Benny Janssen

Benny Janssen
NationalityNetherlands Netherlands
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Sidecarcross World Championship
Active years1982 - 1991
ManufacturersYamaha-Wasp (1982–85)
Maico-EML (1986)
Jumbo-EML (1987–88)
Honda-EML (1989–90)
Zabel-EML (1991)
Championships(1) 1990
1991 championship position6th
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
158 14 47 1,535

Benny Janssen is a retired Dutch sidecarcross rider and the 1990 World Champion, which he won on a Honda-EML, together with his passenger Tiny Janssen.[1][2]

The year after his World Championship triumph he has also won the Dutch national sidecarcross championship, riding with his most regular passenger throughout his career, Frans Geurts van Kessel.[3]

Biography

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Benny Janssen first entered the Sidecarcross World Championship in 1982 with Frans Geurts van Kessel as his passenger, competing in the Dutch and Belgian Grand Prix and earning three points from those two appearances. The following season Janssen used two passengers during his World Championship campaign, van Kessel and Henk van Heek, and earned 39 points all season, finishing in tenth place overall.[1]

The next two season he exclusively combined with van Kessel again and the pair finished eighth and sixth. In 1986 the team came sixth once more, in a season where Janssen also briefly used 1981 World Champion Frits Kiggen as his passenger. The following year Janssen and van Kessel finished fourth in the competition, but slipped to tenth in 1988. The 1989 season saw the pairs best result so far, finishing second in the World Championship, 26 points behind champions Christoph and Andreas Hüsser.[1]

Janssen started the 1990 season with van Kessel as his passenger once more but switched to Tiny Janssen after two Grand Prix. The new combination performed well, eventually taking out the World Championship with a 13-point gap from Germans Michael Garhammer and Ralf Haas.[1]

The 1991 season saw Janssen compete in the World Championship for the last time, using four different passengers during the season, Epe Willems, Tiny Janssen, Ron Varga and van Kessel. With the later two he also took out the Dutch national championship. In this event, he beat 1991 and 1992 World Champions Eimbert Timmermans and Eric Verhagen by three points while he finished his last World Championship campaign in sixth place. After this season Janssen retired from both the World and the Dutch Championship.[1][3]

Racing record

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Sidecarcross World Championship

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Benny Janssen 's results in the Sidecarcross World Championship were:.[1]

Season Passenger(s) Equipment Position Points Races Wins Second Third
1982 Frans Geurts van Kessel Yamaha-Wasp 27 3 4
1983 Frans Geurts van Kessel
Henk van Heek
Yamaha-Wasp 10 39 12 2
1984 Frans Geurts van Kessel Yamaha-Wasp 8 131 20 2 1
1985 Frans Geurts van Kessel Yamaha-Wasp 6 136 8 1 2
1986 Frans Geurts van Kessel
Frits Kiggen
Maico-EML 6 220 22 2 2 1
1987 Frans Geurts van Kessel Jumbo-EML 4 204 20 1 2 1
1988 Frans Geurts van Kessel
Frits Kiggen
Jumbo-EML 10 138 20 2
1989 Frans Geurts van Kessel Honda-EML 2 298 24 3 4 3
1990 Frans Geurts van Kessel
Tiny Janssen
Honda-EML 1 220 18 5 5 1
1991 Frans Geurts van Kessel
Epe Willems
Ron Varga
Zabel-EML 6 146 10 3 2 2
Overall 1982 - 1991 1,535 158 14 20 13

Honours

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World Championship

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  • Champions: (1) 1990
  • Runners-up: (1) 1989

Netherlands

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Benny Janssen Sidecarcross World championship results The John Davey Pages, accessed: 17 October 2013
  2. ^ World Champions sidecarcross.com, accessed: 17 October 2013
  3. ^ a b Dutch national championship results 1961 - 2006 The John Davey Pages, accessed: 17 October 2013
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Sporting positions
Preceded by Sidecarcross World Champion
1990
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Eimbert Timmermans
Dutch national sidecarcross champion
1991
Succeeded by
Eimbert Timmermans