Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ MOTOCROSS World Championship 250cc MX Series: Round 9 e Belgian Stefan Everts scored his first 250cc GP win of the season in Ireland. Everts shows the way in Ireland By A lex H od gkinson . VERNON MOUNT, IRELAND, JUNE 26 elgian Stefan Everts finally scored his first 'overall GP win of the season with a 57 point tally at the Irish GP in front of an estimated 15,000 spectators, but his title hopes only improved slightly, as South African Greg Albertyn shared the top two places with Everts all da y and s till leads by a massive 93 points with five GPs remaining. American Donny Schmit's reign looks to be at an end . The defending champ had cras hed during midweek pra ctice two weeks earlier and tore muscles between his ribs. Schmit aggravated the injury on the first lap of practice on Sunday morning and only completed his compulsory five laps wi th difficulty. He only decided to start after a hospital examination exclud ed the possibility of broken rib s which could have caused even more serio us injury, but, although still third in the championship, he now trails Albertyn by 149 points. Th e fir st race was a s tr o ll for Albertyn, as he passed holeshot artist Finland's Miska Aaltonen the first time through the woods and built up hi s defendable eight-second lead within just : three laps, as Great Britain's Kurt Nicoll and Everts crawled over Belgian Werner DeWit for second. Nicoll was having a hard time pulling away from Everts u n til the Belgian slipped off at the last comer of lap three, rejoining the race seventh with his front brake lever hanging at an awkward angie. . The pressu re from b eh in d gone, Nicoll was immediately able to work a pass on DeWit and Sw ed e n ' s Peter Johansson quickly followed. B 24 Meanwhile Everts was recovering rapidly and his ride back up the leaderboard relieved the follow-th e-leader boredom. He passed Italian Mich el e Fanton, Holland's Edwin Evertsen and DeWit on success ive laps , then needed slightly longer to catch back up to Johansson and Nicoll. Albertyn crossed the line three seconds before the 25-minute mark to give his championship chaser an extra lap and he used it well . On the penultimate la p Everts s to rm ed past Johansson on a long downhill and set off after Nicoll. "Stefan never put any pressure on me at first and I didn't think my second place was in danger, but a backmarker got in my wa y on the big clim b," said Nicoll . "I d idn't know at the tim e that the next downhill was Stefan 's passing place!" It was indeed Everts' passing place and h moved past Nicoll to take second. . Evertsen, already han d icap ped by a broken finger, had picked up a front puncture while still in fro nt of Everts and fell back to an eventual 15th, so fifth went to American Tallon Vohland who swooped past both Fanton and DeWit, as the Italia n spe nt half the race trying to de mote the Belgian sand expert. New Zealand 's Collin Dugmore rode a good race to eigh th, eventually getting the be tter of a see-saw strugg le with Frenchman Frederic Bolley at 20 minutes. Italia n Alessandro Puzar had also been battling with them early on u n til the Frenchman T-boned him out of the race. Belgian Peter Iven, who al w a ys seems to go so well in the British Isles, had al so been moving forward well until a fall dropped him back to join the walking wounded who filled the lower po ints placings. / Am er ican Billy Liles a nd Brit Rob Herring we re both gritting their teeth against th e -pain of their inju ries su stained the round earlier in England to finish 10th and 12th, respecti vely, b racketing Iven. Schmit' s brave attempt to rid e brought him 13th. Thirty-fifth in timed traini ng, he had no decent choice on the starting gate and was well down off the start. He carefully moved to the back of the lower lead e rboa rd pack , but th e combination of pain and the inevitable difficulty in passing on a flat-out track sa w him take a lonely ride after the first few laps. A faulty drop of the ga te forc ed a restart in the second moto. On the second try, Nicoll sto rmed to the front, but within a cou p le of minutes he was s to r m ing bac k to the paddock after pulling in to the pi t box while leading at the end of the first lap . "I felt the front tire go flat a couple of corners before, but I kept go ing hoping it would go a way, " said Nicoll. "I might've been mistaken . I wasn't." His de partu re still left an Englishman in fro n t, but the lead was to change hands ag ain exactly one lap later, as Pau l Malin fell but quickly remounted in sixth place. Everts now led, but Albertyn wa s qu ickly past Fanton and giving cha se . Six second s down when he moved into second, the championship points leader mo ved relentlessly closer to his only remain in g rival for the title and with four laps to go they were together. For two laps the title candidates tore a round together but there was ne ver going to be much chance of passing and' Alb er tyn settled for a safe second behind Everts. Johansson again rode superbly to pass Fanton for third at half distance, whil e Malin moved back to fourth . Liles completed the first six despite a na sty moment after 20 minutes. "I hit neutral in the whoops," said Liles. "You can imagine the res t." He spent the rest of the race holding off fellow coun tryman Voh la nd who had battled from midfield to seventh. Dugmore crashed over the bars out of seven th, and Herring a lso dropped out of a points-scoring position. "I had to slow down when a rock hit me on the s ho ulder, then I pulled in because I th ou ght I had a rear flat. It wa sn't but the rear wheel had step ped out so badly a couple of times that I could not risk .going out again. I was out of the points anyway." Schmit, who had holesh ot the false sta rt, rod e a bra ve race to 11tho After another false sta rt wh en some of the riders hit the gate, the third race finally got awa y with Everts again getting the jump on Albertyn and the race was effectively decided as the two even ly match ed rivals raced cl ea r of the pack. But the South African could never pass his rival cleanly without risks even though he had quickly reeled in the Belgian in after scooting past initial second place Nicoll. Albertyn again settled for second behind Everts with two laps to go. N icoll was a lo ne ly third as Johansson stormed pas t DeWi t a nd Fan ton for fou rth in the ea rly laps . "I started to get tired later in the race and I dropp ed to seven th as I made mistakes ," said Johansson. It was still good enough for third ove rall. Aaitonen crashed ou t of n in th as Schmit pu t in a remarkab le charge which took him past the equally aching Herring and Du g m o r e, as well as DeWit. cv Resul ts MOTO 1: 1. Greg Albertyn (Ho n); 2. Stefan Everts (Suz); 3. Kurt Nicoll (Ho n); 4. Pete r jobensson (Yam); 5. Tallon Vo hland (Suz); 6. Mich ele Fan ton (Ka w) ; 7. We rner DeWi t (Suz); 8. Colli n Dug more (S uz); 9. Frederic Belley (Yam); 10. Billy Liles (K.Jw); 11. Peter Ive n (Ka w); 12. Rob Herring (Hon); 13. Donny Schmit (Yam); 14. Miska Aaltonen (Hen): 15. Edwin Evertsen (Kaw); 16. Ma ts Ni)S50n (Kaw); 17. Ma rk Eas twood (Hoo); 18. Craig Pratley (Hon); 19. Pau l Malin (Yam); 20. David Campbell (Suz) . MOTO 2: 1. Everts; 2. Albertyn; 3. Johansson; 4. Ma lin; 5. Fanton ; 6. Liles; 7. Vohland; 8. Evertsen. 9. lven : 10. DeWit; 11. Schmit; 12. Belley; 13. Paul Cooper (Yam); 14. Aaltonen; 15 . Nilsson; 16. Ryan Hunt (Yam). MOTO 3: 1. Eve rt s ; 2. A lbertyn; 3. Nicoll; 4. Evertseru S. l.j)l"l!O 6. Fanton; 7. Iohensscm 8. Schmi t; 9. ; DeWit; 10. Dugmore; 11. Ma li n ; 12. Vo hland ; 13. Herring, 14. Cooper; 15. Nilsson. O/A: 1. Stefan Everts (Suz) ; 2. Greg Albortyn

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