2007 Sidecarcross World Championship


The 2007 FIM Sidecarcross world championship, the 28th edition of the competition, started on 9 April and finished after eight race weekends on 16 September 2007 with Daniël Willemsen taking out the title once more.

Overview

The 2007 season was the 28th edition of the sidecarcross world championship. It resulted in a record sixth world championship for Daniël Willemsen, his fifth in a row, but the first with his new passenger Reto Grütter from Switzerland. The team absolutely dominated the season, winning fifteen out of the sixteen races, of those, the first twelve in a row. Despite this, their winning margin of 89 points was not a new record, this is still held by Kristers Sergis / Artis Rasmanis with 168, set in 2002, however, in a 28 race season. The only race the world champion didn't win, number 13, they team finished outside the points on 24th rank. Second placed Jan Hendrickx / Tim Smeuninx did not win a race all season but nine podium finishes and the fact that the team saw the final flag in all races put them well ahead of place three. Kristers Sergis, five times world champion, came third in the 2007 season, with eight second places and a win to his name, in their home GP. Apart from this performances, his results were not strong enough for a sixth title.
The eight races of the season were held in six countries, France, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Latvia and the Netherlands.

Format

Every Grand Prix weekend is split into two races, both held on the same day. This means the 2007 season with its eight Grand Prix had sixteen races. Each race is currently 30 minutes plus 2 rounds long. The 2007 season had 60 teams registered but not all of them raced in every event. 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. All up, 48 of those teams gained competition points. Only three teams qualified but never scored any points. About fifteen teams never achieved to get above the cut.
The first twenty teams of each race scored competition points, allocated accordingly to the following system:

Calendar

The 2007 season had the same number of races as in the previous year, however, only half the races were held in the same locations as in 2006. The countries hosting GP's however had not changed:
  • The Sidecarcross des Nations in Slagelse on 23 September 2007 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

Riders

The top ten of the 2007 season:
PositionDriver / PassengerEquipmentPointsWinsSecondThird
1 Daniël Willemsen / Reto GrütterZabel-VMC37515
2 Jan Hendrickx / Tim SmeuninxZabel-VMC28627
3 Kristers Sergis / Kaspars StupelisKTM-Mefo242181
4 Andy Burgler / Martin BetschartKTM-VMC1962
5 Vaclav Rozehnal / Marek RozehnalZabel-VMC191
6 Maris Rupeiks / Haralds KurpnieksKTM-AYR18441
7 Marco Happich / Meinrad SchelbertZabel-VMC18011
8 Joris Hendrickx / Eli PiccartKTM-AYR1771
9 Tomas Cermak / Ondrej CermakJAWA-Mefo153
10 Janis Daiders / Lauris DaidersKTM-AYR148

  • Equipment listed is motor and frame.

