Exciting ONK Sidecar Masters Lochem prey for Bax/Stupelis!
Etienne Bax and Kaspars Stupelis managed to win the ONK sidecars in Lochem this afternoon. Through a first and third place in the heats, they managed to stay ahead of home driver Daniël Willemsen with a minimum difference of 1 point. After the unprecedentedly thrilling battle in Lochem, the reigning Belgian World Champions Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart were allowed to take their place on the lowest scaffold of the day's podium.
Lochem was the second round on the ONK sidecar calendar, but there were still 0 points awarded for the title.
The first ONK last week in Lierop was a disappointment. The weather gods blew such a different wind that the race management there had no choice but to stop the races after billboards went into the air dangerously like kites and a fallen tree turned out to be too big an obstacle on a cross track when it fell perpendicular to the track. ended up.
Now a week later, Pluvius did his best to make racing impossible during the weekend. Unfortunately for the Masters of Motocross in Axel the curtain had fallen, but in Lochem the track can simply withstand a lot and that is why the circuit was in a wonderfully beautiful condition. Leave that to the MAC SEV in Lochem. The club strives for years of organizational experience, especially in these times of the year, and that proved once again because there was a hell of an event and Pluvius quickly dropped out with his tail between his legs to make way for two blood-curdling heats of ONK Sidecarcross Masters!
Heat 1
In the first heat there was a big holeshot for Willemsen/Rostingt. The cannibal left quickly in his home match, followed by Vanluchene, Hermans, Veldman and Bax.
Willemsen was never able to really drive away with his new passenger Rostingt and after 3 laps Vanluchene visibly caught up in second place and the top five crept up. As if on a string, this leading group continued and the audience anticipated a thrilling finale of the first heat.
Brown also wanted to join the leading group in the final phase after he had outpaced Sanders for sixth place. However, it suddenly seemed as if a new Pope had been elected in Rome because white smoke rose from the Brown/Chamberlain machine as the water hose had broken and they unfortunately had to retire with two laps to go. This allowed Sanders/Kunnas to move up to fifth place again, followed at the finish by the strong Cuche brothers from Switzerland, who with their left gear had a clear advantage on the fast sand track in Lochem, which is characterized by the clever cuts along the way. match day. The left sidecar of the British Wilkinson was also able to make up some meters and in the end they managed to reach seven ahead of the Belgian Santermans who would finish eighth.
However, it was doable at the absolute front and a fierce battle ensued for the podium spots with initially five sidecars until Hermans/Musset had to retire four laps before the end! This gave the go-ahead for the remaining four sidecars in the lead to stage a thrilling finale on the cross track!
In that final we saw Bax/Stupelis cleverly outwit Veldman/Janssens and a little later also Vanluchene in almost one maneuver. A lap later, Veldman/Janssens were able to pass Vanluchene very nicely on the outside in a long turnaround.
The icing on the cake, however, came from Bax/Stupelis, who were able to displace Willemsen/Rostingt from first place in the final phase and managed to win the heat with less than a second lead. Willemsen, who was somewhat hindered by stragglers in the final phase, was then somewhat bewildered as second, with Veldman/Janssens just behind in third and Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart in fourth.
Heat 2
In terms of tension, the second heat would even be better than the first heat and so the audience became the clear winner in Lochem anyway! Sanders/Kunnas took the holeshot and when the large sand tsunami on the starting field had disappeared, we saw the sidecars of Foden/Bijenhof, Kops and Smit, among others, get stuck together on the inside bend. Fortunately, all teams involved were able to continue after some delay.
Sanders/Kunnas managed to hold on to their first place until more than fifteen minutes into the race. Behind this it was Willemsen/Rostingt who kept pushing constantly, followed by Vanluchene, Veldman, Hermans and Bax who all rode next to each other more often than behind each other!
When Willemsen finally passed Sanders, the proverbial commotion broke out at the head of the field!
Bax was suddenly able to get through the group and he also quickly slipped past Sanders/Kunnas.
Hermans/Musset also quickly drove past just when it seemed as if Bax would open the attack on Willemsen for the first place. The two sidecars at the head raced wheel to wheel over the thick cuts of Lochem.
Hermans/Musset, however, were the best in the race and undoubtedly wanted to take revenge for the failure in the first heat. Surprisingly, Hermans increased the pace and while the audience was preparing for a final to win between Bax and Willemsen, Hermans suddenly managed to quickly join the two leaders. A lap after this, Hermans passed Bax and at the start of the last lap, Hermans/Musset were even first and the ever-fighting Willemsen and Bax were still 2 seconds away to end the heat with a nice win! Willemsen barely finished second and would also be so in the day's results. Bax/Stupelis crossed the finish line within just under a second. With their first place in the first heat, they narrowly won the day in Lochem. Fourth came Vanluchene, who rode himself onto the last scaffold of the day's podium at the expense of Veldman/Janssens, who finished fifth after the crazy final in Lochem.
After his holeshot, Sanders managed to finish sixth ahead of the British teams of Stuart Brown/Chamberlain on seventh and Wilkinson/Humphrey on eighth.
Photo: Orangehat.nl
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