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.MOTOCROSS'.' • ... . ~ .: , World Championship ~c Motocross series .' ' Round 10: Luxembourg GP c Swede Mercus Hansson (4)won the SOOcc MX GP In Luxembourg but didn't gain any ground on runner-up Jacky Martens in the series point standings. The two rivals traded 1-2 mota finishes. after that bad start," said Martens. "I tried to pull Hansson back straight away, but I made one big mistake, lost a couple of seconds and decided to wait for Hansson to tire like he did in Portugal. Smets was pushing hard at the end. 1 think we could have caught Hansson in another lap." Liles moved quickly from 12th to eighth, but his progress was halted there with all the current strong men ahead of him. The series now takes a three-week break before Hansson faces the bigg est tes t of all - in t he lions ' den of the Citadel at Namur in Martens' Belgian homeland! (N Luxembourg GP Folkendange, Luxembourg Results: July 17, 1994 (Round 10 of 12) Piling on the Coals By Alex Hodgkinson FOLKENDANGE, LUXEMBOURG,JULY 17 nd then there were two! Marcus Hansson took his slender four-point lead in the World Championship SOOcc MX series to the penultimate round, after sharing the top two placings at Folkendange in Luxembourg with defending champion Jacky Martens, and recorded the overall win on the da y by virtue of his second moto victory. Joel Smets saw his remai ning title hopes disappear with a broken wheel in the opening moto; the Vertemati rider ended th e day 41 points off the pace with just 80 more at stake. Am erican Billy Liles retained sixth in the standings despite scoring just eight points on a dramatic day in which the first race was run in appallingly dusty conditions. Normally, the Kuelebierg (quite literally "coal mountain" as it is laid out on 19th century coal waste) track needs to be heavily watered before each mo to and a support race run to brush aside the mud. After a brief morning shower and grey skies, the FIM Jury ordered organizers to wait for the forecast midday storm to dampen the track. But, the forecasters got it wrong - and the previous day's scorching sun returned one hour before the 2 p.IIL start. Liles was forthright in his views as he washed the grime from his face at the A finish: "That guy (Iury president Amost Zemen) was the president when I broke my leg in Italy in 1990. We had asked for that jump to be changed then, and all he replied was that the t rack was homologated. After I broke my leg and the world title, they changed it. I guess they are out there watering af ter we risked ou r lives out there:' And risk their lives is exactly what the riders did, with visibility ar ound three-quarters of the trac k so bad that not even the riders' vague outline could be seen at more than five yards. Shayne King had followed Liles for much of the race, but didn't know who it wa s: "All I could see was the Belgacom lettering on the rea r fende r . I couldn't see the number on the shirt!" MOTOl Mervyn Anstie holeshot the opener and held on for nearly 20 minutes before Martens finally moved past. "I kne w I could pass him on the long uphill, so I was content to wait," explained the victorious champ. Meanwhile, the Brit dropped quickly to fourth. "I started making mistakes after Jacky passed me. And 1 lost those other places before 1 set tl ed down again," Anstie said. One of the men to pass was Hansson, who said, "I couldn't see either, but 1 had to take risks if 1 want to be champion." Hansson had been running 5-6 with Smets on lap two, but dropped out of the first 10 after clipping the Vertemati's rear wheel. The Swede made a fabulous recovery to second within 20 minutes. Smets was not so lucky, explaining,"] was holding the inside line so there was no way he could come under me. 1 stayed on but 1suspect that is where the fir st spoke was