The third round of the 2016 Sidecarcross World Championships took place over the last weekend at the Circuit des Tonnes just outside Brou in France.
Forty two teams signed on to do battle but the vast majority of the large, mostly French, crowd were mainly focused on their top crew, Valentin Giraud / Nicolas Musset, who had won the previous GP in the Czech republic.
Three teams from England had entered namely Stuart Brown / Josh Chamberlain, Brett Wilkinson / Dan Chamberlain and Nick Jarvis / Christian Nilsson. Also riding was Ryan Humphrey who passengered Mike Keuben from Netherlands.
In the A group quali race Giraud took the win from Hendrickx / v.den Bogaart with Brown third. Wilkinson came home in sixth place. The group B race saw ex world champion Ben Adriaenssen / Lauris Daiders lead from gate to flag with Vanluchene / Kurpnieks coming home in second place. Jarvis had an incident early in the race when his foot rest was damaged virtually preventing him using the back brake. He pulled out before the end of the race and would have to go again in the last chance. Keuben / Humphrey finished in eleventh place. In the last chance Jarvis set the fastest time but would now start Sunday’s races on the back row.
The first race on Sunday saw Hendrickx take the holeshot from Giraud with Wilkinson in fourth, Brown in about eighth and Jarvis towards the back. Hendrickx held the lead for just one lap before Giraud nipped past on the inside of a long right handed drop. Once in the lead the Frenchman never looked back and went on to take the win. By half distance Brown was up to fifth and closing on Willemsen and Vanluchene. Wilkinson was now in eighth and Jarvis twelfth. Brown took Willemsen on lap seven and set off after the young Belgian. With two laps to go he was up to third and although he closed the gap on Hendrickx he had to settle for third at the flag. Wilkinson came home in ninth and Jarvis eleventh.
In the second leg Hendrickx again took the holeshot from Giraud but this time the Frenchman was even more determined and took the lead on lap one and as before never looked back. Being urged on by approximately six thousand very vocal supporters obviously helped. By the end of the first lap Brown was in third place just ahead of Vanluchene, with Wilkinson eleventh and Jarvis fifteenth. Brown held on to third to the end whilst the young Belgian was passed by Willemsen on lap ten. Current world champion Bax was running in fifth place early on but dropped one place just before half distance. Machine problems forced him out with one lap to go but he still finished fifteenth. Wilkinson finished in ninth and Jarvis twelfth.
Willemsen still leads the championship but Brown is now up to second place, only ten points adrift. Jarvis and Wilkinson are currently twelfth and thirteenth. The one to watch with four wins from the last four starts is Giraud and if he has finally got to grips with his mechanical gremlins he will take some beating.
The next round is on 12
th June at Schopfheim in Germany.