Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IMOTOC~~~~_12_~_M_X_~_'~_:R_OO_~_6~~~~~~~~~ e Stefan Everts won his third straight l25cc GP in his native Belgium. Everts scores again in Belgian GP By Alex Hodgkinson GENK, BELGIUM, JUNE 9 avin g g otten the ta ste fo r winning, Stefan Everts just keeps doing it as he won his third GP in a row. Just two weeks after his firstever GP win in Hungary. the 18-yearold Bieffe Suzuki sta r comp leted the hat trick of GP wins in hi s native Belgium. Everts now leads the point standings by 44 points a t the halfway point of th e World Championship 125cc MX Seri es a s h is leading ch a lle n ge rs continued to lose points. American Bob Moore DNF the first moto after disloca ting his sho ulder, but bravely fou ght back to finish second beh ind Everts in moto two. Moore lies second in the standi ngs ahead of compa triot Donny Sch mit . wh o broke h is th umb and collarbone whe n he crashed at the H ungar ian G P. Pedro Tragter, who is fourth in the standings and bea t Everts in th e first rnoto, suffered terribl e luck in moto two when his th rottle grip came off as he held a narrow advantage over Everts. Tragter scorched to the front when the gat e dropped for the first moto and the Dutchman was never to be dislodged for the ent ire 40-minute plus two-lap race. Moore crashed in the first turn, but remounted to chase th e pack . H owever. he never completed th e first . lap. "Another rid er jumped across me at the back of the track." said Moore. "I tried to steer away from him. but didn't quite make it. My righ t sho u lder came ou t, but I p ut it back in mys elf immediately. I have to try to start mota two if I am to maintain m y challenge for the title." Ch arrel Sweebe cha sedTragter from H 26 second on the first lap. but he punctured a rear tire on lap two. He slipped down to eighth place after 35 minutes, but then the bike started to snake badly and he decided to withdraw as he dropped down the field. With Tragter out front a t half distance. Everts started to make h is charge. Bu t as Everts start ed to eat away at T ragter's six-second advantage, he slipped off in a corner and lost his cha nces of catching the Dut chman. For a while. Everts cam e under pressure from third-place Greg Albertyn for a short time. " When Stefan fell . I was nearl y on him, " said Albertvn. "But I wasn 't getting any clo ser and after three or fou r laps I decided to let him go and settle for third." At th e finish . T ragter crossed th e lin e 20 seco nds a head of Everts w ith Albertyn another seven seconds behind in third. "I am hap py with that win, " said Tragter. " When I hit the front, I tried to build a defend ab le lead. I was still in con trol when Stefan fell, and from the n on it w-as a comfortable race." Everts was a bi t di sappointed to lose in front of his home crowd. " I was abl e to mo ve q uic kly to second place." said Evert s. " I was' just about to make my charge 'wh en I fell and there was no way to catch Pedro aga in. I just had to concentrate on ex te n d i n g my ad vantage in the championsh ip." Remy Van Rees had gotten off to . a poor start but battl ed strongly past a surprisingly quick French trio of Yves Demaria. Fredric Via ll e and Fr ederi c Bol le y to fin ish fo urth .' Demaria held on to fifth at the finish American Bob Moore dropped out of mota one when he dislocated his sh oulder, but despite the pain he rode mota two and finished second behind Everts. . over Vialle, while Piet Beirer charged hard from a 17th-place start to pass Bolley for seventh before the finish. Kees Advokaat finished ninth behind Bolley and Marcel Van Drunen com pleted the top 10. American Willie Surratt proved to be more adept in the Belgian sand than he had at a previous GP in Holland. Surratt got off to a poor start yet worked his way up to finish 12th behind Bernard Magain despite