Sidecarcross World Championship

The Sidecar Motocross World Championship is an annual event, organised by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), held since 1980. Previous to that, a European competition was held from 1971 onwards.

The current champions for the 2011 season are the Dutch-Belgian combination Daniël Willemsen and Sven Verbrugge. Willemsen has a record nine World Championships to his name while Verbrugge has won three, all of them as passenger of Daniël Willemsen.^[1][2]

The sport is predominantly amateur, with only a few top-riders, like Willemsen and the Belgian cousins Jan and Joris Hendrickx being professional riders.^[3]

The Sidecarcross World Championship, first held in 1980 and organised by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, is an annual competition. All races, manufacturers and the vast majority of riders in the competition being in and from Europe.^[4][5] Sidecarcross is similar to motocross except that the teams consist of two riders, a driver and a passenger. Races are held on the same tracks as solo motocross but the handling of the machines differs as sidecars don't lean. The majority of physical work in the sport is carried out by the passenger, who speeds up the sidecarcross in corners by leaning out. The coordination between the driver and the passenger are therefore of highest importance.^[6]

The sport is especially popular in Eastern Europe.^[6] Parallel to the riders competition, a manufacturers championship is also held.^[7]

Overview

The World Championship in sidecar motocross is held annually form the European spring to autumn. The racing calendar includes races in various European countries. The 2011 season will start with its first race on 3 April in Oss, Netherlands, consist of thirteen races, and finish on 11 September 2010 in Rudersberg, Germany.^[4]

Participants by country

In the 2010 season, 72 teams finished in the points in the competition, hailing from 17 Europen nations. Of these, the drivers for the Netherlands were the most popolus, having ten drivers in the competition, followed by Belgium with nine and Germany and the United Kingdom with eight.^[8] In 2011, 63 teams finished in the points:^[9] In the 2010 and 2011 seasons, drivers from the following countries took part in the competition:

Calendar

2011

The calendar for the 2011 season:^[4]

• The Sidecarcross des Nations is a non-championship event but part of the calendar and is denoted by a light blue background in the table above.
• Flags for passengers not shown.

2012

The official calendar for the 2012 season:^[10]

History

Predecessors

The history of international competition started with the FIM Cup in 1971, a form of an unofficial European championship, organised by the FIM. The first ever race was held on 25 April 1971 at Pernes-les-Fontaines, France.

From 1975, the competition was officially called European championship. From the 1980 season onwards, it carried the title World championship, even though, in practice, virtually all drivers and passengers are European, except for a small number of riders from the US and Australia, and all races are held in Europe. In its history, there has never been a race outside Europe and majority of the races are in central Europe. The appearance of strong Latvian drivers however has taken races to the Baltic region in the last few years. As of 2007, 24 European countries have hosted GPs, Germany holding number one spot there. Races have however also been staged at countries with no strong sidecarcross connections, like Greece, Norway and Northern Ireland.^[11]

The competitors in the world championship are mostly amateurs. Apart from racing in the world championship they also compete in their countries' domestic championships. The current world champion Willemsen also won the Dutch national championship this year. Most national championships are actually "open" events; non-nationals are permitted to compete, too. Sergis / Rasmanis for example also won the German championship in 1998.^[12]

The highest number of championships has been won by Daniël Willemsen with six, who is also the current champion. The most successful team however is Kristers Sergis / Artis Rasmanis with five titles together. The two missed out on a sixth title, when in 1999, they lost by only one point to Daniël Willemsen.

History of the world championship

The first edition of the world championship in 1980 saw the only German victory to date with the combination Reinhard Böhler / Siegfried Müller taking out the title. The year after, the championship went to the Netherlands with Ton van Heugten / Frits Kiggen. The next eight seasons, the Swiss riders triumphed. Emil Bollhalder / Karl Büsser won the championship in 1982 and 1983, both times with a narrow margin, 11 points in the first year and 28 in the second. Unlucky runner-up in the three seasons from 1981 to 1983 were the Germans Josef Brockhausen / Hubert Rebele, missing out quite narrowly and retiring in 1983 after the third attempt, as did Bollhalder, but as the world champion.

From 1984 to 1987, four titles went to Hansi Bächtold / Fritz Fuß. Again, there was no luck for the runner-up with the Dutch combination August Muller / Henk van Heek coming second in 1985, 1986 and 1987. In 1986, only 7 points separated winner from second place. Bächtold retired as the new record world champion in 1987.

Christoph Hüsser / Andreas Hüsser won the titles in 1988 and 1989 and continued to race after that until 1996, never coming close to another world championship again. Benny Janssen / Tiny Janssen became the last to win one championship only when the finished on top in 1990, beating the German team Michael Garhammer / Ralf Haas by only 13 points and ending eight years of Swiss domination.

Eimbert Timmermans / Eric Verhagen from the Netherlands beat the Belgian duo Eddy Ramon / Gino Strubbe for the next two titles in 1991 and 92. After this, the world championship returned to Switzerland with Andreas Fuhrer / Adrian Käser equaling the record of four titles in a row from 1993 to 1996 and then retiring from the competition.

