Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

· Nations. And there's too much of the supercross obstacles out there for a fair race. 1f It should be noted that the track bad just about the same number of manmade obstacles that last year's track had - the track that Smets and Team Belgium won on. And throughout Sunday's competition, Smets and his teammates Bervoets and Stefan Everts jumped everything, Bervoets and Everts doing their own fair share of one-handers and whip-its for the crowd of 12,000 'that attended the race. In the lottery for starting gate positions, Team USA pulled out #17, which meant that in all three motos the American riders would take the 17th and 37th spots from the inside out on the starting gate. The draw was not as bad as last year's disastrous 20/40 pick, but with a short straightway leading into a narrow, 90-degree turn that went straight up a hill, it could have been better. At any rate, the Americans decided to put the smaller bike on the inside in each of the three motos with the hopes that the outside rider would be able to holeshot everyone while the smaller, slower bike on the inside could avoid getting caught up in any first-turn entanglements. It would turn out to be a smart move, as pile-ups moved outside in both 125cc motos and would prove destructive to France, Belgium and England - all of whom placed their 125cc riders on the outside. When the gate dropped at noon for the first moto for 125cc and 500cc riders, Lamson took the inside gate according to plan while Emig lined up 20 spots further outside. Bolley, Smets, Sweden's Peter Johansson and Australian Kim Ashkenazi all lined their Open bikes up on the inside choice of their respective teams' gates and left their 125cc teammates exposed on the outside. When Everts pUshed his 125cc to the 38th on Emig's right shoulder, the Team USA rider smiled to himself. "What chance was Everts going to have on a 125 against my 500?" asked Emig later. "When the gate dropped, he got a good jump but then that was the last I saw of him." Or anybody else until late in the moto. While Emig exploded from the outside of the grid with the holeshot, Everts was left laying the first turn along with Belgian teammate Smets after a pack of riders came together on the inside of first left-hand turn. Everts quickly got to his feet and started back up through the pack while Smets writhed on the ground like a fish out of water hoping for a red flag and a restart similar to what he got last year in Slovakia. The FIM officials saw no reason to flag the race and, after more than half a minute, Smets got off the ground. "The other guys were coming from the inside and I couldn't go left or rightI had to crash," said Everts of the collision that took 10 riders down. "I was lucky that my bike was not damaged." When asked if his team might reconsid" er the strategy of putting the 125 on the outside, Everts was hopeful. "I will speak to Marnicq (Bervoets) about it and see if he wants to switch.. Otherwise, the same may happen again." Halfway through the first loop, Emig held the lead in his first-ever Open class race. Germany's Dietmar Lacher, newly crowned 500cc World Champion Shayne King from New Zealand and Spanish hero David Aviles were next in line, while 125cc leaders Lamson and Tortelli ran ninth and 10th, respectively. Lamson immediately started carving his way through the big bike field, passing a couple of riders per lap. Tortelli (Left) Frenchman Sebastien Tortelli made a run at Lamson in the first 1251500cc moto but came up a few seconds short. (Below) A very motivated McGrlIth dominated both his motos. Even a crash didn't slow him down. was equal to the task, attaching himself to the Honda's fender and going with him. But on the fourth lap, as Lamson passed Lacher and settled into third behind Emig and King, Tortelli made a mistake in the back and lost valuable ground to Lamson. On the sixth lap, Lamson succeeded in fourth, blowing the minds of everyone in Europe when he blew past King, the 500cc World Champion, into second place. It was a move reminiscent of Johnny O'Mara's legendary efforts in Maggiora, Italy, in 1986 when he passed then-500cc GP number-one David Thorpe, but Lamson wasn't done. In a totally unprecedented moiie, the two-time U.s. 125cc National Champion, moved right up behind his teammate Emig, who then moved over to allow the screaming 125 by and into MX des Nations history as the first 125cc rider ever to lead the combined field. "Once I got into second, I·saw him and started closing in and he just moved over for me," Lamson said. "I think that worked out better for both of us because he was able to pick up on my lines a little more. After that I just tried to get away from him and Tortelli as fast as I could." "I didn't know it was Steve at first but once I saw that it was him I knew he was catching me," Emig said later. "I knew I didn't have the best lines and I knew that I needed to conserve some energy for the end of the race. I went to let him by once but he wasn't quite close enough, so I ended up letting him by in the back." "I was looking around at that point thinking, 'Where's everyone at?'" Lamson said. "That was probably as fast as I've ever ridden and it felt so good to be leading everyone on the track. No one on a 125 has ever done that before." But Lamson had no time to rest on his accomplishment as Tortelli was coming. The superfast Frenchman sorted himself out at about the halfway mark and, as Lamson pulled slightly away from Emig, TorteUi caught up to him all at once. "I don't think that Tortelli would have caught me as quickly had I not had one really bad lap:' said Emig of the second-fastest 125cc rider in the race, "I missed the little double, I missed the quad, I missed a gear going up the big hill and probably dropped six seconds in one lap. r didn't really want to block him or anything, and he just went by me pretty easy." Once past Emig, Tortelli started after Lamson, nearly crashing a couple of times in the process. In the end the 18- year-old Frenchman got within two seconds of Lamson, but was never able to make a serious pass attempt for the lead. "In the first few laps, Lamson passed quickly and I was taking less chances, so he built four or five seconds on me quickly," Tortelli said after the race. "I kept trying to catch him - some time I lose, some time I win. [would catch him but then make a mistake - it was like that the whole race. With a couple of \0 ~ ~

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