The season closer has arrived and it was under gloriously blue skies on Friday, as the teams rolled in. Hot news to greet us was the statement by team Lielbardis that due to his injury in Vesoul, Bruno the passenger will be replaced by Nicolas Musset for this final round. The French three-times champion stood in for the team in Stelpe, Latvia last weekend, and agreed to join them here in Germany.
This pairing, along with young Briton Dan Foden and his German hot-shot passenger Noah Weinmann could well spoil the party for the three title contenders, taking big points from them. Three challengers split by just six points is a fantastic situation guaranteed to bring out the very best (or worst) of the teams involved.
Both Brett Wilkinson and Koen Hermans have Rudersberg history going back ten or more years, whilst the Prunier brothers came to the party much later, only flexing their muscles at the top over the past three seasons.
All three teams were subjects for our interviews, along with an historical piece, looking back over German participation and success in this sport.
The very first world champions back in 1980 were Reinhard Bohler and Siegfried Muller riding a Yamaha Wasp. Since then, the title has eluded Germany, and we wanted to find out why.
Conversations with former Grand Prix regulars Michael Garhammer and Klaus Weinmann shed some light on how hard they had tried, with Garhammer becoming vice-champion during his time. Even more enlightening was a look around the garage of Marcus Hofer, with a fascinating collection of photographs from the earlier days, plus an immaculate 1000cc Hedlund EML sidecar outfit. He fired this up, giving us the sight, sound and smell of a bygone era. My day was complete, and it can only improve as the weekend unfolds.
The scene is set for tomorrow’s qualifying and the final two races on Sunday. Who will emerge champions? Don’t miss a second of the suspense, so if you can’t be here in person, make sure you catch the live action happening on the live stream courtesy of FIM-MOTO.TV.
Also, look out for all other information and late news as it becomes available
on www.fimsidecarcross.com along with all our social media outlets.
From Barry Nutley
