Payne & Rousseau crowned 2024 world sidecar champions

Former Island resident and passenger take title on final weekend

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

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

Overhauling a seven-point deficit going into the weekend, the pairing beat title rivals Marcus Schlosser and Luca Schmidt at the last by just 0.053 seconds in the main race to claim the crown.

Schlosser and Schmidt therefore finish second whilst third place in the championship went to Sam and Tom Christie.

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

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

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

The championship came down to a sprint finish on the final lap to the line with Payne and Rousseau edging in front to take the race win and the championship by the narrowest of margins.

Completing the main race podium in third was former world champions and regular TT competitors Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes whilst the Christie brothers - completing the championship top three - crossed the line sixth.

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 passenger to Ben Birchall at both the Isle of Man TT Races and Southern 100 Road Races on Island.