| Kaspars Liepiņš | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Latvia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Cēsis, Soviet Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bike number | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Official website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kaspars Liepiņš (Cēsis, 11 October 1984)[1] is a Latvian sidecarcross rider and the 2009 World Champion, won as the passenger of the Belgian Joris Hendrickx.[2]
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Kaspars Liepiņš took part in sidecarcross races in the national Latvian championship from 2003, at first as passenger for U. Zvaigznitis, and, from 2004, on the side of Karlis Leimanis.[3]
Kaspars Liepiņš made his world championship debut on 9 April 2007, in the first race of the season, alongside fellow Latvian Karlis Leimanis. In their first race, they finished only 26th but managed to win three points in race two of the event, the Dutch GP at Oldebroek. The duo took part in the first four of eight events that season, with a sixteenth place their best result and an overall finish of 33rd.[4]
The following season, Liepiņš teamed up with Joris Hendrickx and earned considerably more success, coming fourth overall[4] and winning the Belgian national championship.[1]
The 2009 season was initially dominated by Daniël Willemsen, who had won the previous six world championships. When Willemsen missed a number of races because of injury, Jan Hendrickx took the lead in the competition. At the German GP at Strassbessenbach, Hendrickx/Liepiņš took out their first race win and also their first Grand Prix victory. With one event, the GP at Rudersberg, to go, Joris Hendrickx and Kaspars Liepins were 13 points behind the leaders Jan Hendrickx / Tim Smeuninx, in second place, but the leading combination suffered an engine defect in round four of the first race in Germany and lost all its advantage.[5] A win and a second place in the last event earned the Belgian / Latvian combination the world title, with Joris Hendrickx becoming only the second Belgian to do so, after Sven Verbrugge, and the first Belgian driver to record this achievement. Kaspars Liepiņš, in turn, is the fourth Latvian with world championship honours in the sport.[6]
The Belgian-Latvian combination Hendrickx-Liepins suffered a season-ending injury at the qualifying of the German Grand Prix in July 2011, being able to compete in the race but requiring surgery afterwards.[7] Consequently, the team only finished ninth in the overall standings at the end of the season.
Kaspars Liepiņš sidecarcross world championship statistics:
| Season | Driver | Equipment | Position | Points | Races | Wins | Second | Third |
| 2007 | Karlis Leimanis | KTM-AYR | 33 | 17 | 8 | — | — | — |
| 2008 | Joris Hendrickx | KTM-AYR | 4 | 394 | 24 | — | 2 | 2 |
| 2009 | Joris Hendrickx | KTM-VMC | 1 | 483 | 26 | 2 | 7 | 10 |
| 2010 | Joris Hendrickx | KTM-VMC | 2 | 547 | 28 | 6 | 12 | 2 |
| 2011 | Joris Hendrickx | KTM-VMC | 9 | 315 | 16 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| Overall 2007 - 2011 | 1,762 | 102 | 10 | 27 | 16 |
Source:"The worldwide source for information about the wild sport of Sidecar Motocross racing". http://www.sidecarcross.com/. Retrieved 2009-09-25.
| Sporting positions | ||
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| Preceded by Reto Grütter |
Sidecarcross World Champion (passenger) 2009 |
Succeeded by Gertie Eggink |
| Preceded by Reto Grütter |
Belgian national sidecarcross champion (passenger) 2008–2010 |
Succeeded by Tim Smeuninx |
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