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.

Overview

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

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:

Retirements

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.

Calendar

The 2006 season had sixteen races:
  • 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

Riders

The final standings in the overall table of the 2006 season were:
PositionDriver / PassengerEquipmentPointsWinsSecondThird
1 Daniël Willemsen / Sven VerbruggeZabel-VMC34113——
2 Evgeny Scherbinin / Sergei SosnovskikhMTH-APZ258—53
3 Marko Happich / Meinrad Schelbert *Zabel-VMC243112
4 Māris Rupeiks / Haralds KurpnieksKTM-AYR231142
5 Jan Hendrickx / Tim SmeuninxZabel-VMC217——1
6 Andy Burgler / Martin BetschartKTM-VMC211—22
7 Joris Hendrickx / Eli PiccartKTM-AYR180——1
8 Stuart Brown / Luke PetersZabel-VMC165——1
9 Vaclav Rozehnal / Marek RozehnalZabel-VMC157——1
10 Marcel Willemsen / Bjorn RoesZabel-VMC137———
11 Josef Brustmann / Stefan UrichKTM-NPH1171——
12 Jānis Daiders / Lauris DaidersZabel-VMC115———
13 Nicky Pulinx / Ludo SomersKTM-AYR113———
14 Jarno van den Boomen / Henry van de WielMTH-VMC100—11
15 Carlo van Duijnhoven / Christian VerhagenMTH-VMC100———
16 Ueli Müller / Reto GrütterZabel-MTH100———
17 Eric Schrijver / Ramon van MilMTH-VMC93———
18 Tomas Cermak / Ondrej CermakJAWA-VMC68———
19 Kristers Serģis / Kaspars StupelisKTM-Mefo64—21
20 John Watson / Mark WatsonZabel-VMC57———
21 Bertram Martin / Bruno KaelinZabel-VMC57———
22 Martin Walter / Andre SaamZabel-VMC54———
23 Henrik Söderqvist / Collin Dunkley Husaberg-VMC52—11
24 Scott Wilkinson / Gary BurtZabel-VMC52———
25 Kristof Santermans / Patrick NieuwenhuizenYamaha-VMC47———
26 John Lyne / Michael TurnerZabel-VMC26———
27 Laurent Devoldre / Sebastian DevoldreHusaberg-VMC20———
28 Thijs Derks / Roy DerksHusaberg-BSU17———
29 Michael Poirier / Bertrand PoirierKTM-VMC14———
30 Geert Devoldere / Guennady AuvrayHonda-EML13———
31 Werner Wittmann / Mario WohlfartZabel-AYR10———
32 Andreas Clohse / Guido SchlabertzZabel-VMC10———
33 Marcel Grondman / Martijn GeerdinkZabel-VMC9———
34 Roland Sutter / Sandro MichelletoKTM-VMC9———
35 Patrick Fagerberg / Daniel FagerbergKTM-AYR9———
36 Wim Janssen / Henk RoenhorstZabel-VMC8———
37 Maikel Kuster / Wilfried KeubenZabel-VMC8———
38 Johan Smit / Bart NottenHusaberg-BSU7———
39 Patrick Greup / Marc van DeutekomKTM-VMC7———
40 Imantas Tamuliūnas / Egidijus KaraliūnasKTM-AYR6———
41 Jens Bochmann / Stefan ProgschaZabel-AYR6———
42 Jean Marie Ains / Bernard JayetZabel-VMC5———
43 Baptiste Bigand / Julien BigandMTH-BSU5———
44 Andrus Vaks / Raimo KaulKTM-AYR4———
45 Boudewijn Gommeren / Steve van TongerloKTM-AYR4———
46 David Keane / Andy HeighesMTH-VMC3———
47 David Surcin / Landry TessierZabel-VMC3———
48 Otomārs Skreija / Gastons SkreijaMTH-BSU2———
49 Herve Boursaud / Edouard ChereauKTM-VMC1———
50 Guillaume Martin / Jacques PilleirZabel-VMC1———

  • 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.
OWIKI.org. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.