Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart win sidecar cross GP of Spain and retain the red leader plate in the World Championship!
Marvin Vanluchene and Ben van den Boogaart managed to win the Spanish GP today in Talavera de la Reina. In the first heat they still had to recognize their superior in Hermans/Musset, but in the second round the Flemish/Dutch duo was unapproachable and managed to win, with team Vanluchene winning a Grand Prix for the first time ever. Hermans finished fourth in the second round and thus finished second in the Spanish GP. The British Brown/Millard managed to score well in third place, twice finishing third in the heats. Giraud/Mucenieks scored zero World Championship points due to a serious crash, Bax/Stupelis only played one heat and Willemsen/Bax limited the ever-present physical damage with places four and five in the heats.
About 26 World Championship sidecars had arrived in Spain by appointment and this meant that all combinations were automatically qualified for the actual GP on Sunday.
Giraud/Mucenieks showed their good form in the qualifying race by winning.
However, they would score zero points in this GP because team Giraud did not even start on Sunday!
Giraud/Mucenieks wanted to try out some new lines in the warm-up on Sunday morning and they tried to gain more speed in a downward bend by continuing to go full throttle on the outside and then jump over the second hump on a wave section. to land on third. This was a good idea as everyone took the inside of the washboard and could therefore regain positions via the other line if necessary during the GP heats. However, the plan ended very badly for the French/Latvian team!
The sidecar just didn't manage to land on the third bump and they flew hard towards the machine.
The baking bracket of the combination hit the back hard of baking player Mucenieks and he was therefore taken to the hospital where the diagnosis was later made of five broken ribs and a broken vertebra.
Mucenieks was operated on immediately this afternoon and full recovery is expected, but unfortunately it seems unlikely at the moment that he will soon be showing his skills again in the cage of a side pan.
Heat 1:
The first heat, in an adjusted timetable, started at 12.15 without Giraud/Mucenieks but also without Bax/Stupelis!
The reigning World Champion had already suffered mechanical problems in the sighting lap and was unable to start in the heat. Very sad for Bax/Stupelis, but grist to the mill for the competition who also gratefully took advantage of this.
For example, Brown/Millard, who encountered the bad luck twice in France last week, was the first to enter the corner just ahead of fast starters Santermans/Belekcas with Hermans, Van Werven and Vanluchene behind them. Hermans was soon able to find a place to push his sidecar past Santermans and not much later they were also able to overtake Brown/Millard for the first place. Hermans/Musset managed to drive the rest of the heat away from the pursuers and were able to take the heat victory with force majeure. Vanluchene had quickly driven Van Werven and later nicely around the outside Santermans back to the rear and after ten minutes went in search of Brown. They seemed to be able to cross it quickly, but Brown/Millard rode on stiffly and Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart visibly dropped back a little. This gave the agitated Brown some relief, but he is so experienced that he also knew that second place is only final at the finish. Also this time! The red plate wearers Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart launched a final attack during the last lap where an overtaking attempt was made on the straight where there were three beautiful tables that sent the sidecars flying into Spain, the Freestyle-MX participants. This attack ultimately succeeded and they were able to take second place from the British Brown/Millard in the last kilometer of the race. Willemsen/Bax finished fourth after spending half the heat in no man's land with no pressure from the back and far too big a gap to the front. After a solid race, Cermak crossed the line in fifth place and Varik/Daiders came in sixth after a strong race, only finishing last after the first few corners. After this we saw Sanders/Haller who, after a mediocre start around fifteenth place, were able to secure seventh position at the finish. The Finnish Kunnas brothers crossed the line in eighth place and ninth was Wilkinson, who had to ride almost the entire heat without a clutch. The top ten was completed by Veldman, who appeared with Bijenhof in the box as a substitute for the injured Van der Putten. That tenth place was a great achievement by 'stand-in' baking player Roy Bijenhof, who now exchanged the sidecar of driver Nike Seesink, with whom he normally competes in the national sidecar championship, for that of World Cup driver Veldman. Bijenhof now suddenly showed that he is made of the right stuff, with 15 minutes longer bakers than he is normally used to and with stronger participants around him.
Fast starter Santermans managed to get an eleventh place and in fourteenth place we saw Keuben/Rietman who also had to start their heat from the back after the necessary pushing and pulling after the start. Dierckens/Rostingt had clearly taken their bad luck to Spain. They had to drop out of the qualifying heat on Saturday with a broken decompressor and after one lap in the first heat on Sunday, this part was again not well-disposed! They had to go into the pits and after a long delay they were able to finish in twentieth place and take one World Cup point. Closhe/Van Hal also dropped out with bad luck and unfortunately also Van Werven/Mans, who were initially doing good business in the front ranks until after six laps the mechanics let them down.
Heat 2:
So a lot of tinkering had to be done by various teams for the second heat, which would suddenly start half an hour earlier in Spain than was normally the case. All mechanics succeeded wonderfully in this rush job and so we saw every participant, including Bax/Stupelis this time, at the gate when the green flag went up.
