A LOCAL sidecar racer will be taking on the might of the world's best when he contests the revived British Sidecar Championship next season.

Greg Lambert from Scotton will team up with Midlander Jamie Sirrell aboard the 1000cc LCR Yamaha outfit to contest the series, which will support the prestigious British Superbike Championship over 13 rounds.

With the demise of the Superside World Championship, there will be plenty of quality opposition to overcome and the 36-year-old has enlisted the help of a number of local organisations to help his bid.

They include Reed Boardell Transport, Ripon Engineering Services, R&J Bearings and Dave Hudspeth Carpets among others, but his major sponsor for the forthcoming campaign will be his Leeming-based employers, Dalepak, for whom he has worked for 16 years, most recently as the engineering and factory buyer.

"Moving into the British Superbike paddock is a fantastic way to increase the profile of the sport and, with tens of thousands of fans attending the races and millions watching back home on TV, this is an incredible opportunity for us," said Lambert, who is also an accomplished TT racer, having equalled his best result of third in this year's race on the Isle of Man aboard his 600cc Molyneux Honda.

He added: "We are looking at various ways of capitalising on this and one of these is offering affordable hospitality packages to various companies and individuals so they can savour the race day experience at some of Britain's biggest motor sport events at the best tracks".

Having also won the FSRA F2 road race championship and two Auto 66 club championships in 2003, Lambert finished runner-up in the FSRA F1 championship and will be a major force in the Eastern Airways-supported championship which gets under way at Silverstone on March 28.

Dalepak's sales and marketing director Richard Holt said: "We are delighted to be involved with Greg again and have supported him for a number of years.

"Moving into the world of British Superbikes will boost the profile of all those involved in sidecar racing and it looks like an exciting time ahead."

Anyone interested in obtaining details of the proposed hospitality packages should contact Greg Lambert on 07974 592956