Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.INTERVIEW 250cc World Motocross Champion Stefan Everts By Eric Johnson I Photos By Alex Hodgkinson and Davey Coombs tefan Everts is not your typical . professional motocross racer. In fact, his situation is arguably unique in the sport. Born in the motocross-crazed nation of Belgium, Everts, the son of four-time FIM World Motocross Champion Harry Everts, is the sport's first second-generation World Champion. Sounds like all fun and glamor doesn't it? It wasn't. From the time Stefan first began racing, he was immediately thrust into the spotlight in a country that was desperate for a new, national motocross hero. You see, Belgium - home to such legendary world motocross champions as Roger DeCoster, Joel Robert, Eric Geboers and Harry Everts - had fallen upon some hard times. Once the undisputed bastion of world motocross dominance, the nation had been relegated to an also-ran status by the new kids on the block, the omnipotent, high-flying Americans. It did not sit well. Enter Stefan Everts. Like it or not, from his earliest days in racing, Stefan was expected to be the savior of a nowdowntrodden motocross empire. And no matter how well he did, how hard he . tried or how much success he experienced, there were always the critics to point out the negatives - most of them Belgian. "Why. have you not won more titles? Why haven't you defeated the Americans? How did you lose to Greg Albertyn? Why do you keep getting injured?" they asked. Stefan found out the hard way - being a motocross hero in Belgium is no easy task. S Now, after winning three World Championship titles of his own, one 125cc and two consecutive 250cc, Everts seems to be at ease with himself and his accomplishments - and his critics. . When Everts was in America to visit some sponsors, do some riding and see some old friends, we cornered him in a South Bay, California, seafood restaurant to get his take on his life in motocross. During the interview, Everts was at ease and talkative about the sport he was literally born into. Read on as Stefan Everts tells his tale. Are you still playing the drums? Yeah, but it's still pretty difficult because I'm in school for it right now, taking classes to learn drum technique how to use the sticks and do a lot of exercises - but it is real difficult and it's going to take months and months of practice before I learn it properly. It's kind of hard right now with all the travel and all that. I'm taking it seriously, . though. I want to learn it properly arid 'do my best at it. . I know you're a big music fan. What bands do you admire, or practice to? Well, I have a very big CD collection. I have over 600 CDs right now and it is growing every day. My favorite bands are - I like U2 a lot, Faith No More, Metallica, Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, Alice in Chains, Urban Dance Squad, a lot of rock music. What are you doing over here in' America? I'm doing a lot of things. It's a little bit of holiday away from home, and I'm visiting a lot of sponsors like Troy Lee and No Fear and SOI!le other people, and see some friends, do some riding - I want to go to Glamis and ride in the desert. I've never done that and I've seen all those videos. I also went to the latest Fox video premiere at the Palace in Hollywood. You are coming off your second consecutive 250cc World Championship. Did this one mean more to you coming back after being so far down? You were 70 points dow.n on Marnicq Bervoets at one point. No, they all mean a lot to me. The' first one, the second one and the third one. Each of them means something special to me. The third one was special because I was 70 points behind and I still took the title. I'm a friend of yours, but when you were 71 points down I didn't .really think you were going to be able to come back and win the title. Did you ever feel like you were out of it and the championship was lost? I was very disappointed after the GP in Finland because'I lost a lot of points, especially after the ~cond moto where I DNFed. At that point in timl:, I still believe that we had some problems with the bike because I was having a hard time racing it. But the technicians could not find the problem. I'm still 100 percent that something was wrong at that point in time, but anyway, I was very disappointed in Finland because the Scandinavian GPs did not go well for me and I was feeling very strong physically. I also had a lot of bad luck at the GP of Sweden. However, despite all Belgian Stefen Everts has won the 250cc World Motocross Championship three times, two consecutively, and Is poised to shoot for his fourth In 1997 on factory Hondas. that, I never said to myself, "I have lost the title now." I never said that. But I knew there was very little chance of winning it. I knew then that it was going to be .very difficult to win it. And the bike was still not running properly. I had been complaining for three GPs that something was wrong. It was not running like it was in Spain and Holland. So, at- Foxhill, England, Hond,a sent an engineer to work on it. The bike was perfect there and I really like the Foxhill track and I felt real good there, so that was the moment to attack and everything went great for me. I got two good starts and won two motos, and from there on i got so much confidence and nothing could break it. We all know what happened with the gas violation at Foxhill, England; did that affect you at all? No, not at all. I just tried to ignore it. Like I said before, I got so much confidence after Foxhill that nothing could break it, not even that fuel thing. I just. kept focusing on my racing and winning and catching points on Bervoets. And each race I started to get closer and closer. I was on a mission and was going to accomplish that mission at all costs. Was Bervoets riding at the same level during your charge, or did he start to become nervous and slip up as you closed in?

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