Sven Verbrugge

Sven Verbrugge joined the sidecarcross world championship in 1993 as the passenger of his countryman Gunther Gooverts, whom he raced with quite successfully for four seasons. He made his debut at the French GP in Pernes Les Fontaines on 4 April 1993. He won his first race in this season in Roggenburg, Switzerland on 15 August 1993. In 1995, an ankle injury prevented him for three month from taking part in most of the season but the year after the pair returned with a sixth place overall finish. After those four seasons, Verbrugge had two lean ones with only four races in 1997 and none in 1998 after Gooverts choose not to take part in the world championship and only race in domestic events in Belgium. He raced successfully with two different drivers in 1999, Martin Gölz and Gerton Kops, who finished 12th and 9th overall this season. After a short stint with Peter Steegmans he returned to Daniël Willemsen for a second time and the pair finished second overall in the 2000 and 2001 world championship. In 2002, apart from Willemsen, he also raced with Are Kaurit, with both drivers finishing in the top four. Another second-place finish, now with Kristers Serģis, in 2003, when his old partner Willemsen won the championship was followed by a seventh place in 2004 due to a three-month-long injury for Serģis. After this, the two drivers, Willemsen and Serģis, swooped partners, with Verbrugge returning to Willemsen for a third time and Kaspars Stupelis joining Serģis instead. This move proved very successful for Verbrugge as he managed to win two world championships with Willemsen. After the second one, Verbrugge left the world championship in 2006, seemingly for good, at the age of 39. After a year away from the GP circus however, he decided to return, now with his new partner, fellow Belgian Nicky Pulinx.

In 2009, he was back as passenger of Daniël Willemsen once more, except in the first race of the season, when he raced with Gerrit van Werven. The pair dominated the early part of the season but an injury to Willemsen forced them to miss three events and a lack of good form upon return caused them to finish only fifth in the world championship. In the last event of the season, Verbrugge broke his thumb and the team was unable to score any points. Daniël Willemsen however declared already before the race that he would try to win title number eight in 2010.[2]

After riding with fellow Belgian Peter Steegmans in 2010, Verbrugge started once more with Willemsen in 2011, after an injury to first-choice passenger Roman Vasyliaka. It is the fifth time that the two are racing together in the competition.[3] As Willemsens passenger, Verbrugge has also won two Dutch national titles, in 2001 and 2006. Willemsen temporarily switched to Ondrej Cermak as his passenger for the first of two German GP's because of an injury to Verbrugge. Willemsen and his passenger clinched the World Championship at the second-last race of the season, at Slagelse, Denmark, having a 53-point lead over Latvians Jānis and Lauris Daiders at the time.[4][5]

The last race event of the 2011 season saw the World Champions, Willemsen and Verbrugge, failing to score any points. A dispute during qualifying between the two lead to Verbrugge walking out during the first qualifying session. He later returned to take part in the "last chance", where the team qualified for the race after all. Verbrugge however was injured during a fall and had to be taken to hospital where his arm was placed into a plaster, ruling the team out of the race.[6]

In the 2012 season Verbrugge was racing with fellow Belgian pilot Ben Adriaenssen, finishing third in the world championship.

Season by season

Sven Verbrugge's season by season world championship results:

Season	Driver	Equipment	Position	Points	Races	Wins	Second	Third
1993	Gunther Gooverts	KTM-EML	11	182	27	2	—	3
1994	Gunther Gooverts	KTM-EML	8	135	18	1	2	1
1995	Gunther Gooverts	KTM-EML	21	27	8	—	—	1
1996	Gunther Gooverts	KTM-EML	6	155	16	—	3	2
1997	Gert Devoldere		23	3	2	—	—	—
	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-BSU	3	40	2	2	—	—
1999	Martin Gölz	Zabel-VMC	12	90	20	—	—	—
	Gerton Kops	MTH-EML	9	17	2	—	—	—
2000	Peter Steegmans	Zabel-EML	21	16	2	—	—	—
	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-BSU	2	320	22	5	4	7
2001	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-BSU	2	377	22	8	5	3
2002	Are Kaurit	MTH-AYR	4	268	16	—	3	2
	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-VMC	2	88	4	—	4	—
2003	Kristers Serģis	MTH-BSU	2	501	26	12	7	1
2004	Kristers Serģis	MTH-BSU	7	246	12	6	1	2
	Frank Hofman	Zabel-VMC	12	22	2	—	—	—
2005	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-VMC	1	478	22	15	4	—
2006	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-VMC	1	341	16	13	—	—
2008	Nicky Pulinx	Zabel-VMC	9	22	4	—	—	—
	Jarno van den Boomen	Zabel-VMC	22	8	2	—	—	—
2009	Gerrit van Werven	KTM-VMC	16	6	2	—	—	—
	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-VMC	5	341	17	11	—	—
2010	Peter Steegmans	KTM-WSP	12	212	20	—	1	1
2011	Daniël Willemsen	Zabel-WSP	1	437	21	14	3	—
2012	Ben Adriaenssen	KTM-WSP	3	385	22	—	—	6
	Overall 1993 - 2012			4,717	327	89	37	29

Source:"The John Davey Pages - Sven Verbrugge". John Davey. Retrieved 2008-04-15.

• Passengers in italics.

• Sven Verbrugges official website (in Dutch)
• The World Championship on Sidecarcross.com