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MOTOCROSS . World Championship 125cc Motocross Series· Round 9: Belgian GP (Left) Frenchmen Sebastien Tortelll is _II on his way to becoming the youngest MX World Champion. At the Belgian 125ce GP. he registered his eighth consecutive victory. (Above) Englishman Paul Malin gave· Tortelll a run for his money In the first moto. A Isterace mIssed shift gave Tortelll the win. Malin ended up second overall. him pack a chance: '1 caught neutral on a climb and lost drive," he said. The hairiest moment was to come three laps from the end as they approached the final turn. After touching in midair, Malin led inlo the tilrn but slid wide. Tortelli had his wheel in front along the straight, but Malin left his braking later and was back in front down the steps. They had completed that lap in NlSMES, BELGIUM, JULY 7 ot even Paul Malin on top form and wild card Stefan Everts could prevent Sebastien Tortelli moving relentlessly closer to becoming the youngest motocross World Champion of all time, as the 17year-old French Kawasaki rider extend• ed his record win streak to eight in the ninth round of the World 125cc series at ismes in southern Belgium. If Tortelli wins both motos again in Slovenia this weekend, then nothing short of two seconds for Malin can even delay the crowning ceremony to Czecho at the end of the month. A five-figure crowd at the track, which will host the 1997 MX des Nations, saw Malin give it everything he had. Even Tortelli had to admit after the opening moto: "That was my hardest race of the year. I had to give it everything to catch Paul, and I was only abl pass when he made a mistake on the last lap." "How could I make such an elementary mistake after leading'for 46 minutes?" asked Malin. "I hit neutral and got hooked up in a rut." The Brit had the holeshot, even heading TM-mounted Luigi Seguy into the first turn, but TorteIli needed only a few hundred yards to pass Erik Carnerlengo and the TM rider. His first charge for the lead came on lap three, but Malin resisted as never before. Time and again the Frenchman charged, and time and again the Brit held him off: "He got alongside a couple of times, but never in front," said Malin. 1n the end, a Tortelli mistake let Malin get away, but Malin then handed Briefl Five, of the 16 fuel samples taken at the j 2.5/250cc Foxhills GP· doubleheader t~ree weeks ago, including tho'se of World Champion St.fa" Ev.rts, Kawasaki factory rider Fred.ric BolI.y and TM star Luigi Seguy•. have failed to meet the FIM fuel regulations. The "A" sampJes from all three factory bikes failed on only one count - the MaN octane rating. Everts' fuel measured 89.1, Seguy's 89.2 and Bailey's B9.3 'compared with the legal limit of 89.0. Everts, a doubie·winner in England, could not believe that he would lose hiS points: "My teem uses Elf special gas, which is specially manufactured under quality control to meet the FIM regulations. They have tested us before, and at Foxhills they took samples from my bike 'on both Saturday and Sunday, but only one is supposed to be a problem. The Kawasaki team was even more amazed at Bailey's figure. Team boss Jan De Groot said: ." All three of my riders Bailey, Vohland and Tortelli . were tested in Foxhills. They all used fuel from the same barrel, and the fuel used in the races by Bailey and Voh· land was even mixed with oil together in one fuel can'" The Kawas.aki team use Howell fuel manufactured to a quality control figure of 88.6 MaN, TM boss Tony Amoriello was equally amazed: ·We use race gas from our sponsors Bardahl, I have seen the laboratory analysis. This is not possible." Bardahl has already announc.ed their intention to pay for the countertest to clear their good name. AmorieUo and Seguy did 'not even know of the test analysis result until they were told by a joumalist at Nismes on Friday aftemoon, 26 hours after the FIM had issued a press release on the matter. Indeed Everts had been the first to know, having heard the news by phone on Thursday evening. from a Belgian joumalist: '" phoned my team boss Colin Reed and- he also knew nothing. I received the official notification from the FIM on Friday by registered post. Of course we will be-getting the B sample tested. If I lost my points I would be 103 points behind