Which GP Sidecar top player will win the ONK Sidecars Oss on Saturday, March 9?
The 2024 Sidecar Cross season will start next Saturday. The championship ball opens in Oss for the cup, NK and ONK class. In the ONK class we see the lion's share of the top ten of the last World Cup sidecars at the start in Oss! This means that next Saturday will be the first real strength meeting of the new year for the top teams.
The current Dutch champions Koen Hermans and Ben van den Bogaart have only one goal. Achieve the highest ranking at global and national levels. They will put everything aside for this and they seem to be the team to beat in the Dutch sand in 2024. Etienne Bax has retired from sidecar cross and that means one competitor less for Hermans / Van den Bogaart. However, the gap that Bax now leaves will be filled quickly because where there are gaps, riders are more than happy to fill them! Keuben/Rietman and Van Werven/Van der Wiel are undoubtedly knocking on the door. Justin Keuben had a good season, but the number three in the 2023 Dutch championship had to miss his regular buddy Dion Rietman after the GP in Loket. Rietman was transported to the hospital, more dead than alive, severely exhausted. A long rehabilitation followed. Rietman is now back and undoubtedly stronger than ever! With incredible resilience, he and his rider Justin Keuben will be very successful. Probably, the team now has just that little bit more to take the absolute top spot thanks to the deep trough of 2023.
Van Werven would hang up his helmet, but the sidecar blood creeps where it can't go. Moreover, the collaboration with Aivar van der Wiel was so good that 1+1 indeed became 2! Van Werven/Van der Wiel are ready to shine all season long and will undoubtedly become regular guests on the ONK stage. However, in Oss there are more privateers on the coast and probably one of the stage customers comes from abroad. Wilkinson/Millard will start in Oss and the number four of the last World Cup is an absolute fan of the Dutch competitions. They have their sights set on a top three place in the World Cup, so this first sand clash in Oss will come in very handy in the preparation! This also applies to the Belgian team Sanders/Steegmans. Davy Sanders was never a sand fan, but the feeling after a number of training sessions with fellow countryman Jarno Steegmans is very good. Rider Sanders even admitted to MXmag that he was 'almost' really enjoying riding in the sand. That promises something for Oss and the motivation of Sanders and the always fanatical Jarno Steegmans seems stronger than ever! Steegmans switched from the box next to the German Prümmer and he now has a permanent comrade in Rudolph Lebraton. Lebraton can handle the sand very well and knows the tricks of the trade. Prümmer/Lebraton plan to compete in the entire ONK and will be highly motivated at the start in Oss. In addition to the foreign violence, many Dutch teams are eager to get a big bag full of ONK points in Oss.
The Leferink brothers had a lot of bad luck, especially at the beginning of 2023, but when things go well, the young team is one to be reckoned with in the sand. For example, last season they took fourth place during the GP in the heavy sand of Heerde. Stephan Weijers has found a new comrade in arms in Han van Hal. Weijers/Van Hal have already completed a long training campaign and are ready for it. Ijen Kops is also ready to attack and has found a well-motivated player in the young and talented Tayim Kaethoven. Kops, always a striking Dutch player with #98, was forced to switch to a right sidecar after his left wing player Lars de Laat was injured. The second part of last season was all about getting used to the new right side for Kops. Now Kops is ready to sink his teeth into the competition with the young dog Kaethoven in the box. Thom van de Lagemaat will start in 2024 with baking player Robin Könst, who will take the step up to compete at ONK and World Cup level. Sven Wisselink and Jens Vincent continue to ride together and can thus continue to build on their trust in each other and so things can almost only go better than last season. Other teams that will play a strong ONK game are undoubtedly Vos/Susebeek Grondman/Wesselink, Mulders/Van Deutekom and the young talents Verhees/Verhees and Reipen/Van Dommelen.
Together with the ONK Sidecars, the NK Sidecars start in the same heats as the ONK. At the National Championships, the contenders for the podium places are undoubtedly Beunk/Rutgers, Van Werven/Buitenhuis, Vlot/Horijon, the Van den Heuij brothers, Stijnen/Van Dijk and the Barink brothers. In the shadow of the ONK, these NK teams, a field with a mix of ambition and experience, will not give each other anything.
The bottom of the 2023 National Championship sidecar class will be released in 2024 and will start as a Cup class sidecar. Just after ten, these teams will compete in their first race on Saturday morning in Oss. A large and varied field of participants will start in Oss for two 18 minutes plus 2 laps competition. There are more than thirty registered cup teams on the KNMV list. The field is a nice mix of veterans, young newcomers to the sport and teams that mainly want to have fun while driving. If you think that sidecar cross is a man's world, you should look at the Cup sidecars. Sisters Tess and Lotte Barink will make their debut on a big stage in Oss and thus form the second full women's team in the Sidecar Cup, alongside sisters Robbin and Renee Schuurman. We also see Dewi van Campen, Eva Visscher, Celine Peddemors and Leonie Luimes in action as baking artists. That means a total of eight women who will hold their own in the cup sidecars, which will undoubtedly provide quite a spectacle in terms of competition!
In addition to the sidecar classes, all Quad classes are also on the program. In addition, the weather forecasts also look favorable, so all the ingredients for a great day of Motorcross will be present this Saturday at the Witte Ruysheuvel in Oss.
Timetable ONK Sidecars/Quad March 9 Oss
Also to read
List of participants MXGP of Galicia in Lugo
The sixth MXGP of this year will be held in Lugo, Spain this weekend. After the Portuguese mud bath of Agueda, the World Cup toppers will have a different kind of circuit under the…Test: Polisport's unbreakable levers
Brake and clutch levers have sometimes broken off in a crash, but it has never been different. Polisport has thought deeply about this subject and now has an unbreakable lever on the…Jens Walvoort about his Portuguese Grand Prix
In Agueda, Jens Walvoort managed to make a big impression during the fifth Grand Prix of the season. The KTM rider finished sixth in the daily rankings, Walvoort is now sixteenth...EnduroGP: Interview Jamie McCanney
Manxman Jamie McCanney made EnduroGP history last year by winning the E1 in Slovakia as a privateer. The 29-year-old veteran has had a long and illustrious career, but…
Your reactions