

That followed a fifth-placed finish in race one, after the duo got held up by some of the larger 1000cc machines.

An improvement was top priority for the second outing.

But on lap one, after exiting the chicane, Ricky got caught up in a crash involving several other competitors.

And it was Charlwood who took the brunt of the impact, ending up in the medical centre and being declare unfit for the rest of the meet.

Stevens said. '˜It's been a really tough weekend. 

'˜It was not the weekend we wanted but we are lucky to walk away from the crash in terms of injury and damage to the sidecar.'

Local-based passenger Justin Sharp was called in as replacement for Charlwood.

His first race with Stevens saw them finish 10th in the re-run of race two.

The duo finished fourth in race three, before claiming eighth spot in race four.

Stevens added: '˜We have gained some valuable points. A big thank you to Justin for stepping in, I know it wasn't easy for him.'