Marcel Willemsen
| Marcel Willemsen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |
 Netherlands
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| Born |
May 28, 1977 Lochem, Netherlands |
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| Bike number | 20 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Marcel Willemsens official website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Marcel Willemsen (born 28 May 1977 in Lochem, Gelderland) is a Dutch sidecarcross passenger and 1999 World Champion.
Marcel won the 1999 world championship as the passenger for his older brother, the seven times world champion Daniël Willemsen. After this, he left his brothers team and started racing as a sidecarcross driver himself, competing in the Dutch and the world championship.
Willemsen is married and has three children, living in Lochem. In 2007 he announced that 2008 would be his last season as a GP rider, retiring from the international competition but took part in a limited number of races in the following seasons and raced a full season again in 2012.
Marcel started racing with his brother Daniël in the world championship in 1995. As a passenger, his first world championship race was the Dutch GP in Markelo on 24 September 1995, which is the only one he raced in that season. The two brothers quickly improved and the next season saw their first win, at the French GP in Baugé on 12 May 1996. From season to season they improved, culminating in a one-point win of the world championship in 1999. Marcel suffered serious injuries in a training run in February 2000, finding himself temporarily paralysed and unable to continue racing.
He made a surprising recovery within ten months and returned to the sidecarcross world championship in 2001, now as a driver, with his countryman Rene Boon as passenger. Marcel could however not archive the same success there as he had with his brother, a tenth overall finish in 2006 being his strongest season result. Three fifth place finishes in races were his best results in individual events. The 2008 season, now with his German passenger Marco Godau, was to be his last as an international rider, but he may continue to race in the Dutch championship were his showings have been much stronger over the years. He did take part in the Dutch and Swiss GP with passenger Bruno Kaelin in 2009, achieving good results.
He mainly raced in the 2009 German Championship, where he finished second overall. In 2010, Willemsen participated in three Grand Prix once more, again with Bruno Kaelin as his passenger. In 2011, he took part in twelve races, using Gertie Eggink as his passenger, who had won the world championship in the previous year as passenger of Marcel's brother. With the same passenger in 2012, Willemsen finished in eighth place in the world championship, earning his first-ever podium finish as a driver at the first race of the 2012 Belgian GP.
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Wikipedia