Upton’s sidecar-racing duo are Scotland braves

Team SaS, Giles and Jen Stainton, in action at East Fortune in Scotland. (PHOTO BY: Sid Diggins)

The husband-and-wife team, nicknamed SaS, returned to East Fortune for the penultimate round of the Scottish Sidecar Championship.

And although they were frustrated not to turn at least one of the runners-up placings into a victory, they could hardly complain.

Dry and sunny weather greeted them on Saturday, although the wind speed was high and set to get worse as the day wore on.

Practice and qualifying went well for the Staintons, who qualified in fourth place overall and second in their class in the mixed grid of F1 and F2 outfits. They were pleased with the result and also the lap time of one minute, eight seconds, which gave them a second-row start for the first race.

When the action got under way, the three leading riders got away from them. It was eventually brought to a premature end when the red flag went out, and the Staintons were awarded fourth place overall but a fine second in their class, achieving a better lap time.

By race two, the wind speed had picked up considerably and the gusts caused them to be pushed off line. But although conditions became increasingly challenging, they managed to complete the race without incident in third place overall and another second place in their class.

The weather improved on Sunday, and the Staintons collected another fourth place overall and second in their class in the third race.

The final race of the weekend didn’t start as well as expected as they were boxed in and pushed a little off line. But once they recovered, they set about chasing down the team ahead before catching and passing them.

They spent the next few laps with those rivals breathing down their necks, but they finally shook off their advances and crossed the line happy.

Jen said: “We again finished fourth overall and second in class with a new personal best time, which was a great end to the weekend. Unfortunately, there is a date clash for the final round and we will have to miss it.”

The duo’s next outing is at Mallory Park for a round of the British Championship.