Ben Adriaenssen

Ben Adriaenssen (born 27 January 1989)[1] is a Belgian sidecarcross rider and the 2013 and 2014 World Champion, together with his Dutch passenger, Ben van den Bogaart.

Ben Adriaenssen
Nationality	Belgium
Born	(1989-01-27) 27 January 1989
Bike number	1
Website	Official website
Motorcycle racing career statistics Sidecarcross World Championship Active years 2009 – present Manufacturers KTM-VMC (2009–2011) KTM-WSP (2012–2013) Husqvarna-WSP (2014–present) Championships (2) 2013, 2014 2015 championship position 14th Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 144 23 63 2,352

In 2013 he also, for the first time, won the Belgian national sidecarcross championship.

Biography

Ben Adriaenssen began his sidecarcross career, with Dutch passenger Kenny van Gaalen by his side, in 2004, racing in the Netherlands in the competition of the Motorsport Organisatie Nederland, a Dutch amateur motorsport organisation.[2] In this organisation's competition the pair finished as champions in 2007 and 2008.[1]

In 2009 Adriaenssen and van Gaalen started competing at professional level, the World Championship as well as the Dutch national championship. In the latter the pair came third in 2009.[1] The combination made their World Championship debut at the Swiss Grand Prix at Wohlen. They finished the season in 18th place overall with three sixth-place finishes as their best race results.[3]

In the team's second World Championship campaign, in 2010, Adriaenssen and van Gaalen finished sixth overall, with a second place in the first race of the Danish Grand Prix as their best result.[4]

For 2011, Adriaenssen changed passengers, now racing with Guennady Auvray, and once more finishing sixth overall. With his new passenger he achieved his first ever race win, at the first race of the Latvian Grand Prix in August 2011.[5] In 2012 Adriaenssen raced with veteran passenger Sven Verbrugge at his side, which had won the World Championship in 2011 on the side of Daniël Willemsen. While Willemsen took out the World Championship in 2012 again, with Kenny van Gaalen as his passenger for parts of the season, Adriaenssen and Verbrugge came third in the standings. The combination was not able to win a race that season but came third on six occasions and scored points in every race of the season, never finishing lower than eighth.[6]

The 2013 season saw Adriaenssen once again change passengers, now riding with Ben van den Bogaart. The new team won the opening Grand Prix of the season at Frauenfeld, Switzerland and went on to win seven of the fourteen season Grand Prix as well as the World Championship, 97 points clear of runners-up Etienne Bax. Adriaenssen once more scored in every race of the season, something no other rider achieved in the competition in 2013.[7] The pair clinched the World Championship in the first race of the second last Grand Prix of the season, with the race, held at Rudersberg, Germany, heavily affected by bad weather.[8] Apart from the World Championship, Adriaenssen and van den Boogaart also took out the national Belgian championship.[1]

Adriaenssen and his passenger, Ben van den Bogaart, once again won the World Championship in 2014, once more in the rain affected last Grand Prix of the season at Rudersberg, 18 points ahead of Etienne Bax.[9]

Adriaenssen suffered a foot injury during the fourth Grand Prix of the 2015 season, at the time sitting in second place of the World Championship, and was forced to miss the rest of the season.[10]

Sidecarcross results

Season by season

Ben Adriaenssen 's sidecarcross world championship statistics:

Season

Passenger

Equipment

Position

Points

Races

GP Wins

Race Wins

Race Podiums

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

2009

Kenny van Gaalen

KTM-VMC

18

108

14

—

—

—

FRA –

SWI 0–14

POL –

UKR –

NED 6–6

BEL 0–10

GER 6–13

DEN 0–0

LAT –

RUS –

EST –

FRA 11–7

GER 16–13

2010

Kenny van Gaalen

KTM-VMC

6

322

27

—

—

4

NED 3–3

GBR 9–9

FRA 7–0

ITA 12–14

POL 5–3

UKR 12–7

BEL 0–

GER 7–9

FRA 14–8

EST 0–12

LAT 8–20

RUS 5–5

DEN 7–6

GER 12–11

2011

Guennady Auvray

KTM-VMC

6

346

26

—

1

6

NED 0–6

FRA 13–7

SWI 6–0

UKR 8–7

FRA 16–9

POL 7–8

BEL 3–0

GER 4–5

LAT 1–2

EST 0–5

RUS 3–4

DEN 3–2

GER 13–4

2012

Sven Verbrugge

KTM-WSP

3

385

22

—

—

6

FRA 3–4

NED 8–4

GER 6–5

CZE 5–3

BEL 3–3

FRA 6–4

EST 4–4

RUS 5–5

LAT 4–4

SWI 3–4

GER 3–7

2013

Ben van den Bogaart

KTM-WSP

1

610

28

7

11

24

SWI 1–1

UKR 3–2

GER 4–3

CZE 1–1

NED 1–1

BEL 3–1

FRA 2–7

GER 2–1

EST 2–2

LAT 2–2

SWI 2–1

FRA 2–1

GER 1–13

BEL 6–2

2014

Ben van den Bogaart

Husqvarna-WSP

1

402

19

4

7

17

NED 2–2

FRA 2–1

CZE 3–1

FRA 4–3

GER 1–1

EST 1–2

LAT 1–1

SWI 3–2

FRA 3–2

GER 6–

2015

Ben van den Bogaart

Husqvarna-WSP

14

161

8

1

2

6

SWI 1–2

FRA 3–1

ESP 3–4

GER 3–10

NED –

LAT –

CZE –

BEL –

FRA –

GER –

EST –

LAT –

SWI –

FRA –

GER –

Overall 2009 - 2015

2,352

144

12

23

63

Source: FIM

Honours

World Championship

• Champions: (2) 2013, 2014

Belgium

• Champions: (1) 2013

References

1. Ben Adriaenssen official website Archived 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine accessed: 14 October 2013
2. MON website Archived 21 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine (in Dutch) accessed: 14 October 2013
3. 2009 Sidecarcross World Championship Archived 27 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine FIM website – Official results, accessed: 14 October 2013
4. 2010 Sidecarcross World Championship Archived 27 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine FIM website – Official results, accessed: 14 October 2013
5. 2011 Sidecarcross World Championship Archived 27 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine FIM website – Official results, accessed: 14 October 2013
6. 2012 Sidecarcross World Championship Archived 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine FIM website – Official results, accessed: 14 October 2013
7. 2013 Sidecarcross World Championship Archived 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine FIM website – Official results, accessed: 14 October 2013
8. Schlammschlacht in Rudersberg (in German) Hohenloher Tagblatt, published: 19 September 2013, accessed: 14 October 2013
9. Gepann-WM: Zitterpartie für Champion Adriaenssen (in German) speedweek.com, published: 22 September 2014, accessed: 24 September 2014
10. Kwetsuur door Ben Archived 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine (in Dutch) Team Adriaenssen website, published: 20 May 2015, accessed: 27 May 2015

External links

• Official website
• The World Championship on Sidecarcross.com
• The John Davey Grand Prix Pages – Results of all GP's up until 2005

Sporting positions
Preceded by Daniël Willemsen	Sidecarcross World Champion 2013–2014	Succeeded by Etienne Bax
Preceded by Jan Hendrickx	Belgian national sidecarcross champion 2013	Succeeded by Jan Hendrickx