Etienne Bax wins the Hans de Beaufort Cup 2017
Sidecarcrosser Etienne Bax won the biggest prize in Dutch Motorsport yesterday at the KNMV gala in Doetinchem. The prestigious Hans de Beaufort Cup is awarded every year to an athlete who has been successful that year and who can also serve as an example for motorsport in general and the discipline in which the participant participates in particular.
The award is named after Hans de Beaufort. A renowned motor sportsman who used his talent during the Second World War to help British pilots stranded in France flee to Switzerland, which was neutral at the time. Ultimately, De Beaufort had to pay for his heroic resistance actions with death when the Germans arrested him in the same France and after an attempt to escape he was shot by the German occupiers on April 9, 1942 in Dijon.
As a tribute to De Beaufort's actions, the KNMV has therefore established this award since 1947 for a motor sportsman who, in addition to his excellent performance, has also committed himself to the promotion of the sport or has shown his social commitment.
Etienne Bax was presented with the prize by Daniël Willemsen, himself a five-time winner of this award, who happily presented the trophy and the accompanying certificate to the visibly proud Etienne Bax. The KNMV praised Bax not only for his performance in 2017, in which he became ONK champion with Nicolas Musset, World Champion and, together with the Netherlands team, European sidecar cross champion at the Nations Cup, but also because, according to the KNMV, Bax is a real poster child for motorsport and the sidecar cross in particular.
Even very recently there is an example of this when we saw Etienne Bax racing around in the United States of America together with his new baking player Kaspars Stupelis to promote the essentially unknown sidecar cross. Many Americans have probably raised their eyebrows because Bax and Stupelis, a duo that became World Champion together in 2015, apparently made the table mountains and double jumps through the air just as easily as the solo machines.
By winning this award, Etienne Bax joins a list of elite motor athletes including TT winner Wil Hartog, Motocross World Champions such as John van den Berk and Jeffrey Herlings and sidecar riders Ton van Heugten, Broer Dirkx, August Müller, Eimbert Timmermans, racing driver Eric Verhagen and the man who could now present the cup to Etienne Bax, Daniel Willemsen, who received the prize no fewer than five times.
Text & photo: Emil Bilars
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