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Report from Strassbessenbach 

After a gap of six years World championship sidecarcross returned to Strassbessenbach in Germany last weekend. The track, set in a national park, was prepared perfectly but certain changes meant that it now favoured those riders with the sidecar on the right. Previously it did not really favour either side.

As has been the case in the past the event did have more than it’s share of controversy with issues being experienced during technical control with riding numbers as well as noise test failures after race one plus a somewhat petty protest after race two. The end result was that Sergis / Stupelis took the overall win from Steegmans / Sabbe.

Qualification on Saturday was going to be difficult for most riders with a good start in the two qualifying races being essential. The organisers did a good job in track preparation, perhaps too good, resulting in overtaking being extremely difficult.

In Q Race for the A group the front 8 riders did not change position for the whole race. The two Brits in this race, Lyne / Girling and Kinge / Kinge both started from the back row and never got near finishing in the qualifying places. Willemsen won the race from Joris Hendrickx.

In Q race 2 Rozehnal led for the whole race and won from Sergis with Bax third. Brown / Peters, 10^th, and Wilkinson / Burt, 11^th, both qualified but the Millard brothers missed out by just two places.

In the last chance session the Millards and the Kinges failed to make the cut whilst Lyne / Girling just scraped in as second reserve.

After overnight rain the track looked in perfect condition for racing on Sunday.

The first race charge up the big hill was led by Rozehnal from Rupeiks / Kurpneiks, Jo Hendrickx with Willemsen 4^th and Sergis 6^th. Within one lap Willemsen was up to 3^rd whilst Rupeiks dropped to 4^th. Brown and Wilkinson were both in the bottom third of the field at this stage. By lap three Willemsen took the lead leaving Rozehnal to fight off Hendrickx whilst Sergis was up to fourth but unable to catch the front three.

The front four stayed in these positions for the remainder of the race and Rupeiks held fifth until four laps from the end when fellow countryman, Daiders, passed him. This was the only change in the top twelve positions for the last 9 laps. Brown and Wilkinson were still trying their best near the back and finally finished 21^st and 22^nd.

After the race both Joris Hendrickx and Tommy Morch were noise tested and failed thus gaining them a penalty of +1 minute to their race time. This dropped Joris down to 12^th and Morch out of the points which in turn promoted Brown to 20^th.

The second race was led by Sergis from Willemsen, Joris and Bax in 4^th. Once again the two Brits were in the last third of the field. Willemsen closed the gap on Sergis and by the end of lap 2 tried to pass the Latvian inside a bend just after a big downhill jump. He cannoned into the side of Stupelis who wasn’t in the mood to give way and ended up on his side with Grutter virtually above him.

A few laps later another disaster struck the Dutchman when their machine toppled over just after the finish line leaving Grutter on the floor. In his efforts to get back on board one of his gloves partly came off and rather than wait for him to put it back on properly Willemsen gestured for him to discard it which he did. 

By this time Sergis had a lead of nearly 10 seconds and over the next few laps Willemsen did not seem able to close the gap. With three laps to go he suddenly closed the gap and was past leaving Sergis 2^nd and Joris 3^rd.

The two Brits once again tried their hardest but Wilkinson pulled out just after half distance with a rear wheel problem whilst Brown went on to finish outside the points in 22^nd place.

After the race Sergis put in a protest against Willemsen regarding Grutter’s missing glove which was eventually upheld by the International Jury and the Dutchman was excluded from the race result.

Willemsen now leads by 65 points and must still be odds on favourite to clinch the title yet again. The next round is in Denmark on 3^rd August