2006 Sidecarcross World Championship

The 2006 FIM Sidecarcross world championship, the 27th edition of the competition, started on 23 April and finished after eight race weekends on 17 September 2006 with Daniël Willemsen taking out the title once more.

2006 Sidecarcross World Championship
Season
Grands Prix8
Duration23 April–24 September
Drivers
ChampionsNetherlands Daniël Willemsen Belgium Sven Verbrugge
Sidecarcross des NationsNetherlands Netherlands
← 2005
2007 →

Overview edit

 
Daniël Willemsen and Sven Verbrugge in the 2006 season

The 2006 season was the 27th edition of the sidecarcross world championship. It resulted in a fifth world championship for Daniël Willemsen, his fourth in a row and the second with his passenger Sven Verbrugge from Belgium. The two clearly dominated the season with 13 wins in the 16 races and an 83-point gap to the second placed Evgeny Scherbinin / Sergei Sosnovskikh from Russia. A close third came Marco Happich / Meinrad Schelbert, the German-Swiss combination.

After ten seasons in the top ten and five world championships, it was the first time since 1995 for last season's runner-up Kristers Serģis not to finish in the top ten. Due to injury, the Latvian only took part in four races but still achieved three podium finishes.

The eight races of the season were held in six countries, France, Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Latvia and the Netherlands.

Format edit

Every Grand Prix weekend is split into two races, both held on the same day. This means, the 2006 season with its eight Grand Prix had sixteen races. Each race is currently 30 minutes plus 2 rounds long.

Teams go through a qualifying, usually on Saturday. Typically, around 50 teams compete for 30 spots on the starting grid, meaning around 20 teams miss out on the race altogether. Some teams did not actually get a race start all season, failing in qualifying each time.

The first twenty teams of each race scored competition points, allocated accordingly to the following system:

Place Points
1 25
2 22
3 20
4 18
5 16
6 15
7 14
8 13
9 12
10 11
Place Points
11 10
12 9
13 8
14 7
15 6
16 5
17 4
18 3
19 2
20 1

Retirements edit

At the end of the 2006 season a number of long-term competitors retired from the World Championship, the longest standing of those being German Josef Brustmann with 19 seasons in the competition and Belgian Geert Devoldere with 18 seasons, both first having raced in the World Championship in 1988.[1][2][3]

Calendar edit

The 2006 season had sixteen races:[4]

Date Place Race winners GP winner
23 April   Oss   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
21 May   Zabok   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
4 June   Brou   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
18 June   Ķegums   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
2 July   Neeroeteren   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
20 August   Teutschenthal   Māris Rupeiks / Haralds Kurpnieks   Māris Rupeiks / Haralds Kurpnieks
  Josef Brustmann / Stefan Urich
13 September   Saint-Jean-d'Angle   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge   Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
17 September   Rudersberg   Marco Happich /   Mark Watson   Henrik Soderqvist /   Collin Dunkley
  Daniel Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge
24 September   Ķegums   Netherlands
  • The Sidecarcross des Nations in Ķegums on 24 September 2006 is a non-championship event but part of the calendar and is denoted by a light blue background in the table above.
  • Passengers in italics.

Classification edit

Riders edit

The final standings in the overall table of the 2006 season were:[5]

