Willemsen/Rostingt win exciting ONK Sidecar Masters Varsseveld!
Daniël Willemsen, together with his French baking player Luc Rostingt, won the ONK Sidecar Masters in Varsseveld. With a second and a first place, the combination collected more than enough points to keep the competitors at a distance. Moreover, Willemsen/Rostingt took the lead in the ONK, partly because Bax/Stupelis had to drop out in a round. Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart came second in the day's results and were almost literally followed by Veldman/Janssens who took third place on the podium.
Beautiful spring weather brought a lot of people to Varsseveld for the third round of the ONK Sidecar Masters. In the time training Hermans/Musset were the fastest with a second lead over Bax/Stupelis and Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart were third. The Frenchman Giraud was in Varsseveld and recorded the 4th fastest time together with his new baking player Andres Haller. Veldman/Janssens had a poor qualifying because their block got stuck early in the training, making it no longer possible to set a good time.
Heat 1
The holeshot in the first heat went to Willemsen who resolutely threw his sidecar into the inside bend first ahead of Vanluchene, Hermans, Bax, Giraud, Van Werven, Brown and Veldman. A fierce battle immediately broke out at the front. For a moment Vanluchene almost moved to first place, but at the end of the third lap the Belgian himself was relegated to third place by the oncoming Hermans/Musset. He now put a lot of pressure on Willemsen and almost passed him on the middle straight at the last bump. However, it was 300 meters further than drama for the young Hermans! In the chicane the combination tried to get past Willemsen on the outside when the stuff crashed! Fortunately, Hermans/Musset were able to resume the race after some delay, but they had to do this from eleventh position.
Grist to the mill for Willemsen, who had just been freed from a competitor breathing down his neck. However, this did not last long because within a lap Bax, who had also passed Vanluchene, was on Willemsen's rear wheel. We saw a fierce battle for the first place in which Bax/Stupelis attacked several times but were unable to get past the stiffly defending Willemsen/Rostingt. In the 18th minute, the attacking team finally managed to take first place. On the meadow, Bax pressed his sidecar next to Willemsen and then threw him in front of him just before entering the forest. Bax slowly walked away from Willemsen after the final verdict of the exciting fight for the win and at the finish he took an eight-second lead over Willemsen, who would finish second. Veldman/Janssens would eventually finish third very nicely. Lap after lap they passed their competitors and world champion Vanluchene also had to give in when Veldman/Janssens pushed the sidecar next to them on the back straight and were eventually able to approach the inside bend earlier. Vanluchene stayed behind Veldman for another lap but then let him go to safely drive home fourth place at the finish.
Frenchman Giraud rode a somewhat lonely but solid race in the sand and finished fifth. Van Werven/Beunk took sixth place. Earlier they had been reduced to seven by Brown, but the Englishman could not maintain the pace and Van Werven saw his chance to regain sixth place definitively. Brown/Chamberlain then finished seventh and in eighth place we saw Hermans/Musset again, who had managed to make up a lot of meters and places after their crash. Ninth was Wilkinson/Humphrey and tenth was Keuben/Rietman, who were the last to complete the first lap but managed to push themselves to the front for the rest of the heat.
Heat 2
During the start of the second heat, Daniël Willemsen repeated exactly the same feat as in the first heat and braked his sidecar first into the bend, followed by Vanluchene, Hermans and Veldman. Behind this it was Van Werven who, before entering the forest, was cleverly passed by Bax on the second bump in the meadow. Hermans/Musset clearly wanted revenge after their crash in the first heat and passed Vanluchene at the end of the first lap to chase Willemsen. Bax, in turn, had now arrived at Veldman's rear wheel. Just when the battle was actually about to start, it was Bax who fell silent in the chicane and unfortunately had to retire due to machine trouble! Veldman/Janssens suddenly found themselves safely in fourth position and gradually closed in on the three leaders, who became more and more closer to each other and were crossing like a rope over the Varsseveld circuit filled with holes.
After fifteen minutes of the match, Vanluchene actually closed in behind Hermans/Musset and that was the signal for them to open the attack on Willemsen. Hermans was soon able to snatch the first place from Willemsen, but Willemsen remained dangerously behind Hermans with Vanluchene still on the rope. So the stuff went full throttle around the track again, with the exception of Veldman who was slightly catching up with the leading trio, far behind.
As is often the case in sidecar cross, the devil was once again in the tail when Hermans crashed in the 22nd minute and driver Musset lost his leading position! After just under a minute, Hermans was able to continue in fourth place. Willemsen was back in first place with Vanluchene in second and Veldman/Janssens in third. In the very last lap Veldman managed to dive onto Vanluchene's rear wheel and they undoubtedly had the same plan as in the first heat; Overtaking Vanluchene on the back straight. However, this plan did not go ahead. Veldman came out of the bend a little too wide while entering this straight and when the sidecar made an unexpected movement, driver Janssens suddenly fell out of the box! After some delay they could continue again, but it would not be more than a third place for Veldman. Meanwhile, Vanluchene was relieved to finish second behind winner Willemsen, who not only won the second heat but also the daily total in Varsseveld.
Hermans then came in fourth and at a distance the Frenchman Giraud finished fifth again after he had managed to deal with the British Brown and Wilkinson and later Van Werven. Van Werven/Beunk, who eventually finished sixth again, came very close to getting back to Giraud, but a real overtaking action could no longer be initiated, unfortunately for Van Werven/Beunk. The British Wilkinson/Humprey and Brown/Chamberlain were fighting with each other throughout the heat and in the end Wilkinson managed to decide this match in his favor and finished seventh with Brown out of eight. On ninth we saw Jake Brown who, together with Joe Millard, was able to crown a great race with ninth place after Mulders/Van der Wiel had been relegated to tenth place in the final phase.
In the standings of the ONK, Willemsen/Rostingt are now firmly in the lead, followed by Vanluchene and Veldman, who are in joint second, 15 points behind.
The next ONK Sidecar Masters is on May 26 in Halle.
Daily results ONK Sidecarmasters Varsseveld
Standings ONK Sidecarmasters 2019
Text: Emil Bilars
Photo: Orangehat.nl
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