Preview Denicol Belgian Sidecars GP: Great chance of success for our compatriots in Lommel!
This coming weekend is the day. The Belgian round of the 2018 World Championship Sidecar Cross will be held at the 'urban motocross center' in Lommel. This will undoubtedly be a backdrop for spectacular sidecar cross competitions on the very tough sand circuit during the eighth GP sidecar cross of 2018, counting for the 2018 World Championship. The organizing MC Maasland will once again provide a typical Belgian top weekend for everyone and everything who loves sidecar cross. . In addition to the GP, the NK class of the KNMV will also be competing this weekend and there will also be sidecar series for participants from the enthusiast associations.
The NK class will start once on Saturday after the GP qualifying heats and their second heat will follow on Sunday morning before the start of the first GP sidecar round.
The side series will run both of their heats on Sunday, one before the first GP heat and the second between the two GP heats. This means that on Saturday, in addition to the training for the GP, the spectators will see three heats of sidecars (NK and the qualifying races for the GP of group A and group B) and that on Sunday five heats of sidecars will be reviewed, in which of course the heats at 13.15:16.00 PM and XNUMX:XNUMX PM will receive the most attention. These are the heats for the GP Sidecar Cross of Belgium. These two competitions will determine who the sand kings of Lommel will be!
And the latter is certainly not a foregone conclusion with over 40 sidecars registered for the Grand Prix!
The current leaders in the World Cup standings, the Flemish Marvin Vanluchene with his 'Dutch' top baking player Ben van den Boogaart, are in the winning mood. They have won the last five sidecar cross GPs and are proudly in the lead of the championship. Still surprising! People expected some results from this duo, after all, Van den Boogaart is a multiple World Champion and Vanluchene was third in the World Cup standings in 2016 until he unfortunately broke his wrist during the GP in Genk..., but that these gentlemen would dominate this season so much. no one expects! It is clear that they are one of the favorites for victory during their home GP!
Surprisingly, the only sidecar that can still keep up in the 2018 World Cup standings is that of Koen Hermans. The young Dutchman from Hengelo (GLD) has found an excellent partner this season in the Frenchman Nicolas Musset and they immediately showed what they were capable of in Oss by winning a GP heat. By the way, that was the first GP heat victory for Hermans and he has since added a number of others.
This makes the Hermans/Musset tandem a strong podium candidate during the Belgian GP in the collapsing sand in Lommel.
Both team Vanluchene and team Hermans are of course top teams, but it is surprising that they dominate the World Cup Sidecar Cross this season. Many expected that last year's top three would cross swords again for the World Cup title. That's what they did, but everything didn't go according to plan. Vice world champion Giraud surprisingly won the first GP heat in Oss and then dropped out in the second heat with bad luck... And unfortunately for him, that happened a number of times this season. In addition, his regular top baking player Elvijs Mucenieks seriously injured his back during the warm-up for the third GP of 2018 in Spain.
Afterwards, baking player Johnny Badaire filled in for Mucenieks, but he was also injured last weekend. The Dutchman Kenny van Gaalen will join Giraud in Lommel, who will therefore have to get used to his third player this season.
Added to the fact that Giraud is not a sand rider by nature, and certainly not in the loose sand of Lommel, Giraud will have to gather points in Lommel together with his new baking player Kenny van Gaalen.
The other 2017 World Championship Sidecar Cross podium customers are in a better position for this GP. Both Bax/Stupelis and Willemsen/Bax will travel to Lommel at full war strength. However, both teams will want to quickly forget the first half of the season and are eager to show their best side.
Bax was injured in the first GP round of 2018 and later during the GP of the Ukraine they experienced a hard starting crash, which meant that they were never able to go full speed until the past two GPs. However, both Etienne Bax and his Latvian top baking player Kaspars Stupelis are tough and that still puts them in third place in the 2018 World Cup standings, albeit at a great distance from leader Vanluchene. Bax/Stupelis, who can certainly ride fast in the soft sand, will do everything they can to win the Belgian GP in Lommel.
