in a ho rrific state an d it wa s planned to
bypass o ne pa rt icularly trea cherou s
climb. The o rganizers recko ned wit hout
the reaction of the crowd. The fans who
had ga thered at this particular section to
watch th e w orld ' s best big- b ike
motocrosse rs struggle against the elements wa nted more of th e sa me, and
staged a sit-in on the track unt il "thei r"
section of the track was reins tated.
Out of the gate, it was again Darryl!
King , who mad e no mis take this time to
win the moto and the overall, moving to
thir d in the standings.
"If o nly we had got my bike working
so we ll ea rlier in the yea r, 1 wo u ld be
challenging for th e title," winner King
sa id. "My H u s ky is the be st bike out
there now and I have never ridden bet ter ."
.
The Kiwi had led already by six seco nds at the end of the first lap as chaos
reig ned in his wake .
Nic oll, runnin g fifth, had his KTM
cut o u t with an ig nitio n fail u re ju st
before the do wnhill double, and Smets,
chas ing King hard in second, spluttered
to a halt by the Cafe d u Monument roa d
sectio n. Aft er a s ho rt halt, the m ot or
clea red, and Sme ts wa s away agai n - but
had lost 15 places in th e process. Fro m
his point of view, at least, Shayne King
was only four pla ces ah ead of him .
The duo ca rved their way through
the pack in relentless fashion, and not
un til th ey we re third an d fourt h, respectively, d id they come toge the r. Lap after
lap, the Belgian had to si t be hind, bu t
with thr ee laps to go , he "b roadslided"
across the sl ippery tarm.!'c exiling th e
Es p la nade to shoot inside as they
entered the woods, and reappeared the
next lim e five secon ds ahead of his title
rival in a secu re third.
Second was beyond him, however, as
the elder King and Johansson dominated the race at the front to such an extent
tha t, af ter jus t five laps, they ha d bo th
left the Esplanade for 10 seco nds before
the third man had even jumped out of
th e woods in to th e start-finish arena
after Gera ld Delepine exited in a cras h.
For 35 minutes, Johansson relen tlessly closed do wn King u ntil the ga p was
just two seconds but , at the sa me comer
w here Sm ets gra bbed th ird , the Swede
then slammed in to the fenc e.
" I didn' t lo se i t. T h e throttle
jamm ed ," Johan sson said. "I'm amazed I
got up at all."
He still held on for second to the end .
Barto li ni never got C1 ch a nce after
s t",ting 11th on lap on e.
"I cou ld not win he re from there, so I
just concentrated on riding a sensible
race to score as many as I could," Bartolini said. "I had just pas.r (Hun).
MOTO 2: 1. Darryll King (H u..); 2. Pl"tl;'1" ' uhan ... on
e
(V.1m); 3. Jut-I Smd!'i Olbg );~ . 5 ho1ynt> King (k'Th1);.5
Da n ny Th ey ber.. (KT M); 6. [ohan DOl en (KT\ 1); 7.
m
Tram pa ~ r arh-r (KT M); 8. Ioete Eng d a hl (Han) ; 9 .
Erwin Mach tlin ger (Hon) ; 10. Andrea Barto lini (Yam );
11. Mikkel Cep ra ni fH u!» ; 12. Avo Le k (Ha n); 13. Siggi
o
Bauer (Kaw ); H . Willie Va n We:>~~:l (Ha n); 15. Fred n k
overall,
Hedman tHbg).
O /A: I. D,uryU King (Bus); 2. loci Smds (H bg); 3.
Andrea Bartol ini (Yam); 4. Sh.l yne King (KIM); 5. jo ban
Booru-n (KTM); /), Danny Tbeybers (KTM); 7. Tra m p as
Par k.l.'T (1
Il"-' (61) ; 14. AVl' Leek
(.58); 1 ('ot'faIJ Dtok-pint' (~q ); 16. Di.·tm.l.r L cher (46);
5.
a
17. Erwin'Machthnger (.42); 18. Rupi Walk llt'-'r (40); 19.
M ik~l Ca pra ni (33); 20 Krith Bowen om .
.
Upcom ing Rounds:
Round 11· Boc kho ltz, Luxembourg.
August 10
Final Round - HoIzger1ingen. Ge rman y,
August 24
FIM World Championship 250CC MX Series
Round 1 Indonesian GP
2:
Demaria
jumps ~hip
and wins
BANDUNG, INDONESIA, AUG. 3
fter havi ng gon e rel atively unnoticed thus far in this year's World
Championship 250cc MX Ser ies,
French ma n Yves Demaria abandone d
his no rma l Honda ride for a Kawa saki
an d calle d ou t to the wo rld that he is
indeed back. He made his first ma rk on
the season after winning bo th mot os at
the Indonesia n GP.
Two weeks ago , the Fren chman split
with the Italian Martin Honda team and
wa s snapped up by Kawasaki supremo
Jan De Groot. De Groot was looking for
someone to ride th e remainder of th e
series o n th e bike normally ridden by
Fred eric Bolley, who join ed Se bastien
Tortelli on the injured list after a crash at
the previous Sunday's French Cham pio ns h ip round . Obviou sl y, De Groot
found the right man.
On ly 23 rid ers made up th e starting
line for th e farawa y Ind ones ian G P,
which had the sm allest GP field in 24
yea rs.
