Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127607
eSUPERCROSS World SupercrossSeries: F ound inal'R S title X By Alex Hod gkinson GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, DEC. 3-4 uy Cooper bade farewell to - motocross in style by winning the Wo rld Supercross Championship, clinching the title before a wheel was turned in the final round of the series at the Geneva Palexpo after South African Greg Albertyn, his only remaining rival fo r the crown, withdrew, suffering from the flu. The 31-year-o ld from Okla homa finished a typ ically dramatic fourth in the points-scoring race behi nd Larry Ward, Steve lamson and Ron Tic hen or with his G 64 han dleba rs ha ngin g down fro m a midrace cr ash, as he closed in on the leaders from a midfield start . Wa rd agai n to p ped Lamson in the fo ll owin g day' s non-championship action. The John Sa vitski-built 'track was, once again, the mos t demanding faced on the European tour this year, and racing was dominated by the Americans in the European-style program where riders have to transfer through both heats and semi-finals. World 125cc MX Champion Pedro Tragter, whose supercro ss performances improve weekly, was the only European to offer a serious challenge, as Stefan Everts, Mickael Pichon and Fredric BoIley joined Albertyn as non-starters . In fact, Tragte r disputed the win wi th Yann Guedard in the opening heat on th e fi rst da y after hol eshot ter Ro n r Lechien had launched into the stadium wall in a fru itless attempt to hold off them off. Lamso n and Coop er, the latter treating the crowd to his unrivall ed repertoi re of extravagant ju mpi ng, w on th e [ other heats from the gate. Lamson continued his winning way s in the semi with a last-lap inside pass on Ward, while Brian Swink led the second semi narrowly from the fourth comer to the flag ahead of Doug Dubach and Phil Lawrence. Cooper's typically dramatic evening had continued in this race, when he fell a t that four th tum while disputing the lead with Dubach and spent the rest of the race playing catch-up; another trip to the ground mid-race added an extra , dash of thrills for the near sell-out rl crowd. All of the American riders, .excep t for Ryan Hughes who had been shaken by " two big crashes in his semi, qualified .z without difficulties, and Donny Sch mi t showed 11 true grit and resilience to jJ join C li ff P almer in transferring from the Las t Ch ance Qua lifie r. The t wo-time Wo rl d Champi on, Schmit, has J . an inbred d islike of the ( indoor sport, b ut showed his professionalism in overcoming that -sv to lead home the o ther '1 GP racers . , From a d isad vanta- ; geous gate, Cooper was down in eigh th after the initial so rt-out, his getaway also hampered when he banged bars with Lechien coming out of the gate. Ward snatched an _ immedia te lead, shad- , owed by Lamson . Lechien muscled his way past Stephenson into third as he endeavored to show he still had the speed, even snea king momentarily past Lamson before the pace inevitably got to him, at half dis tance, afte r such a long lay-off; he dropped right off the leaderboard following a fall. Dubach had already gone down on the opening lap, and Swink joined him in trailing the pack a lap later. The Suzuki teamster - now a lap down - dropped in between lead e r Wa rd and chaser Lamson. Eventually, wi th a couple of laps remaining, Swin k finally got out of Lamson's way, b ut it was too la te for the Hond a ma n to mo un t a serious cha llenge to Ward. The, organizers a re to be rep rimand ed for not blue-flagging th e obstr uc tive Swink, w ho by his acti ons possibly cost