On the sidelines
By TMX Archives on 29th Dec 09
A FEW years ago, the FIM decided to try and raise the status of the World Sidecar-cross Championship.
Its main aim was to find more countries to host rounds of the series, but it was also looking at ways of increasing the number of competing teams. It has achieved considerable success with Denmark, Italy, Estonia, Poland and Russia all hosting events in 2009. The number of open licenses available to each country was also increased from six to ten (eight to 12 for home GPs) so that more teams were eligible. It is very unfortunate that all this effort coincided with the credit crunch, which resulted in only ten crews contesting all 13 rounds.
Reigning World Champion Daniel Willemsen started the season with Dagwin Sabbe in his chair. It was not the first time the pairing had been tried and it remained to be seen whether it would be any more successful second time around. As Sabbe was already being reported as having a damaged knee, things were not looking too promising!
FOR FULL ROUND-UP OF THE WORLD SIDECAR-CROSS SEASON SEE T+MX NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 2010
Champions Kaspars Liepins and Joris Hendrickx celebrate their victory