Looking back at the GP Sidecars Oss: 2011
In 2011, the MC Oss once again had the honor of kicking off the World Championship Sidecar Cross. It is a beautiful spring weekend on April 2 and 3 of that year when the sidecars go 'loose' for the first two heats of the 2011 FIM World Championship Sidecarcross.
The title defender that year is again Daniël Willemsen, who became world champion in 2010 after a difficult season. His baking player in 2010 was Gertie Eggink who, as the season progressed, found it increasingly difficult to keep up Willemsen's pace.
A number of times Eggink left the arena like a zombie after the heats, but he persevered next to the raging cannibal Willemsen... until the diagnosis of mononucleosis was diagnosed! It is therefore not surprising that Eggink was literally exhausted after a GP round of almost forty minutes at top speed. During the last GP's, Willemsen was helped out by Dagwin Sabbe, but because Eggink had acted as coach for the vast majority of races, he well deserved the gold World Cup medal hung around his neck at the end of the season.
Eggink started riding with Marcel Willemsen in 2011 and Daniël Willemsen again teamed up with Sven Verbrugge for the third time in his career. In 2011, the reigning champion would be followed by a battery of competitors, mainly from Belgium, where both Hendrickx cousins were eager to win the World Cup title with their baking players. New talents also emerged there in the form of Ben Adriaenssen from Belgium and Etienne Bax.
Oss does not appear to be in favor of Daniël Willemsen because, just like in 2008, they have to complete the last-change qualification. It will then be closed at the first place, that is. Adriaenssen/Auvray should also compete in that last change, as well as the super talents from France, Valentin Giraud/Nicolas Musset.
2011 will be the first full World Cup season for the young French, who are convinced at that moment that they will eventually conquer the world top. In 2011, however, this does not seem to be the case in sandy Oss. French sidecar crossers are not sand specialists in themselves and the inexperience on that surface was clearly visible in 2011 at Giraud/Musset. With the exception of a few seconds, she eventually reached a place within the top 6 of the last change, with which she narrowly qualified for the GP.
However, it was not easy! Outside the sand, the 'laws of Oss' played tricks on the French combination. Suddenly they turned upside down. In some ways this was a strange sight, but whoever looked closely afterwards already saw the cause. A thick stone, which can suddenly surface in Oss, had gotten stuck near the front fork and blocked the front wheel, causing the matter to literally roll...
In the first GP round, another law of Oss emerged... The constantly changing conditions on the track! The final descent towards the inside of the circuit, after which one immediately turns 180 and makes the ascent back up the hill, is a spectacular and technically difficult part of the track and is often completely destroyed by fighting sidecars. The situation of the track on this section can differ per lap... and especially if sidecars have gotten stuck before and then found their way up again at full throttle and therefore while digging.
Now, due to all the commotion, a huge hole had suddenly opened up there. First of all, the Russian Rodionov brothers choked on it and seemed to almost sink into the hole!
Happich, who was coming from behind, made good use of it and, with some skill and effort, raising the left gear just passed Rodionov. The Russians then had to literally dig out the machine, so the other participants passed by inside...
However, this had now created a strange mixture of traces on the inside that forced the British Nick Jarvis and Dan Chamberlain to conduct a soil investigation.
When Rodionov was finally able to continue his way, the outside of the bend appeared to be 'free' again. However, the circuit there had become one big tangle of holes and ruts that mainly affected participants with a left-hand drive.
The English Hyde/Kirwin and a little later the Germans Walter/Saam, among others, fell victim to this underground and collapsed.
There was also a lot to do at the front for the reigning World Champion Willemsen. There appeared to be too little petrol in the machine! Refueling was carried out along the way against the rules, as this is only allowed in the pits and with the machine turned off. As a result, Willemen/Verbrugge were ultimately disqualified in the first heat! Hendrickx/Smeuninx won this first heat and behind it was a huge surprise because the Visscher brothers managed to stay ahead of the team of Bax/Van den Boogaart, finishing second in this very first GP heat of 2011!
In the second heat, Willemsen/Verbrugge seemed to be able to take revenge and they quickly moved to first place until there were problems again with the number of liters of petrol in the machine.
Now Willemsen's tank was slightly cracked and fuel was occasionally squirting out of the tank!
With the courage of desperation, Willemsen managed to finish second behind the Daiders brothers from Latvia. Hendrickx/Smeuninx came third and took the day's victory during the Oss GP in 2011. The winner of the second heat, Daiders/Daiders came second overall and in third place we surprisingly saw Jan and Jeroen Visscher from Hasselt, Netherlands. After their 2nd place in the first heat, they came 5th in the second heat and so 'the cabin boys of the Zwarte water' wrote their own boys' book on April 3, 2011 by being allowed to climb the final podium during the GP sidecar cross of the Netherlands!
Text: Emil Bilars
Photos: www.orangehat.nl
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