WSC series signs off in style at Rudersberg
By Words: Leen van der Sluis Photos: Bert van der Sluis on 21st Sep 26
Killian and Evan Prunier won the final Grand Prix of the 2026 FIM Sidecarcross World Championship at Rudersberg to secure the silver medal, while Brett Wilkinson and Joe Millard ended their season with an outstanding second overall. Newly crowned World Champion Marvin Vanluchene completed his ‘Last Dance’ by winning the final moto of his Grand Prix career.
The world title may already have been decided at Varsseveld one week earlier, but there was still unfinished business when the Sidecarcross paddock arrived at the famous Am Königsbronnhof circuit for the 64th Motocross Rudersberg.
Vanluchene and Ben van den Bogaart had already secured the championship, but just a single point separated Killian and Evan Prunier from Tim Prümmer and Patrick Schneider in the battle for World Championship silver. Prunier arrived with 432 points against Prümmer's 431, leaving everything to play for in front of the German crew's home crowd.
For the British contingent, attention centred on Wilkinson and Millard. Fourth in the championship on 359 points, they could no longer reach the final podium but still had Tim and Sem Leferink only eight points behind. More significantly, Rudersberg would be the last Grand Prix of Joe Millard's long Sidecarcross career.
There was no shortage of farewell stories. Austrian passenger Patrick Schneider was also contesting his final Sidecarcross event, while for Vanluchene the weekend represented the final chapter of the season he had appropriately called ‘The Last Dance’.
Rudersberg's fast, hard-packed and technical hillside circuit was a complete contrast to the wet sand of Varsseveld and immediately appeared to suit the Prunier brothers. They were fastest in their free-practice group before setting the quickest time of the entire timed session at 1:53.652.
Prümmer and Schneider were also immediately on the pace, but it was Vanluchene and Van den Bogaart who topped Group A timed practice, just 0.412 seconds ahead of the German-Austrian crew. Dan Foden and Noah Weinmann were fourth in the group, while Wilkinson and Millard were fourth in Group B.
The British challenge became much more prominent when racing began.
Prümmer and Schneider grabbed the start in the opening qualifier and initially began to build an advantage. Foden and Weinmann were second, while Vanluchene had work to do from fourth. The World Champion gradually moved forward and the complexion of the race changed completely when Prümmer made a mistake and stalled.
Vanluchene swept through to victory, but Foden and Weinmann produced an excellent ride to take second ahead of Prümmer and Schneider.
The second qualifier belonged to Wilkinson and Millard. Michael Hodges and Ryan Henderson made the best start, but Wilkinson quickly established himself at the front. The Prunier brothers ran into trouble and dropped as low as sixth before beginning their recovery, but by then the British crew had gone.
Wilkinson and Millard took a commanding victory, with Prunier recovering to second and Sanders/Vincent third. It was more than a good qualifying result – it was an early indication that Wilkinson and Millard had the pace to finish their final weekend together at the sharp end.
Elsewhere, Sem Leferink injured his knee during timed practice, forcing the Dutch brothers to withdraw. That effectively secured Wilkinson and Millard's fourth place in the World Championship before Sunday's main races had even started.
Daniels and Bruno Lielbrdis also withdrew, with Bruno still suffering the effects of the virus infection that had already cost them Varsseveld.
Sunday's opening moto immediately brought the fight for championship silver into focus.
Prunier made the start he needed and led Wilkinson and Millard, with Sanders/Vincent and Prümmer/Schneider behind. While the French brothers were exactly where they wanted to be, the newly crowned World Champions were anything but. Vanluchene and Van den Bogaart had endured a dreadful start and were 16th at the end of the opening lap.
At the front, Prunier quickly settled into a rhythm and began building an advantage. Wilkinson and Millard held a strong second, while Prümmer worked his way past Sanders to move into third.
Foden and Weinmann were also moving forward, passing their way into fourth and becoming embroiled in a close battle with Sanders for the position.
Then Vanluchene arrived.
From 16th, the World Champions began cutting their way through the field. Crew after crew was dispatched until, in the closing stages, they had Foden and Sanders directly ahead. Vanluchene pushed hard for another position on the final lap, but neither crew gave way.
Prunier had done everything required of him. The French brothers took victory and 25 points, with Wilkinson and Millard an excellent second and Prümmer and Schneider third. Foden and Weinmann held fourth, Sanders/Vincent fifth and Vanluchene's remarkable recovery ended in sixth.