In each moto, Demaria scored a narrow victory of just a little more than one
second over Cali fornian Tallon Vohland .
The Yamaha teamster is g ra d u a ll y
regaining the pace he showed earlier in
the sea so n befo re a damaged shou ld er
wrecked his title challenge .
Fellow America n Mike Brown also
co n tes t~d the event but DN Fed both
mo tos.
Defending cha mp Stefa n Everts was
A
a s u bd ued fo u rth o vera ll, but his 24p oin t h au l was s u fficient e noug h to
leave th e Belgian needi ng just eight
points from th e Polish GP o n August 18
to eq ua l h is fa the r H arry' s record of
fou r Wo rld titles a nd become only the
second rider in history - after the legendary Joel Robert - to win thr ee World
250cc titles,
The Belgian is believed to have been
anxious not to o utscore so le remainin g
ri val Ma rn icq Bervoets (o n ly six th in
each race) by too m an y po in ts, as he
wants to be able to clinch th e title in
fro nt of his numero us fans in Eu ro pe
rat her than in the Southeast Asian jungle.
'"
Indonesian 250Cc GP
Band ung . Indo nesia
Res ults : Aug ust 3. 1997 (Round 12 of 15)
MOTO 1: 1. Yves Dtom h Coppins (Suz); 11. Leon
(KTM); 12. Jaimy Scevenels (Hon ): 13. werner
O .. wit (S UI ); 14 , Paul Cooper (Kaw); 15 , St ..v e n
Mt"IT'im.ln (V.l m)
M O T O 2: 1. YVf" !\ Dt"maria IKa w ); 2. Tallon
Vohla nd (Yam) ; 3. Pit Beise r (Hon); 4. lock e Karlsson
(Hon); 5. Std an Everts bc..-n ( KTM): 10. Werner Dewit (Suz); t 1. Peter
"
lvee (I<.tw) ; 12. Pedro Tra~ (Han); 13. Josh Coppin s
(Suz); 14. Pa ul Cooper (K...w ); IS, Steven Merriman
Collin
G it"J.~
(Yam) .
O /A: 1. Yves DerNria (KAw); 2. Ta llo n Voh lan d
(Ya m); 3. Pi t Bt-in.or (H a n); 4. Stefan Everts (Hun); 5
[ocke J(.ul..o;on (Hen): 6. Mar nicq 8t' r v('It'l"> (SuL); 7.
M dr~ F.d..t wood (Hun); 8. Co ll in Dugmo-e (Hu n ); 9
Leon G i~fli ()(ThO; 10. Wt"m n' Dewit (SUJ:).
WO R LD C IIA M P IOSSH IP 2S0cc MX SE R IES
POINT~ STAND INGS tAfter 12 of 15 re und s j: 1.
Stefan ,E\·erb (4H /n ; 2. ~am icq Bervoets (302 / l); 3.
Sebas tie n Tortel h (274/2); 4. Pit Beire r (2701 5. loc ke
;
Kartseon (23Sl; 6. Tallon Voh lan d (183/1); 7. Yves
Dcmene (ltlO/t1; 1:1 . Werner De w it (178 ); 9 , Frederi c
Bolk. y Obl) ; 10. Pd cr Iven U52l; 11. Mike Brown (114);
12. ~drk Eastwood (lOb); 13. Co llin Dugmore (97); H .
Ped ro 'rregtcr (95); 15. Leon Giesbers (73); 16. Jaim y
Scev enels (68); 17. Justin Morri!. (43 ); 18. Mis ka Aal tont:'T1
(32); 19. J05h Co ppins (30); 20. Po1Iul Cooper (26).
Upcoming Rounds :
Round 13 - Gdynia. Poland. Augusl 17
Round 14 • Roggenburg, SwitzeMand.
Augusl31
fiber rear subfmmes which. had been replaced by
aluminum after early-season trials. Vibrational
contact with t he carburetor had been the initial
· problem. but a revised air filter has cured this .
Tra mpn s Park er will ride the new KTM 125
in tw o weeks' tim e . " But 'l am sti ll after thE!
Triple Crow n and will ride the 500c c GPs next
year. Parke'r said_-H opefully.' I'll be·on a KTM
th rough Mr. Brouwer.,but in my.own team. The
fact ory asked me if I wo uld test. the 125 for
them , CIS ano ther rider wh o had starte d the
·tests has been prevented from carrying on for
the moment by his present team. Yes; I wo uld
co nSider gOing backto the 125s. but I have set
myself a goal of adding a 500cc title to my 125
and 250 Wo rld 'crown s. and I intend to achteve
that first. "
R
O h lins has produced a new upside·d o wn
fork aher two yeal s .in which they have only
offered conventional ·fr ont suspension . The··
pro totype was seen in Namur on the 250c c
Yamaha of their test·rider Torleif Hansen. the
1975·W orld hum~·two who is now 49 years
old . in the supporting Veterans race. For three
weeks. Hensen ha s been te sting the F k.
or
wh ich is !1pporcntly compl etely different intern - .
ally from any preyiou s Ohlins fork. with damping very much similar to that ·on the conven tional forks but wi th three bushings rather than
two. The fork Will be offered to facto ry teams.
but ·is unlikely to be put on sale to the general
public in the immediate future. Hansen's bike
also featured a new conventional rear shock , _
·which owed much of it s int ern al changes to
te chn ology learned with the PDS dj rect~link .
system.
.
