WSC gets spicy at penultimate round showdown
By Chris Helm on 8th Sep 25
The penultimate round of the 2025 FIM Sidecarcross World Championships was held at Vesoul in France with the top of the table still being fiercely contested by Koen Hermans/ Ben van den Bogaart, Brett Wilkinson/ Joe Millard and Killian and Evan Prunier.
Being their home GP, the favourites to take the win over this weekend were the Prunier brothers and in their Quali race they certainly showed everyone else the way it should be done. Hermans/ Van den Bogaart could only manage second place in the A group race while Mike Hodges/ Ryan Henderson were fifth and Sam Osbaldiston/ Thomas Mackay 12th.
In the B group race Wilkinson/ Millard took the holeshot and never looked back. In the early part of the race Wilkinson/ Millard, Stuart Brown/ Scott Grahame and Dan Foden/ Noah Weinmann were all in the top four. On lap three disaster struck Brown/ Grahame when gearbox failure caused them to crash with Grahame needing the attention of the medics for the remainder of the race.
Wilkinson went on to take the win from Benjamin Weiss/ Patrick Schneider with Foden/ Weinmann third. Jake Brown/ Christopher Booth took ninth and Jack Rogers / Ryan Beavis tenth.
By winning their race, and Hermans/ Van den Bogaart only managing second place, Wilkinson/ Millard took another point off the Dutchman’s lead in the title race.
When the gate dropped for the opening moto something amazing happened. Foden/ Weinmann led from the Prunier brothers but Hodges. Henderson and Wilkinson/ Millard were next. Something we have not seen for a long time – if ever.
The Pruniers wasted very little time in taking the lead which they held comfortably for the duration. Foden/ Weinmann held second and although they slowly dropped back they were very safe. The real battle was for third down to seventh which involved Wilkinson/ Millard, Bruno and Daniels Lielbardis, Justin Keuben/ Dion Reitman, Hermans/ Van den Bogaart and Hodges/ Henderson.
Wilkinson/ Millard and the Lielbardis twins pulled away a bit but just after half distance the Latvian brothers took third place. Behind them it looked like Hermans/ Van den Bogaart were on a charge but it was short lived and they suddenly started to drop back and very nearly dropped out of the point scoring places.
With about ten minutes to go things suddenly changed and he started to speed up enabling him to finish 17th. Afterwards we found out his radiator was coming adrift and a speedy trip into the working area was needed to carry out a temporary repair
Keuben/ Reitman, who had started on the back row, were in seventh place until the last lap when they crashed off a jump dropping them out of the points. That was their day finished as both Justin and Dion were too sore to continue.
So with just three motos to go the battle at the top couldn’t be tighter with just three points separating Hermans/ Van den Bogaart, Wilkinson/ Millard and the Pruniers.
The start of race two was a virtual carbon copy of race one with Foden. Weinmann leading from Hodges/ Henderson, Wilkinson/ Millard and the Pruniers. Foden/ Weinmann held the lead for a couple of laps but with thousands of patriotic supporters cheering them on, the Prunier brothers took the lead. They held the lead for the duration but this time Foden, Weinmann kept in touch and were never more than a few seconds behind.
The battle behind the leading pair was between Hermans/ Van den Bogaart, Wilkinson/ Millard and the Lielbardis twins until the Latvians unfortunately crashed on lap eight and took no further part.
When all the arithmetic was done at the end of the day it was obvious the overall winner would be the Pruniers with Foden/ Weinmann on the second step and amazingly Wilkinson/ Millard were third. We haven’t seen podium make-up like this for many years.
The Pruniers came away with the red plate with Hermans/ Van den Bogaart second and Wilkinson/ Millard third.
The final round of the WSC series, at Rudersberg in two weeks’ time, should be a real cracker with just six points separating the top three teams. Rudersberg has traditionally favoured left-handers so Wilkinson/ Millard could have an advantage. We can only hope!
One thing that could spoil everything is Mother Nature which can bugger things up completely if it is very wet.
