Varik/Kunnas win GP in Estonia at home, Bax moved from P1 to P11 by jury!
The fourth Grand Prix for the Sidecar Crossers has produced a surprising winner. Kert Varik, riding at home, together with his Finnish racing driver Lari Kunnas, took the GP victory in Lange with a first and second place. With this, Varik/Kunnas win a Grand Prix Sidecar Cross for the first time. Vanluchene/Bax came second twice and also second overall. Hermans/Musset finished fourth and third and third overall. Bax/Cermak, who were the first to see the finish of the second heat, were moved from P1 to P11 an hour after the flag dropped. According to the jury, Bax drove too fast and overtook under the yellow and medical flag.
Many teams unplanned did not participate in the heats in Estonia. Brown/Horton did not reach Estonia due to canceled flights. This also meant that Hermans/Musset and Willemsen/Lebraton only took to the track for the first time on Sunday. Musset and Lebraton, both by plane from France, only arrived on Saturday evening due to necessity. Veldman/Janssens crashed out of qualifying on Saturday and Justin Keuben entered the scene with Kostas Beleckas, but he injured his wrist. So no Brown/Horton, Keuben/Beleckas and Veldman/Janssens at the start. The latter team suffered a serious injury and sees its title chances go up in smoke.
18 teams therefore took part in the first heat. Bax/Cermak resolutely took the holeshot and then they are usually lord and master, but this heat in Lange everything went differently! They could not get away from the pursuers. Vanluchene/Bax on second, Varik/Kunnas on three and Hermans/Musset on four put the heat on Bax/Cermak. This resulted in Vanluchene and rounds later Varik Bax/Cermak being able to pass on the double jumps. Anything could happen with four sidecars as if on a string and one part of the audience held their breath while the other part madly shouted home rider Varik forward. That is probably why Varik got extra wings because in the final phase Varik/Kunnas managed to push their sidecar past Vanluchene's sidecar and take the heat win, amid loud cheers! Vanluchene then finished second, just ahead of the pressing Bax/Cermak in third and Hermans/Musset in fourth. Van Werven/Van den Boogaart finished fifth at a distance.
In the second heat Bax/Cermak put things back in order. They won the heat by ten seconds. Varik/Kunnas, however, finished best-of-the-rest in second place and together with the hard-fought win from the first heat, this meant that Varik/Kunnas were able to take the total Grand Prix win in Estonia. Bax/Cermak took just two points less and finished second in the day's results and narrowly retained the World Cup lead. Vanluchene/Bax finished third in this heat and were also third on the podium. Hermans/Musset and Van Werven/Van den Boogaart did the same in terms of results as in the first heat and finished fourth and fifth again.
This is how it would have gone had it not been for the fact that Bax/Cermak were moved from P2 to P1 in the results of the 11nd heat one hour after the last finish flag fell! The left sidecars of Wilkinson and Heinzer had crashed together and the yellow and medical flag was waved widely. According to the jury, images showed that Bax slowed down too little and also overtook another sidecar in the crash zone. After studying the images, Bax maintained his position that he had done nothing wrong, but the jury apparently thought so! Bax was resolutely put back to P11. This meant that Varik now has a double heat victory and Vanluchene/Bax came second with Hermans/Musset third in the final results. Due to this jury decision, Varik/Kunnas also take the lead in the World Championship with 16 points ahead of Bax/Cermak. Van Werven/Van den Boogaart are now third in the standings with 18 points less than Bax.
There are still two GPs to ride for the sidecars in Dalencin-CZ and Rudersberg-D in September.
Daily results GP Sidecars Estonia
Also to read
Hermans/Van den Bogaart win ONK Heerde
Koen Hermans and Ben van den Bogaart have won the ONK in Heerde. They were in the dress rehearsal for the Grand Prix, which takes place in two days at the same circuit...Zienecker wins Heerde, the tension is rising!
The fourth race of the KNMV Open Dutch Quad Championship was won by Manfred Zienecker. The DVR rider managed to win both heats. Mike van Grinsven (5-2) and…VIDEO: Inside MXGP and the Yamaha riders' race in Agueda
The Yamaha camp lets us look behind the scenes again and this time it is during the MXGP of Portugal. A new rider had appeared there who goes by the name...New knee injury for Maeron Peeters
A major setback for Maeron Peeters. Last year the Belgian crashed with Maxi Werner in Oldebroek and tore his right anterior cruciate ligament. On April 27…
Your reactions