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.FIM Sidecarcross World Championship – 2004 Calendar FIM website, accessed: 5 August 2011
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.The World Championship on Sidecarcross.com accessed: 31 October 2009
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: PlacePoints1 252 223 204 185 166 157 148 139 1210 11PlacePoints11 1012 913 814 715 616 517 418 319 220 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.Official World Championship classification 2000–present FIM website, accessed: 9 November 2014ARE KAURIT GP RECORD The John Davey Pages, accessed: 9 November 2014WILFRED VAN WERVEN GP RECORD The John Davey Pages, accessed: 9 November 2014
Calendar The calendar for the 2004 season: DatePlaceRace winnersGP winnerSource21 March Talavera Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge Kristers Sergis / Sven VerbruggeResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis4 April Castelnau Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge Kristers Sergis / Sven VerbruggeResult Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge12 April Oldebroek Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis25 April Aufenau Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis9 May Asti Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis31 May Brou Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis6 June Pflückuff Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis13 June Jaanikese Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis20 June Cēsis Evgeny Scherbinin / Sergey Sosnovskikh Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis11 July Zabok Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Marko Happich / Thomas WeinmannResult Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann18 July Samokov Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis8 August Ķegums Kristers Sergis / Sven Verbrugge Marko Happich / Thomas WeinmannResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis15 August Moscow cancelled 15 September Neeroeteren Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisResult Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars Stupelis19 September Rudersberg 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:FIM SIDECAR MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: Classification 2004 FIM website, accessed: 13 August 2011 Driver / PassengerEquipmentNo.PointsGP winsGP 2ndGP 3rdRace winsRace 2ndRace 3rd1 Daniel Willemsen / Kaspars StupelisZabel-VMC 1 572 9 1 1 18 4 12 Marko Happich / Thomas Weinmann Zabel-VMC 7 419 2 4 1 1 8 63 Are Kaurit / Jurgen Jakk KTM-AYR 4 391 — 1 1 — 3 34 Evgeni Scherbinin / Sergei Sosnovskikh Zabel-APZ 11 385 — 2 2 1 3 45 Stuart Brown / Luke Peters Zabel-VMC 5 374 — 2 3 — 4 36 Eric Schrijver / Christian Verhagen MTH-EML 10 274 — — — — — 17 Kristers Serģis / Sven Verbrugge MTH-BSU 2 246 2 2 1 6 1 28 Werner Wittmann / Premsyl Novotny Yamaha-AYR 12 231 — — 1 — — 39 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 — — 216 Māris Rupeiks / Haralds Kurpnieks Zabel-AYR 9 124 — — — — — —17 Henrik Soderquist / Tobias Sylwan KTM-VMC 26 122 — 1 1 — 2 118 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.
References
External links The World Championship on Sidecarcross.com The John Davey Grand Prix Pages – Results of all GP's up until 2005 FIM Sidecar Motocross World Championship 2010