One double Jinin tonic
By TMX Archives on 14th May 08
THE second round of the 2008 Sidecar-cross World Championship took place on the magnificent Jinin track in the Czech Republic at the weekend. It should have been a showcase for the two best teams the Czech Republic has ever had but, sadly, it was a somewhat melancholy affair. Tomas Cermak was out through injury and many other crews, including Britain's Stuart Brown and John Lyne were both excluded due to apparently insurmountable administration problems.
As a result the first GP in the Czech Republic for six-years ended up with only 30-teams in attendance. Speculation on what had gone wrong was rife in the pits throughout the weekend, but one thing was certain no-one was happy!
The only issue to be settled on Saturday was start-line places for race day. Willemsen duly did the honours with Sergis second and top Czechs Vaclav and Marek Rozehnal third.
Sunday's races started with a holeshot, just, for Willemsen from Joris Hendrickx and Sergis in tow. Willemsen, predictably, came out on top and Sergis swiftly robbed Joris of second.
Rozehnal, with the crowd behind him, caught Joris at half-distance, quickly relegating the Belgian to fourth. Three laps later a large stone destroyed both the Czech's hope and his back wheel.
With 25-minutes gone, Joris again came under pressure, this time from Soderqvist. This time Joris was lucky, the Swedes' sidecar axle broke, dumping him out of the race.
Willemsen took his first win of the season with a 21-second advantage over Sergis with Joris Hendrickx taking the final podium place.Willemsen roared away at the start of race two with Sergis in hot pursuit. Jan Hendrickx held third with Rozehnal fourth.Sergis hung on to Willemsen in the early stages, but the Dutchman soon began to pull away.
To the delight of the crowd, Rozehnal ousted Jan Hendrickx to take third after 12 minutes. Soderqvist started badly, in tenth, but made rapid forward progress to hold fifth after two-laps.
Willemsen sailed on, but Sergis was sidelined by technical problems after 17-minutes gifting second to Rozehnal. Soderqvist, on a charge, moved up on Jan Hendrickx, eventually snatching third after 25-minutes and then proceeded to hunt Rozehnal down.
Willemsen slowed his pace on the last lap, but claimed another convincing win. Soderqvist ran Rozehnal close, but they were in amongst lapped riders and the Czech was not going to surrender his best ever race result.
Willemsen not only won both races but also took the lead in the World standings. Second and third on the day were the Hendrickx boys, Joris and Jan respectively, who are also second and third overall but with Jan taking preference over Joris.
The third round of the 2008 campaign will be held at Chernivtsi in the Ukraine next weekend.
Unfortunately it is likely to be another victim of the Czech debacle as not everyone will travel on from Czechoslovakia and riders unable to race this weekend are unlikely to make the trek for one GP. It is not what anyone would have wanted.
WORLD SIDECAR-CROSS CHAMPS
Rd 2 Jinin, CZECH REPUBLIC
1 D Willemsen/ Grutter (NL/CH - Zabel Mefo) 25 + 25 = 50
2 Jo Hendrickx/ Liepins (B/Lv - KTM AYR) 20 + 16 = 36
3 Ja Hendrickx/ Smeuninx (B - Zabel VMC) 14 + 18 = 32
4 Rupeiks/ Kurpneiks (LAT - KTM AYR) 18 + 13 = 31
5 Happich/ Schelbert (D/CH - Zabel Mefo) 15 + 15 = 30
6 M Willemsen/ Godau (NL/D - KTM WSP) 16 + 14 = 30
7 Bax/ Van Deutekom (NL - Zabel VMC) 13 + 11 = 24
8 Walter/ Saam (D - Zabel WSP) 11 + 12 = 23
9 Rozehnal/ Rozehnal (CZ - Zabel VMC) 0 + 22 = 22
10 Sergis/ Stupelis (LV - KTM AYR) 22 + 0 = 22
11 Soderqvist/ Sylwan (S - Husaberg AYR) 0+20=20, 12 Cerny/ Huml (CZ - Jawa VMC) 8+9=17, 13 Morch/ Strauss (D - Zabel WSP) 9+8=17, 14 Pulinx/ Verbrugge (B - KTM AYR) 12+5=17, 15 Van Duynhoven/ Verhaegen (NL - Zabel VMC) 6+10=16, 16 Sonn/ Miil (EST - KTM AYR) 5+7=12, 17 Van de Boomen/ Novotny (NL/F - Zabel VMC) 4+6=10, 18 Derks/ Eggink (NL - Husaberg VMC) 7+3=10, 19 Daiders/ Daiders (LV - KTM AYR) 10+0=10, 20 Fagerberg/ Fagerberg (S - KTM AYR) 3+4=7, 21 Gordejev/ Kivaste (EST - KTM AYR) 1+2=3, 22 Schrijver/ Van de Wiel (NL - MTH VMC) 2+0=2, 23 Degroodt/ Hulsmans (B - MTH BSU) 0+1=1.
RACE ONE: 1 D Willemsen, 2 Sergis, 3 Jo Hendrickx, 4 Rupeiks, 5 M Willemsen, 6 Happich, 7 Ja Hendrickx, 8 Bax, 9 Pulinx, 10 Walter, 11 Daiders, 12 Morch, 13 Cerny, 14 Derks, 15 Van Duynhoven, 16 Sonn, 17 Van de Boomen, 18 Fagerberg, 19 Schrijver, 20 Gordejev.
RACE TWO: 1 D Willemsen, 2 Rozehnal, 3 Soderqvist, 4 Ja Hendrickx, 5 Jo Hendrickx, 6 Happich, 7 M Willemsen, 8 Rupeiks, 9 Walter, 10 Bax, 11 Van Duynhoven, 12 Cerny, 13 Morch, 14 Sonn, 15 Van de Boomen, 16 Pulinx, 17 Fagerberg, 18 Derks, 19 Gordejev, 20 Degroodt.
SERIES STANDINGS after 2 (of 12) rounds: 1 D Willemsen 86 points, 2 Ja Hendrickx 79, 3 Jo Hendrickx 70, 4 M Willemsen 51, 5 Happich 48, 6 Sergis 47, 7 Van Duynhoven 44, 8 Rozehnal 42, 9 Bax 42, 10 Derks 40, 11 Rupeiks 40, 12 Schrijver 33, 13 Walter 24, 14 Burgler 23, 15 Pulinx 22, 16 Daiders 21, 17 Van de Boomen 20, 18 Soderqvist 20, 19 Morch 17, 20 Cerny 17, 22 Visscher 14, 23 Sonn 12, 24 LYNE 10, 25 Janssen 9, 27 WILKINSON 7,...
NEXT ROUND: May 18 Chernivtsi, UKRAINE.
For full pictures see T+MX NEWS, Friday, May 16, 2008