Artis Rasmanis (born 1971) is a retired
Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
n
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 ...
passenger and five times
World Champion.
Rasmanis was part of the most successful partnership in sidecarcross world championship history, winning five titles with his driver
Kristers Serģis. He retired from international sidecar competition after their fifth title in 2002. He is however still active in the motor sport, racing quad bikes now, finishing 12th in the FIM European championship in 2007.
He now works as a manager at SIA "Rasmanis & Dankers". He originally graduated as an agricultural machinery mechanic from ''Priekuļi agricultural technical school'' in
Cēsis district in 1990.
In 2014, Rasmanis
was elected as a deputy of the
Saeima
The Saeima () is the parliament of the Latvia, Republic of Latvia. It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation, with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the p ...
from the
Union of Greens and Farmers.
Sidecarcross world championship results
Artis Rasmanis entered the sidecarcross world championship in 1992, with
Kristers Serģis as his driver. After two seasons with limited success and starts, Serģis switched to Normunds Bērziņš as his partner for 1994 and 1995 but continued to have only a small impact on the race circuit. In late 1995 Artis Rasmanis returned as his partner and in 1996, in the fourth race of the season they achieved their first race win, on 21 April in Betekom,
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
. The season after, their fortunes improved greatly and the duo won their first of five world championships this year. In 1998, they repeated their success and in 1999 they missed out by only one point to
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 ...
/
Marcel Willemsen on their third triumph. Also, in 1998, they won the
German sidecarcross championship.
Statistik/Hall Of Fame
/ref> However, Serģis / Rasmanis continued their successful partnership with three more titles in 2000, 2001 and 2002. With their fifth title they became record holders in world cup wins in this sport. Previously, two drivers had archived four crowns, but none five. After this fifth title, Rasmanis retired from international competition but Serģis continued to race.
Season by season
Source:
* Passengers in italics.
Honours
World Championship
* Champions: (5) 1997, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002
* Runners-up: (1) 1999
Germany
* Champions: (1) 1998
References
External links
Rasmanis & Dankers website
The World Championship on Sidecarcross.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasmanis, Artis
1971 births
Living people
Latvian sidecarcross riders
People from Cēsis
Deputies of the Saeima