Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

points in Belgium and Ireland al so. I had many problem s; without the m . I could have been champion. Wkat exactly went wrong in South ARerica? It vas just the bad fuel. We changed so many things. I lost count of th e number of times we changed th e tcarb u retor. There was alcohol in the fuel a nd our bikes just wouldn' t run p roperl y on that. We must have lost 20$ of the power. The tra cks in South America wo ul d . have been so good for me normally with · double j u mp s and whoops. Normally I am Ith( best in the l 25s over double .j u mps b u t I just co uldn 't jump it wi th the loss of power. Yamaha too k their own fue l to th ose races this year; Cagiva had some problems with th e fu el a lso, but not bad like we did. T he tracks in South Am eri ca were OK, bu t the or ganiza tion was not so g ood. T he y did n ' t keep to th ei r timetables, it was really difficult to find a decent hotel. You couldn 't judge by th e rating; you just co uldn' t know if th ey wer e good or bad until yo u go t th ere. We didn 't even kn ow where th e ra ce wa s in Bra zil until one week beforehand. If I go to the 2505 in l 988 and have to go to South Am eri ca again, I can cons ider m yself lucky tha t I have a good team and we can take care of any problem s better tha n most. You are very good in the stadiums, indeed you are the official FIM Rodil Champion. Was it important to you to win that title? The Rodil was nothin g. I don't care about th a t. There's no money, and no one even seemed to know what was ha p pening in it. It was j ust a m atter o f most o f the races for th e Rodil being th e same races as the H ard Cross Championship. That was the rea l championship; it wa s li ke an uno fficial Wo rld Championship a nd it was good. Did you take a break at all in the last winter? I stopped for a few weeks before I went with Yamaha to America in January bu t that was all. I will have to stop for longer this winter. I need to take a t least four or five week s a way from riding. I go regularly to a sport center in Holland where th ey made cond ition tests on your wh ol e body. The do ctor has told me tha t it is normal for it to be no problem for me until now to carry on racing without a b reak but I a m getti ng to the a ge now wher e that cannot c ontin ue. We ex pect this season to be particularl y hard and he ha s mad e 'it clear th at I must tak e some sort of break this winter. You are one of the few European riders who is really spectacular. How do you balance that with going for the win in the stadiums? In the first year o f ra cing the stadiums I kn ew I wasn 't p hysica lly strong enough to maintain th e spe ed necessary to wi n, even in th e sh ort races because they are so physically dem anding. Conseque ntly I co ncentra ted o n making the show. If you are fin i shing si xth o r seve nth, nob ody not ices, but because I was spectacula r every body not iced me. At tha t stage of m y career it was th e best for me because it helped to establish m y rep uta tio n. T he following year I went back looking for resu lts , I wo u ld only do so meth ing spectacular over th e fini sh jump. . Were you worried when Strijbos wo n so many races at the start of th e season? Yes, for sure I would have liked to have wo n a few of those, but th e cham p io ns hi p is decided over a full season and that is what you must reme m ber. I th ink it was a real good fight this year. He had problems one time with the bike a nd I was sick for one GP so th at eq ualled each o the r ou t. I was the str ongest in th e en d, because Da ve crashed too much . I set out to make sure I fini shed all of th e races. If th in gs weren 't goi ng so well for me tha t I cou ldn' t wi n, then I was prep ared to settle for second or th ird, but Dave seems to pa nic whe n he is not way o u t in fro nt. T he re were days w he n he sho u ld have settl ed for second, b ut he was too anxious to wi n a nd crashed. Every time he did th at a nd lo st more a nd more points, th en I co uld afford to ri de for safety and built u p m y lead even withou t tak ing the ri sks of crash ing. J ea n-Mich el Bayle rode rea lly well at the en d of the year, but he had no p ressure and I did n 't need to bea t him . . . You were sick for the GP in America. What was the problem? I had diarrhea from Wednesday so I cou ld n 't ea t. I was n 't reall y wo rr ied until race day because I felt I was ge tting better ea ch d a y, but on Sunday it 's tart ed a ll o ver again. . Then I was worried , particularly aft er losing m y cha nce of the title in 1986 through being sick. I was really happy wi th m y sixth p lace in th e flQt .moto because I didn 't think I wa s going to be able to score a t a ll , but for sure if I had any chance of points the n it was going to be in th e first race. I was so tir ed because . I hadn 't been able to ea t for so many da ys. I soon realized that I had no chance o f points in th e seco nd moto. Were you nervous at the final round Twenty-year-old Van den Berk spent the entire 1987 125cc World Championship MX Series dicing with defending champ Davey Strijbos. in Austria? One mechanical breakdown could still have cost you the title. I felt it a little bit more with th e nerves, but I had a very good bike and mech anic and never retired with mechanical failure a ll season . . You had to go with the organizer to the beer tent after the race to calm down your supporters. Yes, I guess th eir celebration go t a little out of con trol. It was a ' big party, but normally th ey are rea lly good sup porters. T hey weren 't getting drunk during th e da y in Au stria , Van den Berk will move up to the 250cc class next year and stay with Team Yamaha. but in th e evening th ey wa nted to ce le b ra te . The p arty seemed to con tin ue for a week.. . As World Champion do you think that you can do anything for the sport? I think th e main wa y I can help to. popularize th e sport is by attending a lo t of promotions which will make mo re people aware of mo tocross. What are yo u r plans for 1988? I will be go ing to the 250 GPs. I had originally wan ted to change class this year , but Yamaha had a really good bike for th e 125s a nd they asked me to stay -for one more season as th ey had never previously had a 125cc Champion. I almost signed th e new contract wi th Yamaha during the week befor e the Nijmegan stadiu m race; there were j ust a few points-to sort o u t bu t they shou ld ·be no problem. I will once again be racing Yam aha for my first a tte m p t a t the 250cc class. Yamaha have a lready built the new bike. The fram e will once again be stock, .bu t th e engine has been modified and th e swingarm and rear suspension have been changed. It handles really well. What are your plans for the winter? I will be racing nearly every da y in December in the stadiums - Paris, . Bologna, Geneva, Antwerp - but I will be taking a co m p le te break during the second half of October . and November. . I don't think it is necessary to take a break- jobe, Geboers and m yself a ll ra ced throughout las t winter but this has been a very hard season so a short break probably won' t do too much harm. I think I ha ve deserved a holiday. ~ 27

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