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FIM World Championship Motocross Series Final Round: Kartenring held those records for so long, and ever since I began racing motocross STORY AND PHOTOS BY GEOFF MEYER KLAGENFURT,AUSTRLI\,SEPT.23 tefan Everts finally sewed up the 2001 500cc World Motocross Championship, and in so doing, he became only the second rider in history to take World MX titles in all three divisions, and the second rider to lay claim to the tag Mr. 875 (500 + 250 + 125). Despite some hesitation in the final rounds, the year has been 12 OCTOBER 3,2001 • cue •• a good one for Everts: Not only did he match the three-class mark of his countryman Erik Geboers, but he equaled the long-standing record of yet another Belgian - Joel Robert for most career GP victories (at 50, in Belgium), and this crown (his fifth) puts him just one championship away from also equaling Robert's record of six FIM World titles. The Rinaldi Yamaha rider, who missed most of the past two seasons with injuries, n __ lIS returned once again to the top, and he did so in convincing fashion, building enough of an early advantage by winning seven of the first nine GPs that he had plenty to spare when he went off the boil in the later going (failing to score a single win in the last five rounds). "I have also looked to Robert's records as my motivation to continue," Everts said after the title-clinching final round in Austria. "He has back in the mid-1980s, it's his records that I have wanted the most. Today I was able tQ climb a step closer to that sixth World crown, and maybe next year I can obtain the 51 st GP victory." As for his late slip, Everts was not concerned, pointing out that he was being conservative, and that his primary rival - 2000 champ and Austria winner Joel Smets - is a worthy opponent. "I knew after winning the Belgian Grand Prix back in August that the championship was mine to lose," Everts told. "Maybe I started thinking about the championship, although Mamicq Bervoets and Joel Smets are great riders and I am not disappointed by those two beating me in the last few GPs. My aim was to win a World Championship - my fifth - and I was not about to crash out trying to win Grands Prix. I didn't need to be explosive - I needed to keep rAy points lead." Nonetheless, "conservative" didn't describe the early going of the 500cc moto. When heavy rain began falling on the Kartenring circuit, it was obvious to all that Everts and Smets would be playing mind games, but no one could have predicted the lap-one exchange of positions between the two Belgians. Smets and Everts just went at it, and one would have forgotten that all Everts needed were three points to stop Smets from regaining the championship. By lap two, though, things had settled down, and it became clear that the win would go to Smets and the crown to Everts. As the moto closed down, a huge number of Everts' fans lined- the track, awaiting the closure of the 2001 season and the crowning of their hero. In the other two motos of the day, the 250cc class went to alreadycrowned 2001 World Champion Mickael Pichon, the Frenchman's Corona Suzuki heading Rinaldi Yamaha's Pit Beirer and Kawasaki's Chad Reed, while the 125cc race was the realm of Champ KTM's Erik Eggens, who was followed by Yamaha rider Luigi Seguy and Kawasaki-mounted Steve Ramon.