MOTOCROSS Round 11; Luxembourg GP
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
500Cc MOTOCROSS SERIES F-----'-~-- -----------
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By Alex Hodgkinson
BOCKHOLTZ, LUXEMBOURG, AUG. 10
oel Sme ts rega ined the wo rld SODcc
MX title at the penu ltimate roun d of
the ser ies to s teal the spo tlight from
J
gr ea t performances by Kurt Nicoll, th e
vetera n Brit who won the Luxembourg
GP for the third tim e in his career, and
Andrea Ba r tol ini, w ho a gai n to o k a
mot e w in on the fac tory Yamaha fOUTstro ke.
Tra m pas Par ker fi n is he d th ird in
mol o two to s lay eig h th in th e s ta nd ings, but Keit h Bowen dro pped 10 22nd
d espite a hi st oric 15th in ra ce one .i t
was the first GP point ever for a fOUTstro ke KTM, his previou s finis hes this
yea r havin g bee n on a 368-model tw ostroke.
The Bockho ltz tr a ck h a d b ee n
watered regularly throu gh out practice,
bu t the riders ca me to the sta rt for the
first moto to find the track bone dry.
"T he ride rs as ke d for it to no t be
wate red ," sai d clerk of the cou rse
Romain Heckemans, but whoever those
rid ers were, they co u ld no longer be
found .
"It' s no good as king me what it was
like," start-to-finish winner Kurt Nico ll
said . " l was in fro nt , a nd it was okay
there."
Shayne King had a d ifferent story to
tell after he got up off the ground. at the
firstlu m .
"I go t th er e firs t, and Delepi ne just
ran straight up my rea r wh eel," he said.
T he Ki w i, h is sl end er hopes o f
defend ing th e titl e reduced to alm os t
ze ro, could be seen sha king his head as
h e rem oun ted a nd rejoin ed th e race in
38th.
"Then I wa s as king myself when the
second turn wa s goin g to appear, until
all of a sudden I saw the outside fence a
co u p le of meter s a head of m e i n the
m u rk," King said . "From wh ere I wa s,
you w er e g uessing wher e th e track wen t
until about the 10th lap,"
(Top and above) Joel
Smets put together 3-5
moto finishes at the
Lu xembourg 500cc
Grand Prix to regain the
FIMWorld
Championship crown.
The world title is the 28year-
