Bax/Cermak win GP England with Vanluchene/Musset on World Cup title race!
Etienne Bax/Ondrej Cermak have won the English Sidecar Cross Grand Prix in Cusses Gorse. Just like Vanluchene/Musset, she scored a first and second place in the heats. However, Bax won the last heat and so he became the Grand Prix winner and it was Vanluchene in second place. Vanluchene will not have worried about this because in the GP triptych Germany-Ireland-England, Bax scored the same number of points, meaning Vanluchene is still firmly in the World Cup lead. The young Latvian brothers Lielbardis scored their first GP podium in England and were thrilled to finish third.
In the first heat, Bax took the holeshot, but Vanluchene immediately flew past the leading sidecar at the large table mountain. After this, Vanluchene showed a killer pace that no one had an answer to. With a large ten second margin on second team Bax/Cermak, Vanluchene/Musset won the first heat. Hermans/Van den Bogaart were initially also in the front ranks, but had to abandon the battle due to machine trouble and seem to have definitively put their World Cup aspirations on hold. The loss of Hermans was grist to the mill for the Lielbardis brothers, who would now finish third ahead of the surprisingly good Swiss Heinzer in fourth place and home riders Wilkinson/Millard who finished fifth after a bad start.
In the second heat we saw Bax/Cermak take the holeshot again on the inside and now they were finally able to redeem this first place until the finish and they won the second heat and the Grand Prix with flying colors. Just over twenty seconds behind, it was Vanluchene who came second after a hectic race. Vanluchene had dropped back to around tenth place in the initial phase and had to work hard to get to second place. The British Wilkinson/Millard, riding two, defended tooth and nail but had to abandon the fight when they came into contact with Vanluchene and crashed out of the race! Vanluchene/Musset kept the team in balance and finished second. In third place it was very surprising the British Jake Brown who, after a long injury in his home country, made his debut in the Grand Prix again and strongly showed his calling card to the competition. Out of four, it was the overjoyed Lielbardis brothers who took their very first GP day podium with this result, with a total of third place. Keuben/Rietman finished fifth. Team Hermans had to empty the poison cup completely because they once again dropped out with a refusing machine.
Vanluchene/Musset still lead the World Cup with 18 points ahead of number two Bax/Cermak and thus have a strong claim to bring the 2023 World Cup sidecar cross title back to Belgium. However, with 150 points still to be awarded in three Grand Prix, everything is far from decided. On August 19/20, the swords of the GP sidecar teams will cross each other again in the Czech Loket.
Daily results World Championship Sidecar Cross Cusses Gorse (GB)
photo WSC
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