2004 Sidecarcross World Championship
# 2004 Sidecarcross World Championship

The 2004 FIM Sidecarcross World Championship, the 25th edition of the competition, started on 21 March 2004 and finished after fourteen race weekends on 5 September 2004 with Daniël Willemsen and Kaspars Stupelis taking out the title once more. For Willemsen, it was his third world championship while it was the second for Stupelis.

The season saw the cancellation of the Russian GP in Moscow on 15 August because of heavy rainfall, thereby reducing the schedule to thirteen GP's and 26 races.

## Overview

The 2004 season was the 25th edition of the Sidecarcross World Championship. It resulted in a third world championship for Daniël Willemsen, his second in a row with passenger Kaspars Stupelis. Five time world champion Kristers Sergis, with Sven Verbrugge as his passenger, was their main rival early on in the competition. An injury to Sergis meant however, the pair would miss five race weekends and be out of contention for the championship. After this, Willemsen and Stupelis won the championship almost undisputed with second-placed Marko Happich more than 150 points behind in second place. For the following season, 2005, Willemsen and Sergis would exchange passenger, with Sven Verbrugge returning to Willemsen, who he had raced with before, while Sergis and Stupelis would form an all-Latvian team.

The fourteen GP's of the season were held in eleven countries, Spain, France (2x), Netherlands, Germany (2x), Italy, Estonia, Latvia (2x), Croatia, Bulgaria, Russia and Belgium. It was the first time that a GP was to be held in Russia.

## Format

Every Grand Prix weekend is split into two races, both held on the same day. This means, the 2004 season with its fourteen Grand Prix had originally 28 races. Each race lasts for 30 minutes plus two laps. The two races on a weekend actually get combined to determine an overall winner. While this overall winners receives no extra WC points, they usually are awarded a special trophy.

The first twenty teams of each race score competition points. The point system for the 2004 season was as follows:

| Place | Points |
| - | - |
| 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 22 |
| 3 | 20 |
| 4 | 18 |
| 5 | 16 |
| 6 | 15 |
| 7 | 14 |
| 8 | 13 |
| 9 | 12 |
| 10 | 11 |
| Place | Points |
| 11 | 10 |
| 12 | 9 |
| 13 | 8 |
| 14 | 7 |
| 15 | 6 |
| 16 | 5 |
| 17 | 4 |
| 18 | 3 |
| 19 | 2 |
| 20 | 1 |

## Retirements

At the end of the 2004 season a number of long-term competitors retired from the World Championship, the most successful of those being Estonian Are Kaurit, with a third place in 2004 as his best result and active since 1993, and Dutch Wilfred van Werven, third placed in 2002 and 2003 and active since 1996.

## Calendar

The calendar for the 2004 season:

| Date | Place | Race winners | GP winner | Source |
| - | - | - | - | - |
| 21 March | Talavera | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Result |
| 21 March | Talavera | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Result |
| 4 April | Castelnau | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Result |
| 4 April | Castelnau | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Result |
| 12 April | Oldebroek | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 12 April | Oldebroek | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 25 April | Aufenau | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 25 April | Aufenau | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 9 May | Asti | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 9 May | Asti | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 31 May | Brou | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 31 May | Brou | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 6 June | Pflückuff | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 6 June | Pflückuff | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 13 June | Jaanikese | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 13 June | Jaanikese | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 20 June | Cēsis | Evgeny Scherbinin / Sergey Sosnovskikh | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 20 June | Cēsis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 11 July | Zabok | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann | Result |
| 11 July | Zabok | Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann | Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann | Result |
| 18 July | Samokov | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 18 July | Samokov | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 8 August | Ķegums | Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge | Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann | Result |
| 8 August | Ķegums | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann | Result |
| 15 August | Moscow | cancelled $^1$ | cancelled $^1$ | cancelled $^1$ |
| 5 September | Neeroeteren | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 5 September | Neeroeteren | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Result |
| 19 September | Rudersberg | Germany | Germany | Germany |

* The Sidecarcross des Nations is a non-championship event but part of the calendar and is denoted by a light blue background in the table above.
* Flags for passengers not shown.
* $^1$ Cancelled after heavy rain, only an exhibition race was held, won by Marco Happich / Thomas Weinmann, which didn't count towards the world championship.

## Classification

### Riders

Out of 56 teams in the points, the top-twenty of the 2004 season were:

| | Driver / Passenger | Equipment | No. | Points | GP wins | GP 2nd | GP 3rd | Race wins | Race 2nd | Race 3rd |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis | Zabel-VMC | 1 | 572 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 1 |
| 2 | Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann | Zabel-VMC | 7 | 419 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 6 |
| 3 | Are Kaurit / Jurgen Jakk | KTM-AYR | 4 | 391 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Evgeni Scherbinin / Sergei Sosnovskikh | Zabel-APZ | 11 | 385 | — | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 5 | Stuart Brown / Luke Peters | Zabel-VMC | 5 | 374 | — | 2 | 3 | — | 4 | 3 |
| 6 | Eric Schrijver / Christian Verhagen | MTH-EML | 10 | 274 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| 7 | Kristers Serģis / Sven Verbrugge | MTH-BSU | 2 | 246 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 |
| 8 | Werner Wittmann / Premsyl Novotny | Yamaha-AYR | 12 | 231 | — | — | 1 | — | — | 3 |
| 9 | Jan Hendrickx / Tim Smeuninx | MTH-BSU | 6 | 224 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 10 | Bertram Martin / Bruno Kaelin | Zabel-VMC | 14 | 215 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 11 | Joris Hendrickx / Roger van de Lagemaat | MTH-BSU | 41 | 211 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12 | Frank Hofmann / Ludo Somers | Zabel-VMC | 16 | 203 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 13 | Marcel Willemsen / Rene Boon | KTM-VMC | 32 | 191 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 14 | Andy Burglar / Meinrad Schelbert | KTM-Spatech | 25 | 164 | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — |
| 15 | Benoit Beaumont / Henry van de Wiel | MTH-BSU | 8 | 142 | — | — | 1 | — | — | 2 |
| 16 | Māris Rupeiks / Haralds Kurpnieks | Zabel-AYR | 9 | 124 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 17 | Henrik Soderquist / Tobias Sylwan | KTM-VMC | 26 | 122 | — | 1 | 1 | — | 2 | 1 |
| 18 | Josef Brustmann / Stefan Urich | KTM-NMP | 20 | 100 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 19 | Carlo van Duijnhoven / Tom van Duijnhoven | MTH-BSU | 13 | 99 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 20 | Nicky Pulinx / Dagwin Sabbe | KTM-VMC | 118 | 96 | — | — | — | — | — | — |

* Equipment listed is motor and frame.
