Surprise: Dutch SidecarCross Grand Prix now in Varsseveld

They’ve just about managed to pull it off – one might say, somewhat flippantly. After all, it would have been downright embarrassing if the Dutch, as one of the leading nations in sidecar motocross, had failed to host a Grand Prix this year for the first time since the World Championship began. All the more so because the champions, Koen Hermans and Ben van den Bogaart, hail from our western neighbour.

Now VAMAC Varsseveld has stepped in and will host the GP on the weekend of 12–13 September, i.e. on the date originally planned for Heerde. Whilst Varsseveld marks the penultimate World Championship round for the sidecar teams before the final in Rudersberg a week later, the quad riders will already be crowning their champion in the Netherlands. The elite of the quad riders will also not be competing in Lommel, Belgium (27–28 June) or Straßbessenbach (18–19 July).

This is not the first time a Grand Prix has been held in Varsseveld, not far from the German-Dutch border near Bocholt. The World Championship circuit has previously visited the sand track in 1999, 2009 and 2013. The 2020 Nations Cross for sidecars was due to be held there – without spectators due to coronavirus restrictions. Understandably, the SXoN was cancelled due to a lack of funding

Notably, in 1999, Daniel and Marcel Willemsen – who went on to become world champions – won both races. Ten years later, Willemsen – who had by then become a multiple champion – dominated in Varsseveld with co-driver Sven Verbrugge. And in 2013, Ben Adriaenssen and Ben van den Bogaart laid one of the foundations for their first World Championship title with a one-two finish. Both Daniel Willemsen and Van den Bogaart are expected to be back on the starting grid there on the second weekend in September – the latter, as things stand, as one of the title contenders.

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