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MOTOCROSS
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
500cc MOTOCROSS SERIES
The King brothers also had some
drama of their own. Darryll had to
recover from a multiple-bike pileup in
the first corner while running around
eighth, and Shayne was more than a little groggy in sixth after he had fallen
while running second at the 3D-minute
mark and was run over by Peter Johansson.
Bartolini, meanwhile, had charged
like a bull after a poor start but was back
in the paddock after 20 minutes.
'1 don't know how many laps I did,
but I fell on every single one of them,"
the Italian said.
Trampas Parker simply never figured
in to the main figh t. The two-time
World Champion pulled out twice, having never gotten higher than 16th in race
one or 11 th in race two.
Bowen on the other hand revel d in
the conditions and, one day before his
31st birthday, scored his first GP points
in Europe with 13th-place finishes in
each moto.
'1t was pretty difficult out there, but
it was also kind of fun," Bowen said. '1t
was a matter of keeping going and letting others give you places when they
crashed. I gave a few back too."
CN
(Left) Joel Smets
took the overall win
after topping both
muddy motos.
(BelOW) Bernd
Eckenbach broke
away to a 20-second
lead during the first
half of moto one but
crashed and finished
eighth.
By Alex Hodgkinson
•
PAYERNE, SWITZERLAND, APR 24
t didn't snow at the fourth-round of
the world 500cc MX series - it was
much worse than that! Persistent
foul weather, primarily rain, turned
the Combremont-Ie-Petit track in western Switzerland into a boggy mess with
seemingly bottomless ruts and even
forced the exclusion of part of the
-course. It was so bad that reigning
champion Shayne King was lapped in
race two - and he was running sixth.
One week earlier Joel Smets had
complained that the race in snowy Sittendorf would be reduced to a lottery
and the winner would owe his finish as
much to luck as skill. After dominating
both races in .Switzerland - winning by
half a minute in moto one and then by
nearly two the second time out - even
the Belgian had to admit his good fortune.
"Yes, I got lucky this week," Smets
said. '1 rode well but I've been sick all
week and I'm sure I could not have won
both rares here if conditions had been
drier. The mud made the pace slower,
which was just what I needed."
Gert Jan Van Doorn was second
overall after 7-2 finishes while Shayne
King, 3-6 on the dilY, was third.
Heavy overnight rain on Friday and
Saturday had already left the Combremont track deeply rutted, 'and the lower
reaches of the course had already been
elimina ted before more rain heralded
the start of race one.
"It's much worse than last week,"
Nicoll said. "The ruts are going to get
bottomless."
It was as though he had a premonition of the fate which would befall him
while he led the second moto, but more
on that later.
Nicoll grabbed the holeshot in the
first moto, riding along the virgin turf
on the inside line, but was demoted to
third at the second turn.
"My own fault," Nicoll said. '1 wanted to get a long sweeping run at the hill
and both (Bernd) Eckenbach and (Gert
Jan) Van Doom dived inside."
-Eckenbach showed excellent form in
the difficult conditions and led by 20
seconds after 15 minutes, but "then I fell
the first time. My gloves were muddy so
I was having difficulty holding on and
Smets was able to get past me. The second time I fell it seemed like an eternity
before I could get going again. It was in
a turn at the bottom of the track and my
gloves were so muddy by then that I
had to throw them away to pick up the
bike. j had tucked a doth in my belt and
I wrapped that round the throttle grip
for the rest of the race."
It is compulsory to wear gloves but
fortunately no one protested the German and he kept his eighth-place finish.
Champion Shayne King was third
after crashing once, while his elder
brother Darryll was in sixth after losing
his drive and a place to Peter Johansson
late in the race as they went up the main
climb. Younger brother Damien Johansson crashed on the opening lap, breaking a leg.
.
By half distance Nicoll, who had at
one point been down to fifth after losing
the front end on a downhill, was back
on Smets' rear wheel. He didn't remain
there, however.
"The sweatband on my forehead fell
down over my eyes and I had to stop to
rip it out." Nicoll said.
And so the first two places went to
the riders who made the fewest mistakes, namely Smets and Andrea Bar. tolini. The Italian surprised himself with
his restraint.
"I was alongside Nicoll at the first
turn but someone hit my rear wheel
going to the second turn and that
dropped me to ninth," Bartolini said. "I
told myself not to panic and make more
mistakes and .it paid dividends. I was
ready to pounce every time someone
else made a mistake and was second at
the finish."
Although the sun showed its face for
the second moto, conditions were getting worse. icoll's experience - he
swept into the lead at half distance only
to find himself stuck in a rut and ultimately finished out of the points showed just ·how difficult conditions
were.
"I ground to a halt in a deep rut at
the back of the track," Nkoll said. "I
was stuck there with the frame jammed
into the mud and the rut was so deep
that the rear wheel was spinning in
fresh air. I had to stop the engine and
physically lift the wheels out of the rut. I
wa's shattereq. physically after that. It
was just torture to get to the finish. I
must have crashed six more times."
Smets, who had taken the holeshot
and led the race until he crashed at the
bottom of the track, reinherited the
lead after Nicoll's misfortune and went
on to win -by a two-minute margin
despite another fall trying to lap Keith
Bowen.
Swiss 500cc GP
Combremont-le-Petit, Swltze....nd
Results: April 24, 1997 (Round 4 of 12)
MOTO ~ 1. Joel Sm