Easingwold's ten-time sidecar World Champion Steve Webster and passenger Paul Woodhead are back on the 2005 World Championship campaign trail after a three-week breather since the Budapest boiler.

This weekend the Castrol-sponsored duo are at the Nurburgring, Germany, for the third round of the series, and will be setting out to reel in the 40-points advantage carved out by Tim and Tristan Reeves, whose two wins and two seconds have earned them a 90-point haul.

A non-finish in the third race at Brands and a retirement in the tarmac-melting 38 degree Hungarian heat handed race wins to Reeves.

While there are still plenty of races - and 300 points - to claw back, Webster, on 50, must start winning to pull up the table from his current third spot, 11 points behind Team Q8 Suzuki pair Jorg Steinhausen and Scarborough's Trevor Hopkinson.

Sunday's race will be on the short circuit as raced on by Webster in a one-off appearance in the German Championship series exactly one year ago.

On that occasion Webster, purporting to be on a tyre-testing trip, thrashed local hero Steinhausen, and posted a new lap record. Previously Webster has raced nine times on the longer GP circuit, winning there in 1990 and 1997. His debut at the track was a memorable third back in 1984, his first ever rostrum placing in what was then only the third World Championship race he had finished.

Said Webster: "We are looking forward to this weekend, and we're both fully recovered after Hungary. It was just too hot and it was a combination of things that got to us. Paul is about the fittest person I've ever known, and the heat from the engines, the sun and the exhaust fumes was just too much.

"We've let Reeves get a big points lead over us now, and we're going to have to start winning and racking the points in. It's going to be a long tough season from here in.

"Nurburgring has always been one of my favourite circuits, and we've got some good results there over the years."

Updated: 10:49 Friday, June 17, 2005