Bax/Stupelis win the dramatic GP Sidecars in Markelo!
Etienne Bax and Kaspars Stupelis have won the dramatic GP sidecar cross in Markelo. They won in both heats and thus took the podium as the victor of the GP. Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart finished second twice and therefore also second in the day's results. The English combination of Brown/Chamberlain finished fourth once and third once, meaning they were the last to sit happily on the podium. A lot happened in Markelo and unfortunately for the other teams from the Benelux, sometimes nothing was spared. The biggest casualty of the day, however, was the Frenchman Valentin Giraud who rolled over just after the start of the second heat and caused a number of other teams to crash all over him. After a red flag, the Frenchman was eventually taken away by ambulance. It is still unknown as to his situation now, but it seems almost certain that the season is over for team Giraud/Haller.
In the end, only a paltry 31 teams showed up in Markelo for the GP. A phenomenon that we unfortunately see more often in sidecar cross. On the one hand because some teams simply cannot participate in all GPs, but on the other hand they also suffered due to injuries. For example, we did not see team Reimann and team Cuche appear on the scene. One team's driver is injured and the other team's driver is injured. Now at the next GP we will see rider Cuche at the start with driver Brian Anthonny who showed his skills earlier than with Reimann. That's how it works in sidecar cross.
The GP was also well organized, including musical accompaniment just before the starts, which certainly improved the atmosphere for the large audience.
Even before the starts on Sunday we already had a team from the Benelux that had to withdraw. Unfortunately, the Belgian team Boussy could not start due to an injury. This also applied to the Bitse team of Hodges/Grahamme who had a nasty crash in the woods on Saturday, causing the baker to suffer an open leg fracture.
Heat 1
Under the loud tones of the hardstyle start tune and with the green smoke of the Veldman supporters still hanging in the trees, the first heat started around ten to half past two.
As is often the case, we saw team Dierckens/Bax take the holeshot with Hermans, Bax and Jake Brown on the checkered rope. Team Giraud briefly pulled over on the outside bend after the start and had to start the race from the very last place.
Team Hermans and Bax quickly increased the pressure on Dierckens. In the third lap Hermans saw his chance and passed Dierckens who, two laps later, also saw Bax/Stupelis coming alongside. Exactly those two laps were enough for Hermans/Musset to open a gap with the remaining field. Bax/Stupelis did get closer, but the gap remained in the final phase and thus never became smaller than six seconds. Nothing seemed to stand in the way of a victory for Hermans/Musset until suddenly with two laps to go we saw Bax/Stupelis coming out of the woods as the leaders, with Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart in second place at a distance behind them!
Then suddenly there were Hermans/Musset touring the track at a snail's pace. The steering damper had failed and team Hermans had no choice but to calmly ride out the last two laps with the almost uncontrollable sidecar. Huge disappointment for team Hermans who, after dropping out of the French GP in Plomion, again had to deal with bad luck in a leading position. Ultimately they were able to finish ninth and collect a number of World Cup points, but this was little consolation compared to the victory that was in sight.
It was the birthday of baking player Kaspars Stupelis and he of course grabbed the unintentional gift from Hermans/Musset with both hands and crossed the finish line together with Etienne Bax as the winner during the first heat. Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart came in second and rode a solid race, starting from seventh position. Stuart Brown came in third at a great distance. Given the fact that son Jake Brown had a better start, father and son met each other in the match and had a fairly tough match that was decided in favor of dad Stuart Brown. Son Jake Brown could also look back on the race with satisfaction because only his father's team and Vanluchene had been able to be faster at the finish and Jake Brown finished very well fifth in the first heat. Between both Brown teams we saw Dierckens/Bax back in fourth place after a solid match. Behind Jake Brown we saw the Dutch team of Van Werven/Beunk riding strongly in sixth place, with Varik/Daiders behind them in seventh place and Kinge/Gray in eighth position, who were able to pass the flawed Hermans machine in the last meters.
Hermans/Musset crossed the line in ninth place and the top ten was nicely closed by Kops/Lambrechts who seemed to drop out in the final phase, but the majority of the field had already been patched and team Kops was on the right side of the line and simply could not fall any further.
There were also points for team Santermans (14), Keuben/De Laat (15), Van de Lagemaat (16), Kelly Debruyne/Jens Mans in ninth place. Just before this, Weijers/Van der Putten came in smoking heavily in place eighteen. Due to this problem, the team would no longer start in the second heat, but with a place eighteen in the first heat, they immediately won World Cup points during their debut.