hitting the deck at half distance when he ran into another rider. "I'll be glad to end the day in the top eight of the point standings." said Surratt. which would ensure him of automatic qualification for each GP in the second half of the season. "This is the last G P in the sand." As rain bega n to fall at the beginning of the second rnoto, it was again Tragter who took command at the front with Andrea Bartolini, Demaria. Everts and Moore right beh ind him. Within a lap and a half Everts was second. and for 10 minutes he chased Tragter hard. The 17 points for finishing second would've extended Everts' lead . but he desperately wanted to win for his home crowd. But in the end. he didn't have to battle Tragter to score the win sin ce Tragter ran into trouble. " I think I could've kept in front again. but the throttle grip came off a t the ba ck o f the tra ck after 15 mi nutes," said Tragter. " I lost a complete lap p utting it back on." From then o n Everts was safe in first. " I opened; a lead of more than 10 secon ds and the n I was conte nt to leave it at that." Everts said. . His nea rest cha lleng er at first was Demaria. but Moore gr itte d hi s teeth to take second from the Frenchman. " I was in pa in. but I need every po int after that DNF." said Moore. " I was able to pa ss Demaria and move away until I was safe." Mo ore finished the mo to n i n e . seconds behind Everts, while Dema ria remained a safe third to the end. Barto lini had to gi ve up fourth to Van Drunen after half an ho ur and Van Drunen held the positio n to the fin ish. Bartolini kep t Van Rees a safe distance beh ind to finish fifth . while Va n Rees dropped out' wi th two laps to go . Albertyn had fallen on lap three when in a position to control the battle for eighth and au tomatic qualificati on in the standings, and a hard-charging Beirer pushed him back even further. Entering the final two la ps, Albertyn was back to ninth place. which would have given him his third consecutive third-place overall as well as the automatic qualification. But a nasty crash which left hi m ' with cuts and bru ises dro pped him out of the points to 17th at the finish and Bartolin i surpassed him in the points. "I can't believe my luck." said Bartolini. "I rode well , bu t I thought I had no chance anymore to be eighth in the championship. Then Van Rees and Albertyn both went out." Surratt rode strong for the first half of the race and then held on in the unloved sand to finish seventh behind Jerome Belval and ensure his seventh ar place in the standings. Resul ts TIMED P IlA CI1CE: I. Pedro Tragter (2 minu tee , t2.45 seconds); 2. Rcmy Van Rees (2;15.00); 3. Yves Demaria (2:13.23); 4. Stefan Everts (2:15.51); 5. Greg Albertyn (2:14.01); 6. Bob Moore (2:14.69); 7. Pasca l Bal (2:14.70); 8. Marcel Van Drunen (2:15.07); 9. Bernard Magain (2:15.27); 10. Martin Dygo (2:15.511; II. Craig Pratley (2:15.56).; .12. jorgen HuY< I (2:15.78); 13. Andrea Bartolini (2:15.89); 14. Kees Advokaat (2:16.07); 15. Joakim Karlsson (2:16.13); 16. Fredrik Werner (2:16.17); 17. Fredric Vialle (2:16.25); 18. Thierry KIua (2:16.50); 19. Jerom e Belva! (2:16.66); 20. Eddy See! (2:16.72); 21. Morte Moeslund-Nidson (2:16.73 ); 22. Frederic Bolley (2: 16.75); 23. warren Edwards (2:17.02); 24. PitBeirer (2: 17.26); 25. Diederik Log t (2:17.69); 26. Parcus Becker (2: 17.73); 27. Matti as Nilsson (2:17.80); 28. Marco Seiler (2:17.94); 29. Chand Sweebe (2:18.02); 30. Gerard Delepine (2:18. 16); 31. Kim Ala Olsen (2: 18. 18); 32. Fabian Guene (2:18.19); 33. Sami Paakkinen (2:18.38); 34. Jerome Dupont (2:18.46); 35. Neil Prince (2:18.50); 36. Fran co Rossi (2:18.51); 3 7. Willie Surratt (2: 18.5 4); 38. Matt Gordon (2: 18.60); 39. Philippe Dupasqui er (2:19.19); 40. Cla us Nielsen (2:19.24). MOTO I: I. Pedro T ragter (SOl); 2. Stefan EV

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