Willemsen/Bax resolutely took the holeshot from the inside, with Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart immediately behind them, Van Werven and Brown/Millard again starting surprisingly well, with Dierckens, Bax and Hermans behind them. Santermans also seemed to be off to a good start at the start, but went on his side in the second corner, causing Closhe, Veldman and Keuben, among others, to get stuck behind the unfortunate Flemish and have to start their heat from behind. Willemsen was clearly still struggling with physical discomfort from his thumping in Valkenswaard two weeks ago and had no choice but to let Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart, Brown and a little later Bax and Hermans go. At the front, Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart now did what Hermans/Musset already did in the first part of the day. Set a hard sidecar cross pace to finish the heat unthreatened as the winner. With this victory, Vanluchene took the first GP win of his career and is therefore able to maintain the first position in the World Championship rankings. Behind this, Bax/Stupelis came in second. After passing Brown, they were never able to identify the unleashed winners. Brown continued to follow Bax closely and was able to finish third in this heat, with Hermans/Musset just behind them, who finished fourth. However, with their first place in the first heat, they were one position higher than Brown on the day's podium and on the second scaffold. So they once again did good business for the World Cup title battle, but that also applied to the British Brown/Millard, who, after their bad luck in France, now scored well with third place in both heats and in the day's results.
Willemsen/Bax were then able to take home fifth place ahead of Cermak, who finished sixth at a close distance. Varik/Daiders once again scored well by claiming seventh place in the final phase and due to their consistent scores, the Estonian/Latvian combination is deservedly in fourth place in the World Championship standings after this third GP sidecar cross. In eighth place, just after Varik, we saw Davy Sanders come in and shortly behind Van Werven/Mans, who now turned their good start into the necessary World Cup points with a ninth place. Wilkinson/Chamberlain eventually finished tenth after falling back from sixth in the last few laps as they suffered tire problems. Santermans managed to finish twelfth through a catch-up race, with Veldman/Bijenhof in thirteenth, who had also managed to make up the necessary places after their bad start. This also applied to Keuben/Rietman who again scored points in sixteenth place. For Dierckens/Rosting it was a weekend to forget. Now it was a rear brake failure, after initially being in good condition, which failed to work on the long stretch with those three beautiful table mountains. So they suddenly jumped over one of the tables and the French baking artist Rostingt thundered out of the sidecar. Miraculously, they suffered no injuries and, as an excuse for the bleeding, they were able to finish seventeenth and add four World Cup points. Closhe/Van Hal also failed to score in the second heat due to bad luck and were disappointed to leave Spain with 0 points.
After three GPs, VanLuchene/Van den Boogaart are still in the lead in the World Championship Sidecar Cross standings and have increased their lead over the number two by thirteen points. Hermans/Musset did good business in Spain and are now second again, with Willemsen/Bax in third place with thirteen fewer points than Hermans.
In three weeks' time the fourth GP sidecar cross will be on the program in the Ukraine where Chernitsvi will, as is often the case, be the venue.
Results GP Sidecar Cross Spain, Talavera de la Reina:
- 09. Marvin Vanluchene-Ben van den Boogaart BE-NL VMC-Zabel 47
- 05. Koen Hermans-Nicolas Musset NL-FR WSP-Zabel 43
- 04. Stuart Brown-Joe Millard GB-GB WSP-Husqvarna 40
- 111. Daniel Willemsen-Robbie Bax NL-NL WSP-Zabel 34
- 07. Tomas Cermak-Ondrej Cermak CZ-CZ WSP-MEGA 31
- 15. Kert Varik-Lauris Daiders EE-LV WSP-Husqvarna 29
- 11. Davy Sanders-Andres Haller BE-DE WSP-Zabel 27
- 14. Riku Kunnas-Lari Kunnas FI-FI WSP-KTM 23
- 08. Brett Wilkinson-Daniel Chamberlain GB-GB WSP-Zabel 23
- 82. Etienne Bax-Kaspars Stupelis NL-LV WSP-Zabel 22
- 10. Julian Veldman-Roy Bijenhof NL-NL WHT-Husqvarna 19
- 19. Kristof Santermans-Kostas Beleckas BE-LT WSP-Zabel 19
- 38. Zeno Compalati-Lemuel Ravera IT-IT WSP-Zabel 15
- 12. Gert van Werven-Jens Mans NL-BE WSP-TM 12
- 21. Justin Keuben-Dion Rietman NL-NL VMC-Zabel 12
- 54. Pavel Hroch-Martin Hroch CZ-CZ WSP-Zabel 12
- 30. Benjamin Weiss-Patrick Schneider AT-AT VMC-Zabel 9
- 90. Michael Hodges-Charlie Ide GB-GB WSP-Zabel 7
- 124. Romaric Chanteloup-Josselyn Chanteloup FR-FR WSP-KTM 6
- 85. Arne Dierckens-Luc Rostingt BE-FR WSP-Zabel 5
- 49. Joachim Reimann-Philipp Reimann DE-DE WSP-Zabel 5
- 58. Kevin Cordeau-Dylan Cordeau FR-FR WSP-Zabel 2
- 16. Andreas Clohse-Han van Hal BE-NL WSP-KTM 0
- 116. Willy Bouquet-Geoffroy Le Large FR-FR WHT-KTM 0
- 25. George Kinge-David Keane GB-GB VMC-Zabel 0
Standings 2018 World Championship Sidecar Cross after 3 Grand Prix:
01. 9 Marvin Vanluchene-Ben van den Boogaart BE-NL VMC-Zabel 131
02. 5 Koen Hermans-Nicolas Musset NL-FR WSP-Zabel 118
03. 111 Daniel Willemsen-Robbie Bax NL-NL WSP-Zabel 105
Photo: Luc Vanderaa
Text: Emil Bilars
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