The penultimate round of the FIM Sidecar World Championship heads to the oldest racing circuit in Germany, it was first raced on in 1923, and the distance for one lap was 6.805 km long, the circuit runs in an anti clockwise direction. The track has changed a lot over the years, now the distance over a lap is 3.805 km; it is still classed as a road circuit, and has been known to be tough on man and machine, the long flat out down hill section to the bottom hairpin is not for the fainthearted.Leading the championship is Pekka Paivarinta and Adolf Hanni on 146 points; they will need to keep up the good results as second in the championship is Jorg Steinhausen and Ashley Hawes who are only 17 points behind, with two races over the weekend a lot of points can be had and Steinhausen will be trying his hardest to bridge this gap and possibly top the table. Steinhausen will need to watch though as third in the championship is Ben and Tom Birchall who are on top form just now, they have won the last four races, with pole possisions and fastest laps too, they are sitting third in the championship on 116 points.With this being their first full year competing in the championship, Scott Lawrie and James Neave are still in fourth place on 87 points. They had a poor outing in Sachsenring, but two fourth places in Oschersleben gave them a small cushion to fifth place team Michael Grabmuller and Manfred Wechselberger who are sitting with 65 points.Grabmuller and Wechselberger will need to be on their best form though, as Kurt Hock and Enrico Becker are only one point behind them, Hock and Becker are slowly creeping up the table which is good for them after the big crash they had in Croatia, and they know this track very well, which should be good for them.Ten points off Hock and Becker is Bennie Streuer and Geert Koerts, they have been having a steady season so far and are getting faster as the season goes on, they too will need to be on top form as only four points behind them is Petri Makkula and Timo Kartialla on 50 points.Another weekend with a lot of track time, which the teams will appreciate.There will be a 11 lap sprint race on Saturday and a 22 lap Gold race on Sunday.
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