Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

MOTOCROSS Bound 10: La Citadelle de Namur W R DCHAMPIONSHIP OL 500Cc SERIES By Alex Hodgkinson A 8 NAMUR, B ELGIUM, AUG. 2 e ca m e , h e sa w, a n d h e co n quered . World 250cc Motocros s Champ ion Stefan Eve rts even had tim e fo r a glass of iced tea on the fina l lap of racing as he demoralized the 500cc Grand Prix op position in his wild-card appearance at Na mu r. The Citade lle has a new king! But the oth er big winner of the d ay w as Joe l Smets, who moved to wit h in on e s te p o f hi s third World tit le b y ou tscoring his sole remainin g rival, Darryll Kin g . An d rea Bartoli n i's s ea so n, meanwhile, ended with a br oken femur. Sme ts mad e life difficu lt for himself in race one - on a track where overtaking is always diffi cult - by tan gling wi th Peter Johansson and Shayne King cornin g ou t of th e ga te: Th eir abse nce left plenty of room going into the first tum for Rob Her ring and Bernd Eckenbach. Eckenba ch , though, wa s soo n dro ppi ng down the lead erboard . "I tensed up right away and this is no place to take risks," the German said. "If you crash here, you hit a tree." Herring was su ffering similarly, but suc h is the nature of the track that he was able to w ithsta nd every ch allenge for half t he race before Everts and Bartolini sneaked past. On the very next lap the complexion of the race changed completely. Su ddenly Evert s came arou nd alon e with a lead of mor e than 20 seconds. "I wa s on the limit to stay with Stefan , but no t ov er it," Bartolini said . "I clip ped a tree w it h m y shou ld er a nd .handlebars and fell dow n. It was only a s ma ll cr as h, bu t it wa s a n aw kw a rd place to restart ." H e ha d just re moun ted w he n Herring a nd Darryll Kin g arrived on th e scene . "And rea was rollin g back across the track," Herring sa id . "I tried to s nea k insi de and hit his fron t wheel. I d idn' t come 'o ff, but I lost a lot of time." King was less for tunate. "I was righ t behind Rob, an d And rea roll ed in to my pa th," King said. "I got pu shed ri gh t off the track th rou gh the tra ck markers in to th e bushes. I must have lost 40 seconds." Indeed he d id, for a t the end of the lap he was 45 seconds d own on Eve rts . Bartolin i, mean while, was ou t of the race. "Th e throttl e ca b le go t ripped off when Darryll hi t my bik e," he said later . These escapades suddenly put Smets se cond , but he was back down to seven th by the end of the lap . . "Just a stu p id mi stake," Sme ts said later. "I was just far eno ug h back to be able to miss Bartolini, and I was .sud denly second and feeling so good . I gu ess I was too confiden t. Just on e lapse of con- e centra tion on the big clim b back to the Esplanade and I crashed. On ce I go t up, I didn't wan ted to push my luck too far and settled for safe points." Joh ansson had a hard rid e to snatch second from Herrin g two lap s from the end, whil e Shayn e Kin g s u d d e n ly regained his form to come hom e fourth an amazing p erf ormance, si nce h e'd ventured into the woods on the first lap in 25th place. Onl y the Swed ish Yam aha rid er prevented a two-stroke 1-2-3, qu ite a cha n ge i n a cl a s s w her e th e m o st r ecent two -s tro ke win was so me 51 weeks ago w he n the now-retired Kurt N icoll wo n in Luxembourg. It d efinitel y w asn't Bartolini ' s d ay . H e ga te d b adly in r a ce tw o a n d hi s n eighbor Sme ts immediately pu ll ed across his path, leavin g the Italian 13th as the pack dis appeared into the woods. But he was 33rd w hen they reemerged , clearl y havin g cras he d again. After 20 minutes he was ba ck to 15th, but then Stefan Everts rode a Honda CR500 in a CR250 chass is to win both motos of the Belgian 500cc Grand Prix in Namu r. came the fateful cras h - his fron t wheel nose-d iving over the jump back into the main arena, with Bar tolini going d own ha rd . "The track d octor says he has broken h is ri ght femur," sai d Yamaha team manager Hannu Heinonen. "We don't

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