All roads lead to Haunstetten, Germany this weekend (30-06-19) for the FIM-EUROPE 2019 Sidecar Championships Semi-Final.
Twelve crews from six different nations will battle it out to join the 6 sidecar teams already seeded into the championship finals, which will be held at the excellent Eenrum circuit in Netherlands on August 18
th- the day after the solo final in Bad Hersfeld Germany.
Two ex-European champions are among the line-up- Dutchman Sven Holstein and reigning British champion Josh Goodwin. Sven’s last European championship finishing position was 5th in 2013, but is now back in the sport full time after a 5 year break. British champions Josh Goodwin and Liam Brown head to Haunstetten as the favourites. They finished an impressive 4th in 2018, 6th in 2017, 6th in 2016, and were crowned Champions in 2014 at a memorable Euro Final at High Easter, Essex. This truly was an historic day that not only saw Josh & Liam on the top step but also Nick & Abi Radley finished in second. An amazing 1-2 result for GB as no British teams had ever stood on the European podium in the history of the sport up until that point.
Joining them in Haunstetten is a host of talented teams. Ones to watch are the home teams of Raphael San Milan, & Manuel Meier who finished 5th & 6th respectively in last year’s final.
ACU have 4 team places, other than Josh & Liam. Vale/Vale, Berwick/Russell and Bartlett/Kempa all represent Great Britain. Joining them is ex-pat Dave Carvill, who is now racing on a Dutch KNMV licence with passenger Dennis Smit.
Dan Berwick finished 9th in the 2018 final after a very strong qualifying round in Roden. The Vale brothers, Aaron and Stephen, will be looking to improve on their 2017 semi-final 10th, and Natasha Bartlett will be looking to make another final following on from her very impressive debut in 2017, finishing 11th. Dave Carvill probably has more experience than the others and has made a host of finals previously, with the highlight being 7th with Cameron Godden in 2016.
The Haunstetten line-up:
1 Sven Holstein / Martin Strockmeijer
2 Josh Goodwin / Liam Brown
3 Joel Sudnikevits / Bruno Bachman
4 Mike Frederiksen / Steven Grandt
5 Manuel Meier / Melanie Schrempp
6 Aaron Vale / Stephen Vale
7 Natasha Bartlett / Kim Kempa
8 Imanuel Schramm / Patrick Loffler
9 David Carvill / Dennis Smit
10 Daniel Berwick / Josh Russell
11 Guillaume Comblon / Chloe Agez
12 Raphael San Milan / Benedikt Zapf
13 Roman Loffler / Patrick Herbst (Res1)
14 Oliver Moller / Dana Frohbos (Res2)
The Top 6 teams + 2 reserves will qualify for the European championship final and join the sports seeded elite.
🇳🇱 William Matthijssen & Sandra Mollema
🇳🇱 Wilfred Detz & Wendy Arling
🇩🇪 Markus Venus & Markus Heiß
🇩🇪 Markus Brandhofer & Tim Scheunemann
🇬🇧 Mitchel Godden & Paul Smith
🇬🇧 Shaun Harvey & Danny Hogg