Easingwold's ten-time sidecar world champion Steve Webster and his passenger Paul Woodhead get their 2005 campaign underway this weekend at Brands Hatch.

After winning a magnificent and unprecedented three titles - World, European and British - in a hectic 2004 season, Webster's Team Castrol ensemble have a less stressful year ahead, at first glance at least.

With a planned British Championship alongside certain British Superbike rounds scuppered again, Webster will be largely concentrating efforts on a push for an 11th world championship.

This weekend's race is the opening round of the 2005 FIM World Championship, an eight-round series that will climax at St Petersburg in September, as the first ever World Championship motorcycle event held in Russia.

Said Webster: "Looking back we did well last year to get the three titles but it was almost too much. It was really hard to keep up the effort, and even if there were three titles to go for, we wouldn't put ourselves though it like that again.

"What we have got to aim for is a full season world championship, and that'll be our aim. We'll also maybe do a couple of other non-championship meetings at Knockhill and Castle Combe."

There is however a radical departure this season in race organisation. For most of Webster's career a race weekend has centred around practice and one main medium-distance race. Last year however, the World Championship that was sanctioned by the FIM saw three races in one day. It was seen as a successful format, and the idea is now being taken a step further.

The 2005 World Championship series will be divided between 'multi-race' meetings and traditional single-event weekends. This weekend will be the first 'multi' format, with 75 points up for grabs over three races, after a complex qualifying period.

All teams will complete a normal qualifying session to decide the grid positions for all three races. After qualifying, the teams are then split into four groups of six teams depending on their qualifying positions, for the match races.

Each group will compete in a five-lap heat with group four featuring the top six qualifiers.

The heat winners go into semi-finals, the winners of which go through to the final, where they will be joined by the next fastest four teams from both semis.

The results of the final will determine the top six points scorers. After this explosive start to the event, all of the teams will line up again for the second race, the Sprint Race (over 15 laps), then later in the day for the Main race (30 laps).

All three races will be on Sunday, after qualifying and heats tomorrow.

This weekend's event is also using the shorter Brands Hatch "Indy" circuit, a track Webster has not raced since the early 1990s.

He added: "With 75 points up for grabs it's going to be hectic racing. With the short sprint races you can't afford to hold back, so it'll be fireworks all the way."

Race schedule

The 2005 World Championship calendar (* three-race race format weekends):

Round 1: May 7-8 Brands Hatch* (England)

Round 2: May 28-29 Hungaroring (Hungary)

Round 3: June 18-19 Nrburgring (Germany)

Round 4: July 9-10 Schleiz* (Germany)

Round 5: August 6-7 Salzburgring (Austria)

Round 6: August 20-21 Rijeka* (Croatia)

Round 7: September 3-4 Assen (Holland)

Round 8: September 10-11 St Petersburg* (Russia)

Updated: 11:12 Friday, May 06, 2005