By ACU. The Sidecar Motocross des Nations was recently held in France at the fantastic Dardon Gueugnon track. The weather was crisp with a mixture of wind and sun on top of French hills, but great racing conditions. Qualifying races on Saturday consisted of three races with one team member in each race. Final positions determined start line positions for race day on the Sunday. Team GB had two good fourth places but in race 3 Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain crashed on start bend and were away last, but battled hard to take sixth place and gain enough points to take sixth place going into race day.
So on race day there were three races with two team members in each race. Points were awarded for each race position (1 for first, 2 for second, etc), with just 5 of the six scores counting (ignore the worst score) and the lowest scoring team wins.
Race 1 got underway the Bax brothers (NL) taking the holeshot and holding on for a brilliant win ahead of Cerney (CZ) and Vanluchene (BE) and Cermak (CZ). Brett Wilkinson / Dan Chamberlain (GB) blasted into 8th and despite fighting hard they held that place throughout. Nick Jarvis / Christian Neilssen (GB) initially held 11th but fought well through to 9th.
In Race 2 Bax (NL) again took a great win with two Belgian teams, Vanluchene (BE) and 9 Hendrickx (BE) just behind, putting team Belgium into the lead. Brown / Chamberlain (GB) started just inside the top 10 but battled past their rivals to take 4th and enough points to put team GB into fourth. Jarvis / Nilsson (GB) crashed on the first lap fighting from the back in a fast and furious race to take a well-deserved 11th.
Going into Race 3, the final sidecar race of the day, team GB were holding 4th but 10 points behind team CZ. The battle for the race lead was between team Belgium and team CZ with Hendrickx (BE) taking the advantage over Cermak (CZ). Daiders (LV) held third ahead of Adriaenssen (BE). With two more good finishes team Belgium secured the win ahead of the Netherlands. The battle was still on for third MXdN place with Brown / Chamberlain (GB) taking 5th off the start but soon securing 4th, unfortunately they had bike problems in last few laps with broken forks which also caused the front wheel to break up, but this didn’t stop them, they limped back to 9th but still took good points. Wilkinson / Chamberlain (GB) had a safe start fighting through to 9th passing Brown / Chamberlain on the last lap to claim 8th. This gave team GB fourth overall just behind team CZ.
Unfortunately there was to be no podium position this year but some great racing and a brilliant end to the International racing season.
Belgium 13
Netherlands 20
Czech Republic 23
Great Britain 38
Latvia 43
France 57
Ireland 67