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GMOTOCROSS World Championship 250(( MX Series: Round 3 e Qonny Schmit (1), Greg Albertyn (67), Werner Dewit (24) and Peter Dirb (98) charged through turn one. Albertyn won moto two and overall, extending his series points lead. Albertyn shines, Americans falter in Holland By Alex Hodgkinson VALKLENSWAARD, HOLIAND, APR 4 he American bid to retain the 250cc MX World Championship suffered a temporary hiccup when Greg Albertyn scored the overall win at the tortuous Eurocircuit at Valkenswaard, the same Dutch sand track where America' came so close to losing the MX des Nations in 1991. Yanks Bob Moore, Donny Schmit and Billy Liles managed to get on the scorechart, but each suffered crash-related DNFs, and their only top-six finishes all day were a third for Moore, the Californian member of the Bieffe Suzuki team, and a final-race fifth for the defending World Champion Schmit. Louisiana's Trampas Parker failed to score a single point on his Parioli KTM. Americans Tallon Vohland and Bader Manneh had both decided to sit out the the race to recover from injuries and sickness. Most of the Americans' major rivals for the title scored heavily, and Chesterfield Yamaha's Schmit, who dropped to third in the standings behind Belgian Stefan Everts, now trails pace-setter JHK Honda's Albertyn by 40 points, with Parker a further 34 back. T 10 Everts is 33 points in arrears of pointsleader Albertyn. Moore is now seventh in the championship, but Action Workshop/Johnsonbacked, Kawasaki-mounted Liles, a 500cc GP winner on his last two visits to the track, scored just two points, and his chances at the title are quickly slipping away. Albertyn, the 125cc World Champion, scored his second Grand Prix win in a month, while double-moto winner Everts was second overall on his Bieffe Suzuki, reviving his fortunes after a disappointing showing at round two in Spain. Local sand specialists Marnicq Bervoets, Edwin Evertsen and Werner De Wit completed the top five on the day ahead of the English Castrol Honda duo of. Kurt Nicoll and Rob Herring, with Moore and Schmit eighth and ninth, respectively. Schmit got his customary good starts in every race, but it was not a happy day for the champ. "We had some moisture in the carburetor," Schmit said. "We don't know if it was caused by washing the bike or the rain or just moisture in the air, but with that particular carbure- tor the slide was getting stuck because of the water. My throttle was sticking wide open and on the fifth lap (of moto one), and I went over the berm and into a tire. I hit my knee pretty hard right where I had the rod out, but I didn't twist it or anything, and it didn't worry me in the later races." The Chesterfield squad didn't figure out the problem until after the second heat, so Schmit's throttle was sticking again for the first few laps. By the time it cleared up, the the rider from Minnesota . was down to ninth place. "I was scared of crashing hard again," said Schmit. "I tried to ride hard again when it cleared but it was difficult to get it out of my mind, and you have to ride hard to get a good result in sand. I got better as the day went on. It's a day to forget, but at least I survived and got some points. There is still a long, hard season to come." Moore's day had started well: "My first race was a good one. 1 got a sixthplace start and moved forward to third, but Stefan (Everts) and Greg (Albertyn) were gone. The rest of the day was the same old story of racing in sand. I'm not a hero in sand and if you don't get a good start then you just have to fight for what you can get. I got through to eighth from a 10th-place start in the second race, but all of the other fast guys were ahead of me. Then I was nearly .last away in race three and crashed trying to move up." Without a top-eight finish from the first two CPs, Liles was looking to score his first major result of the year on one of his favorite tracks, and he topped qualification on Saturday. 1n the racing, though, everything went sour. "On the first lap of race one, (Dutchman Teus) Visser lost control, came across the track and slammed me into the tires. I'm sick. I was about eighth or ninth and I could have won it from there." Liles collided with Gert-Jan Van Doom on the first lap of race two and quit midrace to be treated for a nasty burn on his right calf muscle. "My leg was in Van Doom's rear wheel and he tried to ride away again." Up to fifth place halfway through race three, Liles crashed alone and remounted for 14th.