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/127851
MOTOCROSS RII WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 500cc IIXSERIES GP sion by th e ot her five leaders a t th e halfway stage. Smets w as to hand him back fifth, however. "I d idn't ha ve a good race," Smets said. " I sta lled twi ce: once to lose the lead to King. and then wh en I was runnin g fourth in fr ont o f Pa rke r and Nicoll. Later that lap, I a lso made a small crash to let (Pete r) Johansson past, but I w as soon in front of him again. Sixth is not good, but thankfully I only los t one and three to Shayne and Kurt" Johansson had experienced a nigh t. marish firs t lap , comi ng out 19th a fter gett ing tangled up with other riders in tw o separate incidents. He recovered to seve n th, whil e Yamaha teammate Andrea Bartolini had gone out o n lap three , unable to restart his hot YZM400F aftera crash . The second moto saw the reawakenin g of Shayne King's tit le ho pes as he holesh ot and ran away, alrea dy lead ing o n the fi rst la p by seve r a l seco n ds , Brother Darryll was second all the way. Smets had moved to a th reatening third in the earl y stages before he hit trouble. " My front rim go t kn ocked o u t of sha pe when I landed on the rocks aft er about 15 m inutes," Smets said . "I felt I cou ld 've caught Darryll if that h adn't happened ." (Left ) Darryll King scored hls llrst GP win since joining the Husqvama team. King went 1ยท2 In the French 500cc MX GP. (Below) King's brother Shayne. the defending champ. IInlshed second overall . keep ing ali ve his hopes of catching serie s leader Joel Smets. By Alex Hodgkinson LAGUEPIE, FRANCE, JULY 20 he King brothers traveled from the so u thern he misphere to join Louisiana rebel Trampas Parker in ke epi ng W o rl d 500cc MX Series pacesetter Joel Smets off the 'podium at the French GP, run in 8O-degree heat at Laguepie in so u thern France, and thus' ending a three-race win streak by the 1995 champion, Parker lifted himself into the series' top 10 for the first time this year with 28 m oto finishes on his basically stoc k 363cc KTM , while th e Kin g brothers sha red th e m oto wins. Eld er brother Darryll went 1-2 for the overall GP win (his first since joining Husqvama), while defendi ng champion Sh ayne pulled back 10 points on Smets and now trails by 41 with three GPs still to race. The first moto had to be the closest of the year in any GP class, as th e front six charged up and down the valley sides in rapid pursuit of each other. No on e kn ows th e track better than Great Britain' s Kurt Ni coll, who has lost only twi ce in six previ ous visits. ..A t the smaller invitational races, yo u can pass here," N icoll sa id, "b ut it was almost impos sible today with six su ch good riders together up front The only time we eased. our pace was when Shayne (King) was holding u s all up rnidrace." . Nico ll was fourth, five seconds down on the w inner. Parker was second. "The re are onl y two w ays to pass here: Either you take th em out or yo u wait for them to get tired ," Parker sa id. "I cho se the latte r and ha d m o ved fro m fifth to second w ith three la p s to go . Da rryll (Ki ng) h a d go t away a bit by then. I closed h im down a little, but after making a mistake on the n ext-to-last lap, I realized I h ad to sett le for secon d, and ho pe full y I can turn it round in f a ce two." Winner Darryll King had done it the tough way. "It' s been getting better every week since I started to work close r with Jacky (Martens)." Darryll sa id . "I had to blockpass my brother Sha yne an d Smets, but that wa s the only wa y if I wa n ted to win. I w as just controll ing the pace at the end when Parker closed back up a little." Bernd Eckenba ch w a s a ju b ilant third . "I pushed a litt le too ha rd early on, a nd Darry ll wa s actually holdin g m e up," Eckenbach said, "but I p a id the p enalty phy s ica ll y later in the ra ce before I picked up the pare again in the final tw o laps to hold off Nicoll." The title leaders completed th e top six, but both had unhappy races. Champion King had taken th e lead on lap three and mov ed clear for a time. "I sim ply pushed too hard and my arms pumped up," King said. "I had to ease my pace or crash." He was gobbled up in rapid succes-