Chair dates for 2011
By TMX Archives on 5th Nov 10
At its Autumn Congress in Macau the FIM Motocross Commission announced the dates for the 2011 World Sidecar-cross Championship.
There will be 13 rounds held in ten different countries taking place from the beginning of April until the middle of September.
Many of the circuits have been used in the recent past, but there are two brand-new ones, namely Sobienczyce in Poland and Kamensk-Uralsky in Russia.
As in the past the FIM has tried to group GPs together to cut down on travelling costs and it has succeeded with nine rounds but that still leaves four as ‘stand alone' events. The worst example is Chernivtsi in Ukraine which is the only round in the month of May and involves a 2,600 km round trip from Calais. In 2010 only 30 crews arrived at this venue, when it was held the weekend after the Polish GP, so who knows how few will enter in 2011.
If a British crew wanted to contest every round, assuming they live somewhere in the middle of England they will travel around 17,000 miles and will miss approx 43 working days assuming they stay out for those rounds that are a week apart.
The Russian event will involve a return train journey from Moscow to the track. In order to attract competitors the organising club have said they will pay 1,000 Euro for those who ‘Get in at the lap of the World Championship event by their own transport'. In addition the orhanisers will be paying 500 Euro towards the transport costs from Moscow.
In 2010 only nine teams contested every one of the 14-rounds. Let's hope 2011 will attract more, but with increased fuel costs plus higher VAT etc., it's not very likely.
2011 WORLD SIDECAR-CROSS GP CALENDAR
April 3 – Oss, HOLLAND
April 17 – Castelnau de Levis, FRANCE
April 25 (Easter Monday) – Frauenfeld, SWITZERLAND
May 8 – Chernivtsi, UKRAINE
June 13 (Whit Monday) – Brou, FRANCE
June 26 – Sobienczyce, POLAND
July 3 – Genk, BELGIUM
July 24 – Strassbessenbach, GERMANY
August 7 – Kegums, LATVIA
August 14 – Kivioli, ESTONIA
August 21 – Kamensk-Uralskiy, RUSSIA
September 4 – Slagelse, DENMARK
September – Rudersberg, GERMANY