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.MOloC'ROSS:' 1995 Motocross des Nations USA representative Duke Finch, the AMA's Pro Motocross Manager, reached in and pulled out a lowly number 20. That meant the Americans would take the 20th and 40th gates to the outside each time out. After a long and strange opening ceremony - brass bands, helicopters and little girls with flowers and flags - the riders began lining up for the first 125/500cc moto. The British sent '94 Motocross des ations hero Paul Malin out to the number-six spot on a 125 but the Belgians opted to send the big fourstroke Husaberg of Smets out to the number-seven gate. As for the Americans, Hughes took the 20th gate while Lamson was sentenced to the outside gate. Smets garnered the holeshot on his yellow thumper, followed by German (Left) Belgians Stefan Everts, Joel Smets and Mamlcq Bervoets (left to right) hold the number-one plata surrendered to them by Great BrItain. For the second year In a row, the U.S. team flnlahecl a cloee second. (Below) Jet! Emlg rolls acrou the flnlah line at the end of the final moto, _rchlng for Joel Smets. Smats was there, end the U.S. lost by one point. By Davey Coombs SVEREPEc, SLOVAKIA, SEPT. 10 fter a dramatic day of racing, the Belgian team of Stefan Everts, Joel Smets and Marnicq Bervoets stepped up to the top of. the podium and accepted that motocross-crazy nation's first Motocross des Nations championship since 1980. The Belgians won after surviving a frantic last-moto rally by Team USA's Jeff Emig and Ryan Hughes that brought the Americans one pass away from a victory of their own. Unfortunately, the late surge ended in a pile of wreckage on a steep, rocky hill when ·Hughes ran into the back of an out-of-control Kurt Nicoll of the defending champion British team. The accident left the Americans one point behind the Belgians in the final team tally. The Americans had a score of 10 on the basis of Emig's 2-1 250cc-class victory, Hughes' 2-2 500cc ride and third member Steve Lamson's 3-3 tally in the 125cc class. The Belgians were led by Joel Smets' 1-1 in the SOOcc class and Everts' 2-2 finish in the 125cc group. Marnicq Bervoets ran 3-8 in the 250cc class for Belgian. (Only the five best moto finishes for each team count towards the final tally.) "We ended up second but we were really close," said Emig of the day's result. "I could have done better but I know I tried my hardest, and I'm sure the rest of the guys on the team did as well." "I wish we had won but I know that we all rode as hard as we could," said Lamson of his team and the defeat. "I know I gave it all I had. I wish that I wouldn't have gotten two thirds. It wasn't too good of a score but it was the best I could do." "Yeah, I'm a little bit disappointed," said Hughes, who put in a worthy SOOcc effort. "To come so close to winning a thing that you've always dreamed of like the· Motocross des Nations is tough to handle. But like barely losing the National Championship Last week, it just makes me want it more and more. It just didn't happen this time." "This is a very nice moment for me, winning the Motocross des Nations for Belgium a week after 'winning the A World Championship," said Everts, a 22-year-old, two-time World Champion. "We have been close many tim!!S and lost by just a point. Finally, today we brought in the best team with two World ChampiOns and one vice champion. It went our w~y for once." Belgium's change of luck came after more than a decade of trying to reclaim the trophy that the Americans took from them in 1981. Ironically, the last time they won a team championship, Harry Everts - Stefan's father - was a member of the Trophee des Nations squad. Set in a thicket of huge pine trees, the Sverepec circuit was a throwback to the old days of Europeans motocross. Long, steep hills with deep ruts and rock faces lined the valley course, which included countless swi tchback and off-cambered comers. Even with a few American-style tabletops thrown into the mix, the wide, fast track was mostly lacking in the technical department. The entire track was • lined with thin plastic tape and commercial billboards - a definite change from the anti-capitalist days of the old Czechoslovakia. Several permanent structures that were once the home of the Czech ational Motocross School were converted into business offices and sponsorship headquarters for the event. There was aJso a massive six-story metal and glass structure that looked more like an air traffic control tower than the announcer / scoring stand it is used for during races. A massive crowd of about 30,000 people - paying about $2.80 (U.s.) for admission - attended the race. Lap times among the leaders measured right around the 2:20 mark throughout the day. The single best lap of the day was 2:19.016 by 500cc-c1ass winner Smets. "There's a lot more sweepers here than we have in America," said Ernig of the Severepec circuit. "Back home there's a lot of sharp turns and the tracks are only getting worse - a little tighter here, a little tighter there, more jumps and stuff. This track just flows, and it was a lot less rocky than I thought it was going to be. There were some big old jagged rocks out there and I was worried about flat tires and stuff, but it never happened. It was also fast, but it wasn't anything like last year in Switzerland." KA AVA BYSTRICA The Motocross des Nations is a team competition where countries from all over the world are invited to send three riders - one for each displacement class to compete for the title of "World's Fastest alion." The competition involves three 3o-minutes-pJus-two-Iaps motos. The first moto is a combined 125/500cc race, the second is for 125s and 250s, and the grand finale is a 250/500cc match-up. The five best finishes of each nation count towards the final tally. Saturday afternoon featured a qualifying program to cut the 31-team field down to just 20 for Sunday's Motocross des Nations. All entries except the host nation and the top three finishers from the 1994 event - Great Britain, the USA and France - had to qualify on Saturday. Each class got one 20-minute-Iong moto and, in a preview of things to come, Belgium won all three motos comfortably. Later that evening representatives from each nation were invited to draw lots to determine where their riders would start in all three motos. Team Dietmar Lacher, Hughes, ew Zealander Darryl King and Swede Peter Johansson. Austrian rider Siegfried Bauer was also in the early chase but he caught a roosted boulder in the face and suffered a broken nose. Malin was the top 125 - 13th place after one lap. Next came Swede 125 entry Joakim Karlsson, who headed up the fast pack of Everts, Tortelli, Italian Alessio Chiodi, Remy van Rees of Holland, and Lamson. "I obviously didn't get too good of a start in the first moto," said Lamson, who, as the 40th pick out of 40 gates, was assigned the far outside spot. "1 was dead last and it's kind of hard to go forward when you pass a 500 down at the bottom of the hills and then they pass you right back going up. Next hill it's the same thing. You have to wait until you could get to the back section where you could pass because it was more suited to 125s." It took Tortelli just three laps to move £rom fourth 125 and 17th in the overall