Nnother week separates us from the first World Championship/European Championship Motocross/Sidecarcross weekend of the year. Many GP top riders are taking this weekend off and only in the ONK MX1/MX2 in Halle will there be racing at the highest level this weekend. A preview of the ONK can be found here. In Belgium, MC Santi will achieve a first this weekend by organizing the very first Belgian National ever.
A preview of the category Promises in which many new names appear can be found here. If you want to know more about this class, you should read this article written by our “resident historian/statistician”. Anyone who wants to know more about that very first season of “The Legend” can do so here found on page 6. Another BMB class that could be worth seeing this year is the Seniors. The line-up alone will make retro-MX fans salivate. What these gentlemen of rank present to us is not always academic, but there is certainly excitement. Moreover, many younger riders, even Inters, can learn something from the PR skills of some Seniors. In addition to the previews of Promises and Seniors you can also get a preview of it here BK Sidecar Cross .
Stefan Everts - with number 508 was the very first UXNUMX champion.
This BK sidecarcross must now be the strongest National Sidecar Championship in Europe and by extension the rest of the world. Yet the Belgian Championship lost one of its trendsetters this winter when Nicky Pulinx decided to end his sidecar cross career. Also the lack of experienced hands Peter Steegmans-Sven Verbrugge is a bit of a loss. On the other hand, there is of course enough talent left to make it a beautiful spectacle. Joris Hendrickx en Kaspars Liepins After their 2nd place in Oss, they are gradually gaining steam and are undoubtedly aiming for their first overall victory of the year in Genk. The hard winter work of the double champion duo is therefore starting to pay off.
Sidecar topper Tim Smeuninx, third from the left, always provides spectacle and ambiance. Even on a golf course!
Although we can rest assured that too Jan Hendrickx en Tim Smeuninx have worked hard on their fitness in recent months. We can imagine the looks of the amazed fitness goers who saw power man Smeuninx at work. And no, the word power man is certainly not an exaggeration here, we once saw with our own eyes how Smeuninx competed in a prestige duel with the Belgian motocross teams during a team building day. Ken Dycker came on. The sport was golf, the conscious part was turn Both the Smeu and the Beer van Lubbeek quickly appeared to have mastered this part. So much so that the net that was supposed to protect other golfers quickly turned out to be redundant. A bunch of businessmen who wanted to relieve some stress on the greens narrowly escaped a shower of hard-hit golf balls. If both men had hit a little harder, they would certainly have gotten these projectiles on the radar screen in Kleine-Brogel.
That's all well and good, but the hardest-working man in Belgian sidecarcross is undoubtedly Kristof Santermans. You just have to organize a Belgian National (most of us have no idea what is involved in organizing a motocross race.) and then race another two series against world top riders. Cheers! We can only hope that someone like Santermans will continue to be involved in motocross as a national official after his active career.
Credit photos: BMB, André Verhoeven