    Race by race statistics

The numbers for every team are allocated according to their 2006 season finish, meaning the world champion received number one and so on. The numbers for drivers not participating this season were not re-allocated, for example number 16 was not used as Uli Müller who finished 16th in 2006 had retired. New entries received a random number. In the last season, 50 teams finished with points in the overall table, every number above this is therefore a new entry or has not scored points the previous year, the exception being the numbers 68 and 116 who should have been numbers 13 and 21. This system makes it possible to see a driver's improvement or decline from last year by comparing number with position.
The sixteen race events finished as follows and resulted in this final table:
PDriver / PassengerEquipmentNo.Points12345678910111213141516
1 Daniël Willemsen / Reto GrütterZabel-VMC1375111111111111x111
2 Jan Hendrickx / Tim SmeuninxZabel-VMC528624333933274334119
3 Kristers Serģis / Kaspars StupelisKTM-MEFO1924210222x32211x2212xx
4 Andy Burglar / Martin BetschartKTM-VMC6196331054132010xx854848
5 Vaclav Rozehnal / Marek RozehnalZabel-VMC9191x12714815147466455x5
6 Māris Rupeiks / Haralds KurpnieksKTM-AYR4184610xx224x12x7x2352
7 Marko Happich / Meinrad SchelbertZabel-VMC31805x5411106x63146x62x
8 Joris Hendrickx / Eli PiccartKTM-AYR7177x14127141411531258121067
9 Tomas Cermak / Ondrej CermakJAWA-MEFO18153xx4610513x104101311141012
10 Jānis Daiders / Lauris DaidersKTM-AYR1214811x11915612198897x7x4
11 Henrik Söderqvist / Tobias SylwanHusaberg-AYR23139456x5x94x2193
12 Carlo van Duijnhoven / Christian VerhagenZabel-VMC151241916x16716716161011x89911
13 John Watson / Mark WatsonZabel-VMC20116x6xx13115x55xx36
14 Nicky Pulinx / Ludo SomersKTM-AYR116959781094x6xxxx
15 Martin Walter / Andre SaamZabel-VMC229515201212181413111719711x10
16 Jarno van den Boomen / Henry van de WielZabel-VMC1491713xx671581913
17 Marcel Willemsen / Marco GodauZabel-BSU10821411xx19xxx9xx96131214
18 Evgeny Scherbinin / Sergei SosnovskikhMTH-MEFO262815xxxx3109x
19 Scott Wilkinson / Gary BurtZabel-VMC2462xx148x9x9x11x13
20 Bertram Martin / Bruna KaelinZabel-VMC685318x913x8x187xxxxx
21 Etienne Bax / Marc van DeutekomZabel-VMC5152xx1612172016131515xx14x
22 Marcel Grondman / Alfons EggersZabel-VMC33461288x142019x
23 Thomas Morch / Marius StraussZabel-BSU753818191415815
24 Stuart Brown / Luke PetersZabel-VMC8351391515x18xx
25 Geert Devoldere / Edouard ChereauHusaberg303517x17xxxxxx141817x161717
26 John Lyne / Pete GirlingZabel-VMC2630xx2019xxxx10121619
27 Thijs Derks / Roy DerksHusaberg-BSU2827x191916xxx15x16152020xxx
28 Andreas Clohse / Phillipe SchmidtZabel-VMC3226x1413x1516
29 Steffan Metz / Billy HilpertKTM-AYR8323171212
30 Josef Brustmann / Philip SchmidtJF-NMP112316177x
31 Lukas Cerny / Miroslav VosmikJAWA-VMC98201718201517x20x
32 Werner Wittmann / Guennady AuvrayKTM-NMP3118xx18x191118x
33 Kristof Santermans / Patrick NieuwenhuizenYamaha-SST251720x10x16xxx
34 Kārlis Leimanis / Kaspars LiepiņšKTM-AYR6617x1820x16x1717
35 Baptiste Bigand / Julien BigandMTH-BSU431413xx17xx20xxx
36 Andy Eastman / Steve KirwinMTH-VMC19813x1613x
37 Jean Marie Ains / Bernard JayetKTM-MEFO42101818xxx18x20
38 Kert Varik / Erkki KoivKTM-AYR13191518
39 Jan Visscher / Jeroen VisscherZabel-VMC1359x12xx
40 Peter Steegmans / Dagwin SabbeMTH-EML200813x
41 Gert Gordejev / Keit KivasteKTM-AYR12451819
42 Igor Rodionov / Dmitry RodionovKTM-AYR62515x
43 Peter Brussen / Bjorn RoesZabel-VMC524x17
44 Jürgen Blank / Rainer SemetZabel-VMC843x18
45 Michael Poirier / Bertrand PoirierKTM-VMC292x20x20
46 Oskars Liepiņš / Ilvars AmeļkinsKTM-AYR141219x
47 Guillaume Martin / Francis BlancoZabel-VMC1102x19
48 Argo Poldsaar / Tonu HansarMTH-AYR1771x20
David Barat / Guennady Auvray101xx
Wim Janssen / Henk Roenhorst36xx
David Keane / Andy Heighes46xx

  • Where there is only one flag shown, it indicates driver and passenger are from the same country.
  • Placings below the first twenty not shown.
  • Drivers who never qualified for any GP not shown.
  • x denotes qualified for race but finished outside of points.
  • Passengers in italics.

    Manufacturers

The manufacturers of side car frames are very specialized companies, catering for a small market, but within this they are very well known. Engines can be large half litre off-the-line machines. However, specialized sidecar engines are available to, like the 2-stroke engines from MTH and Zabel. In the 2007 season, four out of the top-five used a VMC frame, including the world champion. Zabel provided the engines to the world champion and the runner-up. The only other engines found in the top ten were KTM and JAWA.
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