Daniël Willemsen will also travel to Lommel almost frustrated with the knife between his teeth. Willemsen has had to deal with blow after blow this season. In the Ukraine, through no fault of his own, he was involved in a car accident that injured not only himself but also two mechanics. And then all those penalties this season from the competition management... It's driving the Willemsen team crazy. At the last GP they were again robbed of a podium spot in the first heat, whether through fault or not, by the FIM race director...
However it may be. The only thing the cannibal from Lochem can do is what he did last year in Lommel, namely winning the Belgian GP together with Robbie Bax and, above all, giving away another typical Willemsen show like how he did last year in the first heat. Then nothing will stand in the way of Willemsen/Bax winning the Grand Prix, unless perhaps the FIM has something to say again...
Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart, Hermans/Musset, Bax/Stupelis and Willemsen/Bax are among the absolute favorites for the overall victory in Lommel, but there are more privateers on the coast.
Dangerous outsiders, as is often the case on the tough sand tracks, come from within their own national borders. First of all we mention the Dutch/Flemish combination Veldman/Janssens. Veldman finished third last year during the GP in Lommel, then still riding with Van den Boogaart. Veldman started 2018 with Siebe van der Putten in the box, but after two GPs the collaboration was ended. Now in Lommel, Siebe van der Putten will be at the side of the Frenchman Thomas and Veldman previously found an excellent replacement baking player in the Belgian Glenn Janssens, who previously rode around with his brother Nick. The team has had a lot of bad luck over the past few GPs and fell out of contention a number of times in promising positions. As soon as that is no longer an issue, 'the Frogg' Julian Veldman is definitely a podium candidate in Lommel.
From Belgium there are two outsiders for the podium places, namely the sidecars of Sanders/Haller and the Dierckens/Rostingt combination. If all goes well, these sidecars can easily drive themselves onto the podium in Lommel. Dierckens already knows what this feels like because he already won the round for the BK sidecar cross in Lommel earlier this year and would like to repeat that feat.
Another potential podium candidate is Gert van Werven with the talented Belgian Jens Mans in the box. Nowadays, this duo enters the top ten almost every heat and will want to pull off a stunt by finishing even higher in the heavy Lommel sand.
There are of course many more teams from Belgium that want to have a good look at their home GP. First of all, nestor Kristof Santermans, in action this weekend with the young baking player Kasesalu from Estonia, as his regular baking player Beleckas injured himself in the same Estonia last weekend. Furthermore, after the absence in the Baltic states, we now see the German-speaking Belgian Adreas Closhe at the start again, with the German Michael Klooz as baking player. We also see four Belgian participants on the list who now want to score in the Belgian GP on a one-off basis this season from the enthusiast associations. These are Nikky and Levi Vaes, Glenn van der Schraelen/Thomas Smeuninx, Stanneke Goeyvaerts/Dennis van der Bulck and Dylan Boussy who will now take office together with Dagwin Sabbe. Sabbe was first in the cage with the Dutchman Bjorn Roes, but due to the distance being too great, i.e. not being able to quickly train on the sidecar, they decided to part ways. Because baking engineer Han van Hal was away from Closhe, he could now step in at Roes. The Dutch team Keuben/Rietman will also change composition as Dion Rietman is suffering too much from his rib injury sustained last Sunday during the Estonian GP. Roy Bijenhof will now assist Justin Keuben in the hunt for World Cup points for this GP. Justin's cousin will also be at the start in Lommel. Mike Keuben takes action together with baking player Lars de Laat during one of the GPs that they had to 'choose'. After all, this season they are alluding to the IMBA championship and those rules prevent the fast left-wing duo from participating in the GPs much more often. As a sand track, Lommel is of course tailor-made for Keuben and De Laat and is just around the corner, after all, Lommel is a stone's throw from the Dutch border.
Given the latter fact, this is a unique opportunity for both Belgian and Dutch fans to come and support your personal favorite during the Belgian GP side pancross. And they will really need it on the tough sand circuit of Lommel, which will guarantee a spectacle in advance. Come and see, come and see!
More info:
www.wk-sidecars-lommel.be
Text: Emil Bilars
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