Hansi Bächtold (born 21 August 1956), munzinger.de, accessed: 20 October 2013 is a retired
Swiss
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* the adjectival form of Switzerland
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* Swiss Café, an old café located ...
sidecarcross
Sidecarcross racing, also known as sidecar motocross, is a branch of motocross. While regular motocross riders use solo machines, sidecarcross involves a different type of motorcycle chassis operated by a team of two people: a driver and a sid ...
rider and four times Sidecarcross World Champion, having won the competition from 1984 to 1987, together with his passenger
Fritz Fuß
Fritz Fuß is a retired Swiss sidecarcross passenger and four times Sidecarcross World Champion, having won the competition from 1984 to 1987 as the passenger of Hansi Bächtold.Hansi Bächtold Sidecarcross World championship results The John Davey Pages, accessed: 20 October 2013 The duo became the first-ever combination to win the competition four times in a row, a feat later repeated by the Swiss team of
Andreas Fuhrer
Andreas Fuhrer (born 21 May 1959) is a retired Swiss sidecarcross rider and four times World Champion.
He has also won the Swiss national sidecarcross championship five times, in 1989 and from 1993 to 1996. After his last world championship in ...
and
Adrian Käser
Adrian Käser is a retired Swiss sidecarcross passenger and four times World Champion.
He has also won the Swiss national sidecarcross championship five times, in 1991 and from 1993 to 1996. After his last world championship in 1996, he retired ...
and surpassed by Dutch rider
Daniël Willemsen
Daniël Johan Nico Willemsen (born 7 May 1975 in Lochem, Gelderland) is a Dutch sidecarcross rider and ten times Sidecarcross World Championship, World Champion.
Willemsen is the most successful rider in sidecarcross history, winning the title te ...
with six consecutive titles.History - World Champions sidecarcross.com, accessed: 20 October 2013
Apart from his four World Championship triumphs he has also won the Swiss national sidecarcross championship on five occasions, in 1979, 1981, 1984, 1986 and 1987.Swiss national championship results 1970 - 2005 The John Davey Pages, accessed: 20 October 2013
Biography
Hansi Bächtold made his sidecarcross debut in the Swiss championship in 1977 with passenger Wolf Kieser, coming sixth overall. They also raced in one event in the European Championship, the predecessor of the World Championship and scored a ninth place in the second race of the German Grand Prix.
The following season was not very successful for Bächtold, only finishing 15th in the Swiss championship and 14th in Europe and using three different passengers during the season. A highlight however was a second place at the second race of the Swiss GP.
From 1979 he used Hugo Jung as his passenger, a partnership that would last for three seasons. The new combination was instantly successful in the Swiss championship, taking out the title in 1979 and 1981 and finishing runners-up in between. The two titles were achieved against the strong competition of Robert Grogg and
Emil Bollhalder
Emil Bollhalder is a retired Swiss sidecarcross
Sidecarcross racing, also known as sidecar motocross, is a branch of motocross. While regular motocross riders use solo machines, sidecarcross involves a different type of motorcycle chassis op ...
, two of Europe's best riders at the time. In Europe the pair came tenth in 1979. The following season, in a competition now renamed World Championship, the pair finished runners-up to the first World Champions, Germans
and Siegfried Müller. The 1981 season was not as successful with the team only finishing seventh.
The 1982 season saw Bächtold use three different passengers again, eventually settling on Fritz Fuß. Success during that season was limited with a fourth place overall in Switzerland and a seventh in the World Championship. The 1983 season, now with Fritz Fuß as permanent passenger, saw improvement with a runners-up finish in the national and a sixth place in the World Championship.
From 1984 to 1987 the combination of Bächtold and Fuß dominated the World Championship and, almost equally, the Swiss championship. In 1984 they beat the 1981 World Champions Ton van Heugten and Frits Kiggen from the Netherlands by 58 points. The following three years August Muller and Henk van Heek, also from the Netherlands, came second each year. The closest the Dutch combination came to the Swiss World champions was in 1987 when they lost by 36 points.
In Switzerland, at the same time, the pair won the national title three times in four seasons. Only in 1985 did they miss out, finishing runners-up to Thomas Graf and Markus von Rotz by six points. It was the only time between 1982 and 1988 that the Swiss champions were not also the World Champions.
At the end of the 1987 season Hansi Bächtold retired from national and international sidecarcross racing, as did Fritz Fuß who had spent his entire career with Bächtold.Fritz Fuß Sidecarcross World championship results The John Davey Pages, accessed: 20 October 2013 The main reason behind Bächtold's retirement was financial. He had to give up his job as a car mechanic to be able to race while not receiving any financial reward for racing.
Racing record
Sidecarcross World Championship
The competition which was to become the Sidecarcross World Championship in 1980 originated as the FIM Cup in 1971 and was renamed to European championship in 1975. Hansi Bächtold's results in these competitions were: