Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

MOTOCROSS AM W RLDC O HAMPIONSH IP 500cc MX SER IES Round 8: Farleigh Castle behind , while Ya ma h a' s Jo hansso n wo uld have sp lit them had he not been sand wiche d between the lead in g two and bogged th e motor in tha t first real tum . Husaberg's Joel Sm els further Increased his already command ing series po ints lead with another 500cc GP victory, this one coming in England. Briefl foot last week. He sti'll plans on riding the ••• Joe l Smots and K~rt Nic~lI n ow have By Alex Hodgkin son FARLEIGH CASTI.E, ENGl.M1l,jULY 6 ven KTM teamwo rk couldn't stop Joel Smets fro m e xtending his lead in the World Championship 500cc MX Series , as the Belgian scored his thi rd consecutive GP win. Ameri can Trampas Parker was at ~e center of th e co ntroversy, as he pulled 38 up o n th e final lap of race two while running a clear second to Sme ts to give Kurt Nicoll, rid ing in his homeland and o ne of KTM' s rema ining title ho pefuls, an extra tw o points. It was easily Parker's bes t rid e of the yea r, and that - combined with a fight- in g firs t-m oto 12th with a m is fi r i ng motorcycle - sa w him fourth on the day. T he sa n dy star t chute had b ee n redes igned to g ive th e two- stro kes a fighting chance, but the long. lon g start straight- only 100 yar ds to the first turn but at least 200 yards to the first real corner - and clinging sa nd were still a perfect co mbination for the big-bore fou rstrokes. "I was next to Da rryll King o n th e ga te and held him for 20 yard s," twostroke KTM-mounted Kurt Nicoll said, "but at the first shift, they were go ne." Up fro nt it wa s the Husqva rnas of Mi kk el Ca p ra ni , Kin g and Jac ky Martens, wi th Smet s on the Husaber g . On lap two, King wen t ahead - bu t only for 10 minutes. "I m ad e a silly cra sh at the back of th e tra ck and h ad no co n fide nce to attack again from third," he explained; thi s left veteran Mart ens leading fro m Smets, as Caprani slipped downfield to sa lvage a point. Incredibly, Martens, wh o turned 34 a few days before the race, held on for the second GP moto win of his final seaso n. "I' m shot now, bu t you d on 't feel it wh en you are leading." Martens .. id . a "Jacky can still be amazing at tim es," Smets said of Martens. "I closed slightly, but I would have ha d to rid e over m y head to pass hi m , and my title rivals were well back. I shoul d perhaps have pushed a little hard er in the ea rly laps, but this is the first race this year in hot, sticky weather and I didn't want to' risk running out of steam in the final laps. " H o m e h ero Nicoll w a s bla zing a wonderful trail through the pa ck for 20 minutes after spend ing an awkwa rd 10 minutes trying to get around Bernd Eckenbach , w ho soon afterward went ou t with motor problems an d, with no spare engine, would miss race two. "Once I wa s past Bernd, I haul ed in Ca prani and (Pete r) Dir kx rea lly quickly ," N ico ll sai d. "Bu t the fr ont three were lon g go ne, so I had to se ttle fo r fourth until Joh ansson made a charge and pa ssed me. I could st ay with him and felt I might be able to come back at him in the closing la ps." But Ni coll never got there as, wit h 10 min utes to go, the seat fell off. "T he bra cke ts snapped . I never felt anything until it wo bbled going up th e hill and then it was gone," Nicoll said . The o ther KTMs were also all in trouble. Shayne King said, "I got a good ga te, bu t my front wheel dropped intu a 'soft brace s fitted to their W P Extre me F ks for or added stabil ity . The idea was first seen on the U .S. factOly Suzukis at last year's Pans Super. cross and has been tried in practice by Mar· nicq Bervoets , a close mend 'of Smets. "I used the forks all last year already. ' explained the Belqian • • and there are times at high speed w hen we . s uffer with sh udder. I wes keen to find 8 solution. so wh en I saw the S uzukis. I asked VHM • the firm that makes . the carburetor with the inve rted needl e for the 440 (KT M) - if they 'co uld man ufacture me one, They have now gone into prod ucbon . I guess I should've ~ken out patent rig ~s .· Nicoll was riding "'th the .brace fitt ed acro ss the head of the k>wer fork leg s for the f irst ti me at Hawk stone li ft er suffe ring hancRing difficulties on the ultra-qui ck Uddeva lla .track last week in Swe- den.. K.ith B owen broke two bo ne s in his left four stroke ,KTM with 8 new three-speed gearbox at next week's German Championship. Tram pas Parker is us ing a four-speed box in his 360 . as did Mike Healey last summer. Jorgen Nil • • on . the 1993 SOOcc Workf Championship runner-up. won two of the support races at Hawkstone Park in the TwinShock class . in England. the class. which is for MX machines from the pre-monoabcck era, is popular with many ex ·G P riders. hea ded by 1981 2SOCc W orld Champion Neil Hudson. For the Swedish Nilsson. who was paralyzed from the waist ~ for·many months after "0 crash at the Stuttgart Supercross in N o v em b e r 199 3, the race was 8 epeeel mo men t: "I have: ridden many times since mY rec overy, but th is is first actual race , even If it is a fun race . This Is the track where I won my first GP. 'end the M elee I'm riding has been proVided by Bill Brown o f. ~ul fsport -.for who m I rode in . my last few GP seasons.. My girlfriend. Mohn. gave bi rth to o ur first c hi ld last week. b ut I had ag ree d to co nte st th is race a lo ng time ago . . and had to keep my pro mise. mY M

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