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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127859
MOTOCROSS
(Left) Brit James
Dobb was the lop
finishing 125cc rider
w ith a 3--1 in h is
class. Great Britain
Ilnlshed third.
beh ind Ita ly.
(RighI) SIeve .
Lamson had multiple
problems on the
muddy course, as
well as off the track,
and finished the day
with a disappointing
15-21 In Ihe 125cc
clas s .
.1
...
Brieflv.. ~
The win~i ng Belg ian t~am o f 250ec World Champi~n Stefan Everts . SOOcc W orld Champion Joel Smets end
250cc vice champi on Mamicq' Bervoets was the same
team that won the Mot ocro ss des Na tions in 1995 in Slcvakre. though this time Everts was given "the chance to ride the
250 wh ile Bervoets rod e the 125. The same team W;:] $ also '
In place last yeor in Spain. though at that race Evert s rode a
125cc Honda whi le Bervoe ts rod e a Suzuki RM2S0. .
.
Several top names w ere no t at the M otoc ro ss de s Nations
for variou s reesonsBcuth Africo's Greg Albertyn 'didn't
want to come and there was no room for' Italy' s Aletisandro Puzar. France co uld have . fi elded a capable -te a m
erno nq.rhc se w h o di d no t sh o w : Mickael Pichon ,
Stephane Roncada and Yves Demaria .' An d then '
there we re the Am erican left overs . 1 25~c National C hampton Ricky' Carmichael , mult i-time c ham pio n Jeremy
McGrath, kaw~sakj's Ryan H':'ghes and Damon HuH~
man ; am ong 'o ther s, Volunteered one Bnnsh jou rnalist,
- M aybe we. should scra p. the current format. and go with a
20 -Americans-vs.·20-of.·everyone-else forma t ..
Among the A meri can contingent in the pits ' were Danny
LaPorte ,an.d Johnny O ·Mara . two riders who were
mem bers of the fateful 1981 Team' US A that came to BeIgiumunde r Rog er DeC os ter's gui dance 'to win the ir first .
250cc Trophee des N at io ns rac e . vt'Feam U SA won the
~c-b8sed M otocro ss des No tion s' roccoin Germa ny one
week later .) O'Mar a wa s on hand to do his O akley thing:
while laPort e was w orking ou t som e details and sco uting
talent for the flew FMF/Honda ,team" The. oth er tw o member s of that rev olut io nary team were Chuck Sun and
Donnie Hansen,
.-
...
OJ
E
u
o
14
Nation s in
home co untry .because it is the biggest 'rac~
of the seaso n and every cou ntry is h~ re to win , ~ said Step
fan Everts . W hen ask ed what happened to the American
team.' Everts gave ereelisttc assessment: - I t hmk the track
was realtY dlfhcult for them. especially with the mud and the
stones . It was very_
slippery .and very bumpy , very technical
and very dangerous. vco have to have strong concentra tion
a11.9( tile time because you don 't know "";here you w ill slide
or find roc ks . Sometimes you had tracncn and then youdid
not . That ond thc ba d luck with Dow d going out. ..
my,
"tt was pretty crazy and the track was realtY we ird, " said
John Dowd of the defeat. ~ I don't want to sound like I'm
co mplaining Of anyt hIng. but this . truck was pret ty much a
crap hole. They wat ered so much that it was .pretty much a ,
· mu d raoe all day, and the track was pre tty bad to beqin with.
I've never seen a trac k with so many roc ks on it" and t he,
'. way they prepped-it made it eve n worse. I'm surprised that
they had thi s kind of a race on this kmd.of a track, It was a
· real disa ppoint me nt. I don't 'know, we l ust had so me so rt of
a Cloud over us today. Every one of us had some bad luck.
W e were-all riding -good but 'it just wasn 't in the script for us
to do well. ~ .
.
a
- This is gofng to hurt for wh~e bu t it doesn't do me any
good to just s it _
here and dwell on it." .reasoned Steve ,
L amson ,' wh o was b itterly di sappointe d with his res ult .
" W e all just have to reqroup .
back home and have a
good year ncxt year, then co me back and -w in this thing
back . This -trac k was.weird. really weird. If wewculd have
been at home , things would have been a lot.different.d know
'it 's the same for-everyone. but we J
ust weren' t used to this
stuff, Teke a guy like Pit Beirer - H e killed these guys this '
yea r on the 250 ; but klst year in Spain. I remem ber passing
him with ,no prob lem , This race was just so different. Th-e
track is so ' different 'a nd muddy - l don 't unde rst an d w hy
they did that to the trac k. I mean; it w es '8 mud-fest In practice, and then they made it even wo rse for the race, I'm 'no t
making excuses or .anyt htnq . but it wa s reaU weird that they
y
go
Wh en asked to give, a d amage report - or even an excuse did that.•
. .
as to w hy the Americans lo st so badly,"J eH Emig saki that
the orow ing 'dlfference be tween American motoc ross tracks
So me of the Eu rope an signings gOIng dow n arou nd the
-and European 'tracks " ad to be blamed . " Take a -track like
M o t oc ro ss de s Nat ion s incl uded French man F r e d e r i c
Red Bud (in M ichigan), fo r instance ' - it lias the things in it
that I feel f am better at than anyone else in th e wOrld.'-' sa id Bolley,.who .has ~igned up with Stefan Evert s' HRC Honda '
team to be the reignir:'9 Wor ld Champion's winq'rnan'in tte
Emig.. "Ove rhere . there was nothing that I wos' good at. It
250cc GP's next year, German MX , es Natrona hero Pit
d
'was toug h fo rme because I wasworkinq o ff of-my weakwho's ret uming to
ne ss es: The th ing s, that I'm bad etwe re the things that , ' Reirer , w ho will replace Mike B row n <
Hondo of Troy)' on M ichele . Rinaldi' s C hesterf ield Yamaha
made up this entire track. And itwasnt.that If w as hard packed.'it was. that It was all rock! "
· tea m for t~ 250cc GP s next y ear: and ,Bri tish race hero
.
.
Jame. D o b b . who w;Ugo wit h David Thorpe's CAT·Honda
125cc GP team. . · .
: "
'
.
.
"It was 'a real ,~ig dream for me to w in the M o tocr oss, des
(A bo ve) Britaln 's
Kurt Nicoll gol a
good start and won
the opening mota,
ahead 01 Em ig . A
bad start In Ihe Ihird
mota relegated him
10141h.
(USA /SOO/Koiw); 13. Shay~ King (NZ /250/ KTM); 14
Kur t Nicoll (G B/SOO/ KTM); 15. Berm! Ecke nbac h
(~rmany /500 /K.tw); 16, Michdl K..d lec ek (C 7n"h /
250/ Su,d ; 17. 8u.. t~H1 K,lmJ'"-l