Three-time World Sidecar Champion Tim Reeves got his 2009 World Sidecar Championship season off to a strong start at the weekend when he competed in the opening round of the series in Schleiz, Germany.

Competing with younger brother Tristan in the passenger’s chair for the first time since October 2006, the pairing recorded two fine third place finishes around the 3.8km circuit to lie in third place overall.

Opening qualifying saw the duo only record one timed lap of 1m35.644s as a technical problem left them stranded in the pits but thanks to the generosity of fellow competitors Andy and Nicky Percy they were back out on the track for the second and final session. Tim and Tristan rapidly reduced their times and managed to put in a full 14 laps during the 30-minute session with a lap of 1m29.752s hauling them all the way up to third place and on the second row of the grid.

In Saturday’s 11-lap ‘Sprint’ race, the Kent brothers got the perfect start and slotted into the lead, which they held until the third lap, but the problem that they had encountered in practice returned and Tim opted to secure some safe points for the year-long Championship rather than risk a DNF and brought the LCR Suzuki home in a fine third place.

On Sunday, it was the 22-lap ‘Gold’ race around the physically demanding Schleiz course and the brothers again took third for their second successive podium. The results gave them a combined total of 32 points, 13 behind the joint leaders Pekka Paivarinta/Adolf Hanni and Ben/Tom Birchall.

“To leave here this weekend with two rostrums is superb and just what we were looking for. It’s been a while since Tristan has been in the chair and we needed all the track time we could get so he could get back up to speed but, unfortunately, a technical problem in first qualifying left us on the sidelines," said Reeves.

"I’ve got to say a big thank you to Andy and Nicky Percy for their tremendous generosity and assistance and I’m extremely grateful to them for the loan of one of their tuned engines. It allowed me to go out in second qualifying and although the majority of the session was spent running the engine in, we put a quick lap in at the end and got ourselves on the second row.

“In the first race, we got a great start and held on to the lead for the first few laps but the technical problem we had in practice surfaced again and so I settled for a safe third. It was a similar situation in the second and with it being a longer race, I was conscious of scoring as many points as possible so I eased back a bit to save the engine and came home in another solid third place.

"Obviously, I would have preferred to have won but we’ve bagged some good points and will be a lot stronger at the next round. It’s great to have kicked things off in front of a lot of my loyal sponsors and a big thank you to Guenther and Jutta Reuschling for their hospitality this week and their continuing support.”