Bervoets." De Groot said, "I heard at 7 p.m. Thursday from Colin Reed that there was a problem. I finally managed to contact Frederic at 10 p.m. and it was the first he heard of the matter." A FIM official said that the letters had been posted on Tuesday, adding, "A noti- . fication by fax was sent at the same time to the federations cif the riders concemed,''' which means that the French and Belgian federations sat' on the news for, two -whole days without letting the riders know. PartiCUlarly th~ Bailey case, where sample~ frOm the. same can gave different read-' ings, cast doubt on the validity of the testing procedure. The MON octane figure relates to the inherent octane rating of the base fuel and has .more effect on the cleanliness of, buming th.an on the power output. while the more normal RON figure, tbe same scale quoted at gas stations. was presumably within AM limits. It would be an amazing coincidence if all three specialist'race gas manufacturers involved In GP motocross have taken ris~ with a too pure base fuel, especially at a race where eve'Y?ne ~ew 39' minutes and 59 seconds. In another second, the race would have been one lap shorter and the win would have been Malin's. Everts carne home third, more than a minute down:" ot bad for my first ride on a 125 in nine months," he said having beet:! paid $10,000 in appearance money as a wild card, compared to the $700 of the rest. The 250cc champ was hardly going to complain. that there would be whoiesale testing. The other two fuel samples to fail were from non.qualifiers. Francois Schaftenaars and Jose del Barrio on Saturday, Bo.th failed on lead content. the Dutch youngster presumably having iJl)purltles In his fuel as It registered t",ice'the FIM limit. The Spaniard had a lead content 40 times the FIM limit, .and not surprisingly the octane rating was 'more than 11 octane higher than allowed. If the riders concerned lose their points (and they retain them at least until the International Jury has reconvened to consider the 'affair) there is little' effect on the 125cc cham'pionshlp, as only Vialle of the front three would gain even a single point by Seguy's exclusion. The TM rider would droi> to sixth behind Fanton and Roncada. In the 250s Everts' remaining hopes would die. He would stay,third on points but with a deneit of 103 points to Bervoets. The leader and Tallon Vohland would each gain four points in the case of an Ever\s .exclusion and thus remain separated by 55, Stefan Everts' Honda in Nismes was a production bike with full FMF tuning. Stefan's Belgian mechanic Marc Missotton prepared and serviced the bike from Dave Grant's GP Servies truck. Far and away the oldest rider contesting the Belgian 125 GP was Marc Velu-rs. The 35-year-old, who in the late "70s twice threetened to run away with the title before injuries halted his early,season runs of suc· cess, missed qualification by a second. The most prominent non-qualifiers were MIc..... Maschio and FabiO Balducci. The Frenchman broke a bone in his foot in free practice, while the Italian collected a Wrist injury~ . Bob Moore r.etumed to the GPs after missing France and England with a broken bone in his ankle: "At least my hand is "ealed enough for me to practice during the week." he said. "I don't know if I will race next year or· no.t yet. Giorgio wants me to come back, and I will race in Europe if I race at all. My wife is expecting a baby in December, though, and I have a few job offers back in the States. " Magic Bike teammate Marcus Ha_n was absent, apparently suffering allain from bouts of drowsiness. Riding in his place was !talian youngster· Stefano Dami, who qualified well in his first GP. . KTM Graham Kent has wQund up his 500 ·GP team for the'season., '.It was a hard decision to make, but it was the oniy'rationallhlng to do. ·Mlke (Heeley) has proved that he can still do it for.a lap, but.he is stili not 'able to· train properly after puncturing a lung and couldn't hope to make the race results, while 'f.redrik (Hedmi,") needs operations on both knees. "We started the s'ummer hoping to attract more sponsorship as the sea: son went on, biJt none was forthcoming when we weren't scoring results.. I hope to be able to run a team for KTIiA again next year, and hopefully we will have a little more luck wilh injuries. " .