With Kristers Sergis / Artis Rasmanis the 1997 championship went to Latvia for the first time. The tightest race for the championship so far saw them beat the German/Dutch team of Alois Wenninger / Henry van de Wiel by four points. The year after, they won again, this time with a twenty point gap to Daniël Willemsen / Marcel Willemsen.

In 1999, it was the thightest race ever when only one point at the end of the season separated the Willemsen brothers from the Latvian title holders. The final outcome of the season was not clear until the Willemsen brothers were cleared of having received outside assistance in the second-last race which clinched them the world title, since Artis Rasmanis had lodged a formal complaint.^[13] In 2000, Kristers Sergis / Artis Rasmanis came back, beating Daniël Willemsen / Sven Verbrugge by 20 points, the last tight race to date. The Latvians became the new record holder after title number four and five in 2001 and 2002, Willemsen coming second all three seasons.

From 2003 to 2008, it was then the time for Daniël Willemsen to make up for lost titles and he won six in a row, becoming the most successful driver so far. He won two each with passengers Kaspars Stupelis, Sven Verbrugge and Reto Grütter.

In 2009, the title went to a Belgian driver for the first time, Joris Hendrickx winning the championship, with his Latvian passenger Kaspars Liepins. In 2010, the title returned to the Netherlands with Daniël Willemsen taking out his eighth championship, together with Gertie Eggink as his passenger.

Format

Every Grand Prix weekend is split into two races, both held on the same day. This means, the 2007 season with its eight Grand Prix had sixteen races. Each race lasts for 30 minutes plus two rounds. The two races on a weekend actually get combined to determined an overall winner. In case of a tie the results of the second race are used to determined the winner. While this overall winners receives no extra WC points, they usually are awarded a special trophy. Race start times are set at 13:30 and 16:00.^[7]

Teams consist of a driver and a passenger, however, the drivers can and do exchange passengers during the season, often due to injury. An exchange of passenger does not affect the points a team has won up till then. If a driver uses more than one passenger during his world championship winning season, only the passenger he competed in more than half the meetings with and/or earned more than 50% of his points with will be considered a world champion as well.

Events typically consist of a qualifying competition, held in multiple stages on Saturdays of a race weekend while the two race events are typically held on Sundays. One exception to this rule is Easter weekends, when the races are held on Easter Monday. Race weekends can consist of additional motocross or quart support races as well, but the FIM stipulates that the World Championship races have priority. Riders have to be provided with at least one 30 minute free practice season, which will be timed. A race can consist of up to 30 starters and the qualifying modus is dependend on the number of entries. Up to 32 entries, it will be held in one group split into two sesions of 30 minutes each. Above 32 entries, the starter field will be sub-divided into two groups through ballot and the current standings. Each qualifying group can consist of up to 30 racers. Should there be more than 60 entries, a pre-qualifying has to be held. Of the riders in the two groups, the top-twelve directly qualify for the races. The remaining teams then go to a second-chance qualifying, in which the best six advance. The riders placed seventh and eighth remain in reserve should one of the qualified teams not be able to participate.^[7]

The FIM stipulates that all drivers must be of a minimum age of 18 while passengers have to be at least 16 years old to compete, but no older than 50. Riders older than 50 have to provide a certificate of medical fitness to be permitted to compete. The driver has the right to exchange his passenger under certain conditions.^[7]

Starting numbers for the season are awarded according to the previous seasons overall finishing position of the driver. Current or former World Champions have however the right to pick any number they wish, except the number one which is reserved for the current World Champion. The top-six of the previous season are automatically qualified for the following season, while another 10 places are allocated to every national federation.^[7]

The competition is open for motor cycles with two-stroke engines from between 350 and 750cc and four-stroke engines of up to 1,000cc. Each team is permitted the use of two motorcycles with the possibility of changing machines between races.^[7]

The FIM does not permit radio communication between riders and their teams. Outside assitance during the race on the course is not permitted unless it is through race marshals in the interest of safety. Limited repairs in the designated repair zone during the race are permitted.^[7]

The point system for the 2011 season was as follows^[14]:

Finance

Price money and travel reimbursements in the sport are not large, sidecarcross still qualifying mostly as an amateur sport. In the 2009 season for example, every team received Euro 500 as a travel indemnity per race weekend qualified for. Additionally, price money was paid, with the winner earning € 300, the second placed team € 250, the third placed team € 200. With the prize money gradually dropping off from there, the teams placed twelfth to twentieth still received € 50 each.^[15] All up, the best possible result would mean a team could take away € 1,100 from a race weekend.^[7]

Champions

Riders

The champions since 1971:^[16]

• FIM Cup winners 1971 to 1974

• European Champions 1975 to 1979

• World Champions 1980 to present

• Passengers in italics.

Manufacturers

The manufacturers champions since 2000:^[17]

Recent seasons

The 2009 season

The top ten teams in the final overall standings were:^[18]

The 2010 season

The top ten teams in the final overall standings were:^[19]

The 2011 season

The top ten teams in the final overall standings are:^[5]

• Equipment listed is motor and frame.
• ¹ Used Ondrej Cermak as his passenger in the first German GP.
• ² Used Elvijs Mucenieks as his passenger for the first two GP's of the season.

See also

• List of national sidecarcross champions

References

External links

• The official FIM website
• The World Championship on Sidecarcross.com
• The Sidecarcross Statistics Pages