Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127849
MOTOCROSS AM W R O LDCHAMPIONSHIP 250cc M XSERIES (Left) Mi ke Brown (75) and P~ Beirer (70) sha red t he holeshot in the second 250Cc GP mota. Marnicq Bervaets (2), Stefan Evert. (1) and Tallon Vohland (3) take up the chase. (Above) Everts recorded his third GP win In Brazil after going 2-1. By Bry an Stealey BEW HORIZONTE, BRAZIL, ]ULY6 . m' s defending 250cc World X Champion St e fan Ev erts oved a step closer to his third stra ight title when he cap ture d the ove ra ll win at the 10th round of the 250cc Wo rld Motocross Ch ampionship - Se r ies in Bel o H oriz onte, Bra zil. The HR C /Pir ell i /Sho w a / UFO /Sid i /Oak· ley / No Fear- backed Everts finished 2-1 for the ove ra ll win - his fifth win in th e la s t six G P s . T he 'w i n a lso mar k ed Ever ts' third straig h t success in this So u th American co u ntry, ha ving won here last yea r and back in 1991. " I obviously like co mi ng to Bra zil because I ha ve wo n her e each time," said Everts, who is actually working on his fourth ca reer titl e, having won the 125cc Ch ampi on sh ip back in '91 to go alo ng with his tw o 250cc titles. "I had some probl ems with my front whee l in the first race, but the second r a ce was much better," Everts sai d. 'The biggest problem for me wa s lapping th e Brazilian riders. It w as very dangerous." Fin ishing second ove rall in Bra zil wa s 18-yea r-o ld Fren chman Sebastien Tortelli, who caught and passed Everts o o 36 with just two laps to go for th e win in the exciting first mot a. But a crash while trying to overtake German Pit Beirer for third early in the second moto knocked Tortelli back to an eve ntu al eighth. Still, th e jHK Kawasaki rid er wrapped up runner-up status with his 1-8 showi ng. Everts' fellow Belgian Marnicq Bervoets, wh o is currently second in the series, wa s third on the d ay wit h a 10.2 tally . Rounding out the top five were French Hond a p il o t Yves Demaria (6-4) a nd Honda-mounted Swede }oakim Karlsson (5-5). Three Americans were in the field at Belo Horizonte, but the best finish of the trio was tu rn ed in by Ca lifornian Tallon Vohland, who ended up eig ht h overall with a 3-13 tally. Mike Brown, from Tennessee but, like Vohland, now living in Italy, was 10th overall with a 8-10 score. And journeyman pri vateer Paul Lindsey from Col orad o failed to finish in th e points in eit he r of the 4o.minute-plu stwo- lap motos. Eve r ts ' six th GP w in of th e yea r pus hed his points lead to 86 poin ts more than four motos ahead of his near. es t competitor . With just five rounds left in th e series, th e 24-year-old Everts could clinch the title as early as the 13th · round of the 15-ra ce se ries in Pol and. Everts has tallied 355 points to 269 total points for Bervoe ts, his closest rival. The in con sist ent Tortelli sit s in third with 259 points, followed by Beirer (212) and Karlsson (189). T roubl e-plagued Vohland a n d Brown are 10th and 11th, respecti vely, going in to the la st third of the se ries. Vohla nd has 123 points and one race w in, while Brown totals 105 and a season-bes t finis h of fifth. . As per AM rules, the track at Motod rama Serra Ver de w a s void of an y majo r double or triple jumps . However , the hilly and fast course of just over a mile in length offered some spectacular jumps and tabl etops to hold the attention of the a pp roxima tely 20,000 fans sa id to be in a ttenda nce. O verall, the riders see med to ap prove of the track, bu t an o ver ly eager track cre w added too much wate r before each moto , w hich d id not go over well wi th the com petitors. In Satu rday's tim ed training sessions, th e fas tes t q ua lifier, as u su al, w a s Tortelli. The '96 125cc World Champ hit the clocks wi th a fast lap of 2:03.074, jus t a few hundret hs of a second qu ick er than Demaria. Everts wa s third, half a second back, while Beirer and Brown followed a full second behind. Accordi ng to A M policy, only the top IS riders in the se ries ranki ngs going into the Braz ilian rou nd had all of th eir expenses pai d for this event and the one in Venezuela, which takes place the followi ng weekend. As a res ult, just 16 GP regulars were on hand, leaving th e rest of the 40 s tarti ng spots to Sou th Ame rican hopefuls. The locals were way out of their league in this one - the slowest lap time in timed tra in in g went to Urugua y's Edison Guerra at 2:25.384 . Throughout the weekend, the top comp e titors co mplai ned of th e m o v in g obs ta cles pre sented i n th e fo r m o f lapped rid ers from Brazil, Uruguay and Venezu ela. 'They were too slow," Bervoet s sa id. "In the first moto, after my crash at the sta rt, I cras hed two more time s in the first lap because of the local rid ers. The fed eration ha s to do so meth ing abo ut that in the futu re." Reg ardless of the co m p lai n ts , th e Brazilian Federation was ecsta tic o ver th e first -moto 15th-place finish of Rogerio Nogu eira, the only South Ame rican to score a point here. Still, Nogueira was near ly lapped twice by Tortelli. When the first mota left the starting ga te, it was Voh1and with the holeshot, fo llowed b y Tortelli and Everts . An unfortuna te Mike Brown was hung up in a fir st -tum cr as h among a "Slew of So uth Am erican rid ers , a lo ng with Bervoets, and as a result both spent the res t of the race playing catch-up . La p o ne wa s a ll Everts' , fo llowed closely by Vohla nd and then Tortelli. Pit Beire r and Kawasaki-mo u nted Fren chma n Fre deric Bailey rounded ou t the to p five, and the order remai ned constant through out the second lap as well. By th e 10-minute mark, th e top th ree had pulled eight seconds ahea d of BoIley, who moved up to fourth wh en Beirer crashed ou t of the race with a damaged throttle. Th e top-three running order stayed the sa me for 20 minutes, at whi ch point