The one-point championship advantage with which Prunier had arrived at Rudersberg was now looking considerably healthier.
Further down the order, George Kinge and Thomas Mackay finished 17th, while Tony Grahame and Jak Watson took the final point in 20th. Jack Rogers and Ryan Beavis initially finished ahead of them but received a two-position penalty after failing the post-race sound check.
It was a tougher outing for two other British crews. Hodges and Henderson's race ended with mechanical trouble, while Luke Banks and Chris Pannell suffered an early rear-wheel puncture and lost several laps while changing it.
By the time the gate dropped for the last World Championship moto of 2026, the major pieces were in place. Prunier had one hand on the silver medal, Wilkinson and Millard were chasing a final GP podium together, and Schneider was contesting his last GP race.
Vanluchene, meanwhile, had one more race in which to sign off ‘The Last Dance’.
This time the British crews were immediately in the thick of the action. Wilkinson/Millard and Foden/Weinmann were right at the front, with the Prunier brothers close behind. Vanluchene had also made a much better start.
Prümmer and Schneider had not.
The German-Austrian crew became tangled with Stephan Wijers and Hantje van Hal and came to a stop. By the end of lap one they were down in 19th, leaving Prümmer with a mountain to climb if he was to keep his silver-medal hopes alive.
Wilkinson was trying to turn his excellent weekend into a race victory, but Vanluchene was coming. The World Champions first moved past Prunier and then Foden before setting off after Wilkinson. It took around three laps to close the gap and make the move for the lead.
Once ahead, Vanluchene began to pull clear.
Prunier had no intention of taking unnecessary risks with World Championship silver at stake, but he was still moving forward. The French brothers passed Foden and later found their way past Wilkinson to take second.
Wilkinson and Millard remained secure in third, while Foden was having another tremendous battle with Sanders. As in the first moto, the British-German crew refused to yield and held fourth.
Prümmer and Schneider produced an impressive fightback from 19th, eventually catching and passing Sanders to recover to fifth, but the damage had been done.
At the front, Vanluchene and Van den Bogaart crossed the line to claim the final GP victory of the season.
After fighting from 16th to sixth in Race One, Vanluchene had turned the second moto into a demonstration from the front. The championship had already been secured at Varsseveld, but there was no sign of him taking his foot off the gas.
The Last Dance ended with a chequered flag and a win.
Prunier took second, while Wilkinson and Millard bowed out together on the third step of the podium.
Among the other British crews, Hodges and Henderson bounced back from their first-race disappointment with 11th in Race Two, while Kinge and Mackay scored again in 16th. Grahame/Watson and Rogers/Beavis became involved in a collision which left both outfits temporarily stranded at the side of the circuit, but both continued to finish 19th and 20th respectively.
Banks and Pannell, meanwhile, battled clutch problems to finish 21st.
A victory and second place gave Killian and Evan Prunier 47 points and the Rudersberg Grand Prix victory. Wilkinson and Millard's 2-3 scorecard earned them 42 points and second overall, ahead of Vanluchene and Van den Bogaart on 40.
Foden and Weinmann completed an impressive weekend with two fourth places. Their 36 points tied them with Prümmer and Schneider, but Foden's better second-moto result gave the British-German crew fourth overall.
Tim Prümmer and Patrick Schneider leave the championship as the 2026 World Championship bronze medallists.
The final championship table tells an interesting story. Despite all the tension surrounding the fight for silver, none of the top seven positions actually changed at Rudersberg. Prunier simply turned a precarious one-point advantage over Prümmer into a 13-point margin.
Wilkinson/Millard remained fourth, Leferink fifth, Sanders/Vincent sixth and Foden/Weinmann seventh.
The movement came immediately behind them, with Veldman/Lebreton and Wijers/Van Hal climbing to eighth and ninth respectively, pushing Grondman/Ross Vincent down to tenth and the Lielbrdis brothers outside the final top ten.
At the top, though, nothing had changed since Varsseveld.
Marvin Vanluchene and Ben van den Bogaart were World Champions. Killian and Evan Prunier had won the final Grand Prix and secured silver. Tim Prümmer and Patrick Schneider took bronze.
And Brett Wilkinson and Joe Millard finished fourth after one of their strongest weekends of the year.