broken. When one is gone , the rest soon follow on a track like this with so many hard landings." A lap later Smets was in the pits with a demolished wheel. The res t came in as they started, excep t for Ronny Weustenraed who tried a las t-lap pass on Gert Jan Van Doom, crashed and broke the handlebars in two. Liles finishe d 18th from an in it ial 29th. "I snapped the steering stem on the first lap of qualifying this morning and the rain shower came before 1could get back on the track to set a time, so I had the last choice of gate," Liles said. MOT02 Hansson grabbed the holeshot in race two and led all the wa y. "Bythe time Martens got to second, 1 was seven seconds clear and that was how it stayed until the last two laps . 1 didn't get tired and never felt in danger. 1 think they got closer because Smets was giving 110% he had to try to beat us if he was to keep any hopes alive - and he pushed Martens," said Hansson. Martens was frustrated ending the day still four points behind the Swede. "It took me too long to get to second MOTO 1: 1. Jacky Ma rtens (H us ); 2. Marc us Hansson (Ho n); 3. Peter Dirkx (Ho n); 4. Mervyn Anstie (Ho n); 5. lames Mars h (Hon); 6. Fran co Rossi (Hon) ; 7. Gerald Delep inc (Ha n); 8. Gert Jan Van Doom (Han); 9. Greg Hanson (Han); 10. Perry Leask (Hus); 11. Miroslav Kucirek (Ka w) ; 12. Dirk Geuk.e ns (H on) ; 13. AttiIio Pig no tti (Hon); 14 . Carlo Hu lsen (Ho n); 15. Da nny Theybers (Ho n). MOTO 2: 1. Han sson; 2. Marten s; 3. Joel Smets (Vee); 4. Van Doom: 5. Dirkx; 6. Theybers: 7. Anstie; 8. BiJly Liles (Han) ; 9. Delepin e; 10. Anders Svenss on (Ha n); 11. Ron ny Weus tenraed (Hon); 12. Hanson; 13. Kucirek; 14. Hulsen ; 15. Danny Smith (Kaw). O/A: 1. Marcus Hansson (Hon) ; 2. Jacky Ma rtens (H us); 3. Peter Dirkx (Hon ); 4. Mervyn Anstie (Ho n); 5. Gert Ian Van Doom (Ho n); 6. Gera ld Delepine (Hon ); 7. Joe l Smets (ver ): 8. Jam es Ma rsh (Ho n) ; 9. Dann y Theybers (Ho n); 10. Greg Hanso n (Ho n). WORLD CHAMPIONSHI P 500 « MX SERIES POINTS STANDINGS (.fter 10 of 12 rounds): 1. Marcus Hansson (276/3 wins); 2. jacky Martens (272/3); 3. Joel Smels (235/1 ); 4. Gert Ian Van Doom (153/1); 5. Ronny Weustenraed (lS I) ; 6. Billy Liles (121/ 1); 7. S); Danny Theybers (I D 8. Me rv yn Ans tie (104/I); 9. Peter Dirkx (100); 10. Darryll lGng (93); 11. Franco Rossi (85); 12. Mirosla v Kucirek (84); 13. Johan Boonen (61); 14. Carlo Hulsen (57); IS. Jerem y Whatle y (53); 16. Rudi Van Leeuwen (52); 17. Gerald Delepine (52); 18. Georges Jobe (51); 19. Siggi Bauer (46); 20. James Marsh (41). Upcoming Rounds: Round 11 - Namur, Belgium, August 7 Final - Holzgerlingen, Germany, August 21 World Championship 250cc Motocross Series Rounds 9/1 0: Swedish &Finnish GPs Scandinal'ian, Roulette UDDEVALLA, SWEDEN, JULY 10 HEINOLA, FINLAND, JULY 17 eg Albertyn will come to Budds reek as the World Championship MX Series points leader after finishing runner-up in both of the Scandinavian rounds of the series. But it was a turnabout week in Northern Europe as the South African Suzuki star first surrendered his standings lead to Stefan Everts in Sweden, only to leave Finland a week later 30 points ahead, after the Belgian Kawasaki rider crashed .s midweek and broke a collarbone. " Albertyn's luck had been out at s Uddevalla, on the Swedish west coast . Albertyn was taken down in the opening moto when he was unable to avoid Everts' teammate [oakirn Karlsson. Karlsson pitched his bike away - in Albertyn's path - while holding a nar;~ row lead early in the moto. That left the way open for an Everts win. And even a second moto defeat by". Albertyn could not prevent Everts leaving for Finland leading the series by one after his fifth overall GP win of the series. _ J A midweek test day for all riders at the Heinola track, which would host the G

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