Position Driver / Passenger Equipment Points Wins Second Third
1   Daniël Willemsen /   Sven Verbrugge Zabel-VMC 341 13
2   Evgeny Scherbinin / Sergei Sosnovskikh MTH-APZ 258 5 3
3   Marko Happich /   Meinrad Schelbert * Zabel-VMC 243 1 1 2
4   Māris Rupeiks / Haralds Kurpnieks KTM-AYR 231 1 4 2
5   Jan Hendrickx / Tim Smeuninx Zabel-VMC 217 1
6   Andy Burgler / Martin Betschart KTM-VMC 211 2 2
7   Joris Hendrickx / Eli Piccart KTM-AYR 180 1
8   Stuart Brown / Luke Peters Zabel-VMC 165 1
9   Vaclav Rozehnal / Marek Rozehnal Zabel-VMC 157 1
10   Marcel Willemsen / Bjorn Roes Zabel-VMC 137
11   Josef Brustmann / Stefan Urich KTM-NPH 117 1
12   Jānis Daiders / Lauris Daiders Zabel-VMC 115
13   Nicky Pulinx / Ludo Somers KTM-AYR 113
14   Jarno van den Boomen / Henry van de Wiel MTH-VMC 100 1 1
15   Carlo van Duijnhoven / Christian Verhagen MTH-VMC 100
16   Ueli Müller / Reto Grütter Zabel-MTH 100
17   Eric Schrijver / Ramon van Mil MTH-VMC 93
18   Tomas Cermak / Ondrej Cermak JAWA-VMC 68
19   Kristers Serģis / Kaspars Stupelis KTM-Mefo 64 2 1
20   John Watson / Mark Watson Zabel-VMC 57
21   Bertram Martin /   Bruno Kaelin Zabel-VMC 57
22   Martin Walter / Andre Saam Zabel-VMC 54
23   Henrik Söderqvist /   Collin Dunkley Husaberg-VMC 52 1 1
24   Scott Wilkinson / Gary Burt Zabel-VMC 52
25   Kristof Santermans /   Patrick Nieuwenhuizen Yamaha-VMC 47
26   John Lyne / Michael Turner Zabel-VMC 26
27   Laurent Devoldre / Sebastian Devoldre Husaberg-VMC 20
28   Thijs Derks / Roy Derks Husaberg-BSU 17
29   Michael Poirier / Bertrand Poirier KTM-VMC 14
30   Geert Devoldere /   Guennady Auvray Honda-EML 13
31   Werner Wittmann / Mario Wohlfart Zabel-AYR 10
32   Andreas Clohse / Guido Schlabertz Zabel-VMC 10
33   Marcel Grondman / Martijn Geerdink Zabel-VMC 9
34   Roland Sutter / Sandro Michelleto KTM-VMC 9
35   Patrick Fagerberg / Daniel Fagerberg KTM-AYR 9
36   Wim Janssen / Henk Roenhorst Zabel-VMC 8
37   Maikel Kuster / Wilfried Keuben Zabel-VMC 8
38   Johan Smit / Bart Notten Husaberg-BSU 7
39   Patrick Greup / Marc van Deutekom KTM-VMC 7
40   Imantas Tamuliūnas / Egidijus Karaliūnas KTM-AYR 6
41   Jens Bochmann / Stefan Progscha Zabel-AYR 6
42   Jean Marie Ains / Bernard Jayet Zabel-VMC 5
43   Baptiste Bigand / Julien Bigand MTH-BSU 5
44   Andrus Vaks / Raimo Kaul KTM-AYR 4
45   Boudewijn Gommeren / Steve van Tongerlo KTM-AYR 4
46   David Keane / Andy Heighes MTH-VMC 3
47   David Surcin / Landry Tessier Zabel-VMC 3
48   Otomārs Skreija / Gastons Skreija MTH-BSU 2
49   Herve Boursaud / Edouard Chereau KTM-VMC 1
50   Guillaume Martin / Jacques Pilleir Zabel-VMC 1
  • Equipment listed is motor and frame.
  • Marko Happichs only win of the season came with Mark Watson as passenger, who raced at the German GP with him.

References edit

  1. ^ Official World Championship classification 2000–present Archived 2013-10-16 at the Wayback Machine FIM website, accessed: 9 November 2014
  2. ^ JOSEF BRUSTMANN GP RECORD The John Davey Pages, accessed: 9 November 2014
  3. ^ GEERT DEVOLDERE GP RECORD The John Davey Pages, accessed: 9 November 2014
  4. ^ FIM Sidecarcross World Championship – 2006 Calendar Archived 2012-06-09 at the Wayback Machine FIM website, accessed: 5 August 2011
  5. ^ FIM SIDECAR MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: Classification 2006 Archived 2012-06-09 at the Wayback Machine FIM website, accessed: 13 August 2011

External links edit