Vanluchene/Bax the strongest during the first muddy World Cup heat in Estonia
Vanluchene/Bax won the first World Cup heat in Lange in Estonia. The duo led from start to finish in wet and muddy conditions. Veldman/Cermak were the only ones who could stay on their track and came second. Nestor Daniël Willemsen crossed the finish line in third place with baking player Rudolphe Lebreton, far behind. Bax/Musset and Hermans/Janssens scored poorly due to crashes during the first GP heat in Estonia.
A muddy course lay in front of the sidecar crossers in Lange in Estonia on which the first heat would be completed. Around five o'clock local time the starting gate fell and the World Cup sidecars plunged into the mud bath. Vanluchene/Bax immediately took the lead and behind it were Veldman/Cermak and Hermans/Janssens who flew side by side into the second turning corner. However, things went wrong on the inside with Hermans rolling over! Fortunately, Veldman was not bothered by the rolling sidecar and was able to continue in second place. Bax/Musset were right behind Hermans and had to fully anchor to avoid hitting the crashing sidecar. The outer track remained free, but a few seconds after Hermans this space turned out to be too small for an entire field of sidecars. Two machines collided on the same track and a big crash followed, which also caused the traffic behind to get stuck. Leferink/Beleckas on three, Wilemsen/Lebraton on four and Kops/Horton on five were luckier and were able to make good progress. Shortly after the blockage in their zeal to quickly come forward, Bax/Musset now made the mistake themselves! After this crash it took a long time before Bax could start his machine. With a long gap, Bax/Musset were the last to continue and, very cleverly in these muddy conditions, they would drive a nice catch-up race and finish ninth. At the front, Vanluchene immediately distanced himself from Veldman, who in turn was far behind Leferink. After more than fifteen minutes of driving, Veldman/Cermak managed to catch up with leader Vanluchene and a number of exciting laps followed. However, partly due to the mud, Veldman was unable to properly position the sidecar anywhere. The same mud later made it impossible to save the glasses of baking expert Cermak. This was thrown away and Veldman also chose to take some distance again and not blindly dive into an all or nothing adventure. Vanluchene/Bax had nothing to fear anymore and became the winner in the first heat. Veldman/Cermak came second. Willemsen/Lebraton would eventually finish third. Leferink/Beleckas rode in that spot for a long time, but when they experienced something along the way, Willemsen saw the opportunity to move to third and hold this spot until the finish. At the very end, Varik/Kunnas took fourth place from Leferink/Beleckas, who would now finish fifth, quite nicely. Kops/Horton also scored nicely with their sixth place and today's comeback kings were Van Werven/Van den Boogaart, who finished seventh after the massive starting crash. So Bax/Musset finished ninth. Van der Lagemaat/De Venne finished 11th, Keuben 14th, Hermans 17th and the Van der Veldt brothers took another point with their 1th place.
Result GP Sidecars Estonia heat 1
text Emil Bilars/photo WSC
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