Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.MOTOCROSS .. World 'Championship 250l:c Motocross Series Round 8: British GP Belgian Stefan Everts (left) ended Mamicq Bervoets' (below) fiveGrand Prix win streak with his win at Foxhills, though Bervoets still leads the point stsndings. By Alex Hodgkinson III SWINOON, ENGLAND, JUNE 23 needed to win here, ,md r made it," were the words of a relieved Stefan Everts as he finally ended fellow Belgian Marnkq Bervoets' fiveGrand Prix win streak in the World Championship 250cc MX series with an impeccable double win. at Foxhills Moto Park in southwest England. But the series leader, who turned 27 two days earlier, could also be happy after finishing second on the day. "1 was so nervous before racing," said Bervoets. 'T ve never finished in the top four of a single moto here before. I've had to work hard to build up my points lead and I was afraid of squandering it here. Now I am through this day, I can go with confidence to the final five rounds." Indeed Bervoets maintained his 55point lead in the standings after tying with Tallon VoW and on the day. The lone American was the third man on the podium, and remains second in the series standings just four points ahead of the rejuvenated Everts. The British riders fought hard for the crowd of 28,600, but had little luck. The unluckiest of all was Kurt Nicoll, who crashed on the sixth lap of race one and is out for the rest of the season with a broken femur. Nicoll had taken the holeshot at the start of moto one, but even on home soil he had no answer to the championship front-runners. By the end of the first lap the KTM-mounted veteran was down to fifth, and it would have been sixth if the fuel line of Frederic Bolley's Kawasaki hadn't come off, as Bolley led two-thirds of the way around the lap. Given the opportunity, Everts immediately sprinted away with the lead. Rob Herring latched on to Everts, making it a two-rider Honda breakaway until a crash dropped Herring to las! place. "I was holding onto Stefan without any problems until I fell," said Herring. Dewit would eventually be passed by Sweden's Karlsson, dropping to sixth, but not until the championshipchasing Bervoets had established himself in a safe fourth place. In the second moto, Everts went to the front from the start but actually had a harder race than in the opening moto, as the Belgian crashed on a downhill on the second lap and was temporarily pushed back to fourth behind Vohland, Bartolini and Dewit. Rival Bervoets picked up right in Everts' wheel tracks. Undaunted by the incident, the confident Everts showed no signs of panic as he set about recovering the lost places. Everts quickly passed Dewit, not long before the Suzuki rider crashed just prior to the halfway mark. Remounting in fifth, once again between Bervoets and Karlsson, Dewit stalled his bike a few laps later and would finish a lowly 13th. At the front of the pack Vohland gave it his all to maintain his lead, but Foxhills is Everts' track and he wore the American down. They passed and repassed .each othera couple of times on Everts' first serious assault, but the Belgian's second charge for the lead on an uphill saw the American forced wide toward tile fencing and he stalled. Bartolini was there to capitalized on the mistake and took over second, a position he would hold to the end. His rhythm gone, Vohland soon lost "The front wheel slid away on the same downhill where Kurt (Nicoll) crashed two lap!; later. I was going so fast that the bike carried on halfway up the next . hill without me, but I couldn't get back to it until the entire field had gone past." With Herring washed up, Yves Demaria inherited second and that was where he stayed despite every effort to catch moto winner Everts. Vohland was third most of the way but couldn't better the pace of the leaders to make any ground on them. "I could hang in there with them for the first five or six laps, but then I got real bad arm-pump and had to let them go," said Vohland. The Suzukis, so dominant in the previous rounds, were relegated to the role of chasers in England. Werner Dewit was fourth at the halfway mark, but as team leader Bervoets, riding to avoid mistakes, started to fall back into the clutches of the advancing Tocke Karlsson, Dewit diplomatically dropped back behind him. (Left) American Tallon Vohland finished with 3-4 moto scores to finish third overall. third to Bervoets, who was happy to have scored his two best-ever results at the track. Karlsson's. challenge to the Suzukis was halted when he. bobbled on an uphill, but a fifth-place was enough to lift him to fouith in the overall standings. The fastest man on the track apart from Everts was Bolley. Running 28th on lap .one, the Kawasaki number two narrowly failed to catch Karlsson at the end and finished sixth. Fellow Frenchman Demaria was an early casualty this time. ;'Dewit got thrown sideways on an uphill jump on

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