Another 'Fuel Riot' that could turn the Sidecar Cross World Championship upside down!
During the GP sidecar cross held in Bessenbach, Germany on July 22, the FIM took petrol samples from three teams before the start of the first GP heat. This concerned the teams Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart, Bax/Stupelis and Willemsen/Bax. Today the FIM announced that two of the three teams inspected would have started with 'wrong' fuel and therefore the results as well as the World Championship points achieved by these two teams during the GP in Bessenbach would be deleted!
According to our latest information, the punished teams are both from the Netherlands, namely team Willemsen and team Bax. Both teams have requested a counter-expertise as the reports from the FIM laboratory mention a slight excess of the 'MON' content. The MON content, comparable to the better-known octane content of the petrol that private individuals buy from the pump, was measured at team Bax, for example, at 90,6, while a maximum of 90 is permitted, as team Bax itself announced in a statement today.
In addition, it would be very remarkable that precisely these two teams would receive a penalty, as they were also punished last year for the same verdict and were removed from the results weeks after the French GP in Chaumont.
Regardless of how this new 'fuel riot' ends, the fact remains that the final battle for the bronze World Cup medal will end behind the jury table. Both team Willemsen and team Bax are fighting for that bronze medal with the Estonian/Latvian team of Varik/Daiders chasing in fifth place. This weekend the penultimate GP is in Switzerland and next week the final will follow in Vesoul, France. It is very unlikely that the research results of the second counter-research will be known before then.
In this way, no one knows whether Willemsen/Bax, even glorious victors in Bessenbach, will be deducted 50 points and/or whether the same verdict will apply to the 36 points that Bax/Stupelis collected during the German GP on July 22.
The final World Cup standings may therefore be revised weeks after the Vesoul GP, meaning that the final World Cup standings after the checkered flag has fallen for the last time in Vesoul are by no means final!
Small consolation is that the competitors for the first place in the World Cup, team Hermans and team Vanluchene, do not face such an alleged punishment, so that the battle for the most important position within the World Cup will in any case be fought out on the sand instead of from the plush!
Text: Emil Bilars
Photo: www.orangehat.nl
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