Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ M orDeROSS Motocross des Nations m ~ e-r .... Q.) .D.. o ..... u o J eff Stanton's last -minute charge in th e final moto helped give th e U.S. team its 11th MX des Na tions victory in a row . Californian Mike Kiedro wski posted 4·2 moto finishes in the l25cc class. America wins 11th straight in Dutch cliffhanger By Alex Hodgkinson V ENSWAARD, HOLLAND, SEPT. 15 ALK h is was the year th e Europeans thought that America 's 10consecutive victory run in the Motocross des Nations wou ld come to an end in the deep sand of H olland's Eurocir- T 8 cuit, But in th e end, American s Damon Bradsh a w , Mike Kiedrowski, and especially Jeff Stanton came through to give the U.S. its 11th straight win in th e World Champi onsh ip team event before an estimated 30 ,000 spectators. Stanton effectively saved the U.S. team fro m th e jaws of defeat wi th a typically rugged ride in the final moto, The 23-year-old was forced to call on every ounce of his huge reserves of strength and determina tio n to seize the decisive victory in hi s class fro m a race "in whi ch he had hit th e deck no less than four tim es. Sta nton had also won his opening rid e in the 500cc class aboard his Dan Betley-tu ned mod ified Honda CR500, but he swas th e only class winner on the American team . In ty pica l S ta nto n fas hio n , h e dow nplayed hi s ro le in the victor y. " We used everybody's scores. I just did what I had to do (in the fina l moto). I didn' t thi nk we wo uld wi n - I didn ' t know whe re th e Belgians were. I was just riding." Kiedrowski, a member of the 1989 American tea m that co mp eted in Germany, had chase d 125cc Wor ld Ch ampion Stefan Evert s, a double winner for Belgium , over the line in th eir second race, but Kiedrowski and his Sha ne Nalley-prepared facto ry Kawasaki KXI 25 had been restricted to a fou rt h- p lace finish after a poor start in the opening rnoto. Bradshaw, wh o contribu ted to last year's Ameri can effort in Sweden , lost the fir st 250cc class enco u nter to Belgium 's Marnicq Bervoe ts in the last two laps of the second moto, but cou ld do no better th an fifth in the 250cc class on the modified Yamah a YZ250 prepared by Bria n Lunniss after a bad start from the second row in th e final mot o. The Motocross des Nati ons form at consis ts of three 30-m in u te plus twolap motos whi ch combine two classes ' on th e track at the sam e time. The first moto consisted of the 500 and 125cc classes, moto two put th e 250 and 125cc classes on the track together and the fin al race featured th e 500 and 250cc classes. Due lo the large number o f riders from 24 nations in th e races, a two-row start is used, wi th most teams putting the large -displacement riders on the front row. A team 's best five of six class finis hes were count ed towards the titl e, with po in ts awarded equaling the rider' s finis h ing positio n. The team wit h the lowest overall score was declared th e cha mpion, and when all scores were tallied America had 10points. Belgiu m and ho st coun try Holland tied for second with 13 points apiece, but three class wins broke the deadl ock and gave Belgium the runner-up honors. U.S. team manager and five-time 500cc Wor ld Ch ampion Roger DeCoster, a 16-tim e member of winning Belgian Mo tocross and T rophee des Nations team s, had no illusions abou t America's 11 th consecu tive victory. . " I think America has lo thank Jeff Stanton ," said DeCoster. " He saved them for the second year in a row . He was the reliable man and he made the di fference." It wasn 't the first close call for the American team . At last year 's event in Sweden th e U.S. scored the win by one point over Belgium after Sta nton mad e a decisiv e pas s which knocked Belgian Dirk Ge ukens down in the fina l moto. T he Ameri can tea m's initial Nations victory in 1981 was a last-lap affai r as well, and in '84 Belgium appeared set to win but mechanical trouble knocked one of their riders o ut of two motos. T he Americans had their backs lo the wa ll all day in Holland , especiall y after race two whe n Everts and Bervoets gave Belgium th ree aces for their 125 and 250cc class wins. However, the Belgians defeated themselves in the final mo to when Bervoets and Geukens collided on the openi ng lap of the deciding moto. J u st one day of rain in two months prior to the event mean t that the sandy Etirocircu it track , loca ted just a few miles from the Belgian border, didn 't cut up as bad ly as usual. It was choppy but very fast thoughout Sat urday's practice sessions, bu t after heav y overnight watering an d occasiona l drizzle from overcast skies, the pace slowed considerably during the races. " It was eve n tougher than we though t it would be," said Sta nton. " It was narrow and one-line, ma king it hard to pa ss." The Eu rop ea ns had expected th e track to be the dow nfa ll of the Americans, bu t in the end it was to be the opposite. Geuk ens, first and second in th e last two 500cc GPs at the circuit, though the weathe r wasn't the on ly reason for th e uncharacteristic of the track. "T here are eq ua l num bers of 125s, 250s and 500s out there and that has made a bi g difference," Geuk ens said. " We have built up sweeping turns wh ere the sma ller bik es can keep th e po wer on rath er tha n the accelera tion a nd brak ing bumps whi ch ap pear when th ere are only 500s out the re." The American team drew ga te 14, between New Zealand and Germany, wit h Bri tain , Sweden , Belgium , Hoiland and Finland all to the o u tside. All of the lead ing conte nders put th eir big-bore men on the front lin e for th e fir st 500/l25cc m oto , a n d it was Sweden's Marcus Hansson , a 250cc G P regu lar drafted into the 500cc class after hi s success in the Swed ish National Championship, wh o grabbed th e holesh ot. Hansson was abl e to esta blish an immediate advan tage as the big names look ed for a way past Cermany's Roland Diepold. H oll and 's G ert-jan Van Doorn and England's Paul Mali n were the first to get pa st Diepold, but Stanton , who had swept past arch rival Geukens a t the start of the second lap, always had the sit uation under cont ro l. Van Doo rn surrendered second lo Mal in withou t a fight wh en he over shot a berm, and after six of wh a t would be a 14-lap rnoto Han sson, Malin and Stanton circulated the track

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