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/128012
By Chri s J onn um Photos by Karl Oc ke rt BUDDS CREEK, MD,SEPT. 12 e fo re we ge t s ta r te d h ere , w e s ho u ld probabl y es ta b lish o ne th ing : Stefan Eve r ts a nd Ke v in Wind ham are two of th e ni cest g uys you' re ever likely to meet. And although the former did indeed recen tly ma ke s o me d ero gatory comm ent s ab out Ameri can rid ers (see sidebar) , and the latter did ind eed take seriou s exce ption, both wou ld probabl y prefer to just put this whole feud bu sin ess behind them . But that doesn 't make for good copy, so let' s capitalize on a perfect op po rtu nity to indu lge in a bit of corny jingoism ... On a warm summer's day in the shadow of ou r na tio n's capital, a clean-cut you ng man from Louisiana d efend ed the ho nor of the stars and stripes, narrowly defeatin g a dastardl y Belgian rival. Never min d th a t Wind ha m, the b rig ht-eye d Yank, was a decided underdog to Everts, a four-time MX champion of this planet. Jus t two weeks ea rlier, the villain had declared American riders "cowards," and had p ro claimed Europea n rid e rs "the best," so even a fter wa tching from third p lace as Everts rul ed th e fir st moto , Wind ham dug deep down in to his redblood ed American heart and dominated the second outi ng to take the overall " i n. No, the d ate was not Jul y 4, bu t it !Vas Scott Goggles rep Bevo Fort i's 50th birth day, which was as good a da y as any to be a chest-thumping, flag-wavin g, pat riotic aficionado of American motocross. Th en ag a in, ma ybe it was n ' t, si nce onl y a cla ime d 4817 root ers were on hand, and not all of those we re Ame ricans (ther e w ere a few Union Jack-clad Brits, and one local Bened ict Arnold was even wavin g a German flag aro und) . A d e a r t h o f t op Am e r ican rid ers co n tr ibuted to th e low turnout, but th at wa sn't all: Within a sho rt drive on race day were Farm Aid, a season-o pening Red skins game a nd a NASCAR even t the night before. "I'm very proud to be an Am er ican," said Windham after his victory. "1 reall y wa nt to just let it be kn own how w ornout we a re af ter doing 28 ra ces. I can und erstand why an American wo uld n't B wa nt to come and do this race, because it' s been nose to the gri n ds tone h ere since last Janu ary." O h , yes , Bu d d s C reek was also the site this d ay of another matt er of so me impor t, to wh ich we sho u ld no doub t (gru dg ing ly) call your atten tion: A new Wor ld Cha m pion was cro wn ed, and no, h e is no t an America n (tho ug h h e is clean -cut and bright-eyed ). In fact, he's Fren ch - Fred eri c Belley, to be precise, and he utilized this fina l round of the 250cc GP circu it to sew up his title over se ries ri val Pit Beirer, from Ge rma ny (take that, Benedict Arn old). " 1 d on 't kn ow ye t - it' s too ea rly," lau gh ed Bel ley, draped in a Fren ch flag after the race . "It' s reall y, rea lly nice . .Everything's nice ." . It was a lso a good da y for Honda fans to ches t-thump, for tha t's jus t wh at CR rid ers d id to the competitio n (wit h roos t); th e top th ree overa ll positions were all filled bv Hon da riders (on thr ee sepa ra te t e a~s ) ~ th e new ch a m p is Hond a-m oun ted, and Hond a won th e series' Manufacturer s title. MOTOON E Warnin g , cli che , a hea d : If yo u' re go ing to talk the talk , you 've go t to walk the wa lk, and Eve rts d id just that with a holes hot-t o-checkers tro u nci ng of the field in the 40-minute-p lus-two-Iap first Did he mean it? B elgian Stefan Everts stirred up qu ite a hornets nest with his qu ote to Cycle News Eu ropea n corres po ndent An drew Clubb two issu es ag o. Said Everts the n, "It is there (Budds Creek) that I wis h to pro ve a point that the Eu ropea n GP rid ers are still the best motocross rid ers in the world. No lon ger do the Am ericans come to Euro pe to race motocross, so I really believe th ey a re real cowa rds, and th a t Eu ro p ea ns a re th e b est a t mot ocro ss." Those word s were the overw hel ming top ic of in tern et chat rooms within hours of their publishing. Could Everts really have said such a thing? And if so, did he really mean it? Eric John son , another CN contributor, called the four-time World Champion days before the Budd s Creek round for an explanat ion. "Yeah, probably people don ' t like it if you say those things," admitted Everts, "but what kind of wo rd can I use tha t is a dif ferent for m - ma yb e not so harsh ?" Co ntinue d Everts, "You know, I used to co me to the Unad illa USGr and ge t my ass kicked , but I had the gu ts to do it...(Budds Cree k) could have been th e best race of the year - even better than the MX des Nations." At the event , Everts said, "Wha t I really mean is, now we have a GP, the gu ys don 't have a season to think of, our season is ending, and now most of the (AMA) guys say , 'We're not rid ing: I know the guys had-a long season her e in the Sta tes, bu t this kind ,of race should motivate you. We've got all the best rid ers from Europe against all the bes t riders in America - ill America. Most of the time the gu ys come in Europe, race des Na tions, an d then they say , 'Yeah, the track is a little d isad vantage: Now we 're here, now they have their track. Everythi ng is here, and most of them pull off. That kind of disappoints me." Perhap s unsurprisingly, the only thing wa rm abou t Everts ' w elcome near the nation's cap ital was the weather (see ph oto). (Above) Having sc rapped all seas on long, Freder ic Bolley (5) and Pit Beirer (3) sc rapped one las t time at Budds Creek, with Bolley ea rning the crown. Here, they mix it up with Brian J o'rgens en (57), Mickael Pichon (11 2), and Everts (2). heat. The Radson Honda rider's ear ly lea d prom pted conjecture as to whether team ma nager Dave Grant would have Eve rts pla y tea m tact ics, as tea m mat e Bolley was mired back in seven th, whil e Beir er was up in second . . Beirer, who had led most of the season before losing the points lead a t the prev iou s rou nd , need ed as man y riders A merica n Ke vi n Wi ndham's late decision to co n tes t Bu d d s Creek w a s in la rge p a r t in sp ir ed by Everts' comment (p re pa ration for the MX d es Na tions in Bra zil was a not her r ea son): "Tha t did d e fi nit el y pi ss m e off, a n d I ยท t h in k it's a p rett y bo ld sta teme nt to talk abou t all Americans in ge nera l - esp ecia lly after we' ve just come off o f 28 races . So that fueled my fire. It's real easy to talk a bunch of cra p, but I'm just going to go ou t there and try and rid e the best I can: ' In the pressro om between mo tos while a nothe r rider was being in terviewed , Everts was ov erheard saying salta voce to Windham, "Do n' t take this whole situation too seriously. I still have a lot of respect for you guys: ' Windham's d em eanor was cou rteous, bu t cold . Greg Albertyn was an old GP riva l of Everts' before com ing to the States, a nd w hen asked if there' s still any hard feelings, he replied , "Not any more. I nev er race against the gu y. It's jus t that he gets hims elf in a lot of tro uble by th ings he says, just sho u ting his mouth off very easily. It was the sa me w hen I lived in Europe." That's possib le, but perhaps Eve rts isn ' t as careless as he see ms . When asked w hy he sai d it, th e Belgian laugh ed , "It's free advertising for me." en en en ~ N N ~ Q) .c E Q) a. Q) en 7