Former resident and passenger of the island obtain the title last weekend

Former island resident Harrison Payne and teammate Kevin Rousseau have been crowned champions of the 2024 FIM Sidecar World Championship.

The Steinhausen Racing duo dramatically claimed the title by winning both the sprint race and the feature race in the final round in Estoril, Portugal, on Saturday and Sunday respectively (November 9 and 10).

Overcoming a seven-point deficit at the start of the weekend, the pair beat title rivals Marcus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt in the end by just 0.053 seconds in the feature race to claim the crown.

Schlosser and Schmidt finished second, while third place in the championship went to Sam and Tom Christie.

Needing to improve on Schlosser and Schmidt across the board to take the championship, Payne and Rousseau set an early marker to take pole position in qualifying sessions one and two.

This would prove important as Payne and Rousseau would have enough to fend off their contenders and win the ten-lap sprint race and close the championship battle to within two points heading into Sunday.

Sunday’s 17-lap feature race lived up to expectations as both Payne & Rousseau and Schlosser & Schmidt battled for supremacy, with the former doing everything he could to maintain the lead over the latter.

The championship came down to a final sprint on the final lap to the finish, with Payne and Rousseau pulling ahead to take the win and the championship by the narrowest of margins.

Completing the race’s main podium in third place were former world champions and regular TT competitors, Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes, while the Christie brothers, who completed the top three of the championship, crossed the finish line in sixth place.

Having previously lived in Ballasalla and now based in Europe, Payne has spent several years competing in the championship alongside Rousseau, who this year was also a passenger for Ben Birchall in both the Isle of Man TT races and the Southern 100 Road Races on Island.