Justin Keuben/Dion Rietman would also not start in the second heat because Rietman quickly had to drop out due to an injury, especially in front of his home crowd.
Sanders/Van Galen also suffered damage when they had a collision with the Swiss Heinzer in the initial phase and baking player Van Galen completely tore his shirt. That's how he rode out of the forest on the first lap like a true Tarzan in the box. However, not only the shirt had failed, but also the steering damper no longer worked properly. Sanders went out after standing still in the pits for two laps, but quickly decided that continuing was not an option. Veldman/Janssens also did not finish due to a hard crash in the meadow in which racing driver Janssens was catapulted into a jumping bump and was momentarily groggy. The team and the driver in particular still had doubts about not starting in the second heat. However, the word give up is not in Glenn Janssens' book and that is a good thing because Veldman/Janssens would become one of the trendsetters in the second heat.
Heat 2
At the start of the second heat, Dierckens went to the side entering the first corner, but fortunately the field was able to continue. However, after the first corner things went wrong! Giraud/Haller rolled over and a melee of sidecars hit the crashed French sidecar, with Britt Kinge's sidecar also crashing over it. Immediately he was waving his arms wildly, indicating that something was very wrong. Under the mountain of sidecars was rider Giraud, who only showed some movement in his arm. The first aid people were quickly deployed, but their work became difficult because it was initially decided not to stop the race with the red flag. After the first passage of a full field of World Cup sidecar teams, this turned out to be madness and the red flag was still raised. Giraud was ultimately treated on site for another fifteen minutes and later taken to hospital. At the time of this writing, it is still unclear what the exact situation regarding Giraud is.
At half past five there was a restart where Hermans/Musset took the lead. Bax/Stupelis were third, quickly moved up to second and took the leading position from Hermans/Musset on the third lap. In the remainder of the race they rode at a killer pace and the victory in the second heat was well deserved at the end of the stage. With the victory in heat one, this of course meant that team Bax/Stupelis won the Grand Prix and also finished second in the Vanluchene position. However, he kept the damage limited by finishing second in the second moto. Vanluchene/Van den Boogaart were increasingly catching up with Hermans/Musset, who were initially second. When Hermans briefly came to a standstill in the woods, Vanluchene simply took over second place and did not relinquish it. Hermans/Musset still finished third, but they had a bad weekend because they really didn't come to Markelo for a ninth and third place in the heats.
Stuart Brown/Josh Chamberlain were right at the start and from their second place after the start they actually only had to be left behind in the team of Bax and Vanluchene. They deservedly finished fourth and, together with third place in the first heat, this resulted in a deserved third place in the daily total of the Dutch Grand Prix in Markelo.
The tension and sensation behind Brown came from the duo Veldman/Janssens who would eventually finish fifth. After another dramatic qualifying, Veldman had to start from the second row of the grid and therefore had to start the battle from midfield and a catch-up race was scheduled. They did this with verve in the second heat and that was a good thing for the audience because there was no real competition tension in the second heat.
Dierckens/Bax finished sixth with Brown/Millard in seventh and Sanders/Van Galen in eighth.
Iljen Kops and Pim Lambrechts caused a sensation in the last lap by referring Varik/Daiders, not the least, back to tenth place and thus claiming ninth place on the finish line. A great performance by the young team from Schaijk. There were also points in this round for Santermans, who finished twelfth and Van de Lagemaat/Van Hal in sixteenth place. Wisselink/Sloot took their very first World Cup points of this season in 18th place and baking player Bijenhof, in his match with the Englishman Foden, took the last World Cup point to Hengelo.
Team Van Werve had to leave early in the match. Rider Gert van Werven had a very painful ankle and after examination in the hospital it turned out that the ankle was broken. Very unfortunate after the great performance in the first heat and a good season overall up to the second heat in Markelo. Keuben/De Laat also quickly dropped out when rider Keuben could no longer breathe after hitting the machine with his stomach. Fortunately, this did not result in any permanent damage, but it did mean the end of the match.
Due to both victories of team Bax, they have edged ahead of attacker Vanluchene in the World Cup standings and the gap between the two is now 31 World Cup points.
The next GP is already this weekend on the spectacular circuit in Strassbessenbach, Germany.
Day result GP sidecars Markelo
Standings 2019 World Championship Sidecars after nine GPs
Text Emil Bilars
Photo Orangehat.nl
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