BMW Rennsport RS54 Engine powered to 19 straight constructors titles from 1955 to 1973, the most by any engines. In 2014, for the first time a Kawasaki-powered machine won the title with Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze ending an 11-year consecutive Suzuki run. In 2016 Kirsi Kainulainen became the first woman motorcycle world champion, as passenger to Pekka Päivärinta. However, in 2017 the engine capacity of F1 sidecars was reduced from 1000cc to 600cc. This was a conscious effort by FIM to attract more participation from racers who still preferred the traditional F2 chassis. By reducing the engine size, it was hoped that this would mean competition on more equal terms. Nevertheless, the 2017 championship was still dominated by competitors using the F1 chassis. The highest placed F2 chassis team was 12th by Eckart Rösinger and Steffen Werner on their Baker-Suzuki GSX-R600. Formats Since 2005 there are now three types of race classes. Any given championship round can have all three type of races but sometimes there is only one type of race (the Gold Race) in one round, usually when the round is a supporting event of a major meeting such as MotoGP. Match Race. Teams are divided into groups and race in very short heat races. Winners and the better placing teams in these heats would advance to the next round (semi-finals), until only the best six teams left for the final heat race. A typical heat race distance is three laps. Sprint Race. All teams participate in a short race. A typical race distance is twelve laps. Gold Race. All teams participate in a long race, usually twice the distance of the sprint race. FIM Sidecar World Champions Grand Prix Notes Trivia Werner Schwärzel and Karl Heinz Kleis was the first team to win a race (1974 German GP) using a 2-stroke engine (König), Steve Abbott and Jamie Biggs was the last team to win a race (1999 World Superbike Championship round 8 Brands Hatch) using a 2-stroke engine (Honda). Tim Reeves and Mark Wilkes won the first race of the season in France (Le Mans) using a German-made Adolf RS-Yamaha sidecar, thus ended LCR's winning every single race for the last 15 seasons dating back to 2003, the longest winning streak in the history of the championship by a single constructor. References External links FIM Sidecar World Championship FIM Sidecar World Championship Website Sidecar racing World