The eighth round of the Sidecarcross World Championships was held at the Strassbessenbach circuit in Germany last weekend. The current leaders, Bax / Musset, were determined to increase their lead over second placed Giraud / Mucenieks and ex champions Willemsen / Bax and at the end of the day they had done just that increasing the gap to twenty points.
There were four British teams in contention with Wilkinson / Chamberlain and Kinge / Humphrey in group A and Brown / Millard plus Foden / Grahame in group B.
In the A group qualifying race neither of the Brits made the cut and had to try to qualify from the last chance. Wilkinson succeeded but Kinge was in second reserve spot until the last minute when he was knocked out by one tenth of a second. In group B both Brown and Foden made it through.
In the first of Sunday’s two races Bax led from gate to flag. In the early stages Willemsen was second but with ten minutes to go he was passed by Giraud. Brown came home in sixth place and Wilkinson, starting from the back row, finished fifteenth. Foden was never in the points
Once again in race two Bax led from start to finish and his fellow countryman, Willemsen was second for the duration. Giraud worked his way up to third but with just over ten minutes left he had to pull into the working area with overheating problems. When he got going again he was in seventh which is where he finished. Brown was fourth and Wilkinson thirteenth.
Bax now leads from Giraud with Willemsen third and Brown still in fourth. Despite their recent injuries Wilkinson / Chamberlain are still in the top ten in ninth place.
The next round is in Austria on 30
th July.
Photos by Bert v.der Sluis