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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128332
Championship and his confidence in a
comp let ely
redesigned
facto ry
Husqvarn a meant Seel came to Spa with
high hopes to achieve a full str ike on his
home course. This time, while he was in
the proces s of collecting the jackpot, he
may have been betrayed by a pro bable
excess of confidence, and he simply didn't get the job done.
Afte r getti ng the po le on Saturday,
Seel solidly won the two preliminary
heats, leading from start to finish, followed both times by 2003 run ner-u p
Boris Chambon and factory KTM's Ivan
Lazzarini. The way he won those heats
suggeste d that just the same wou ld happe n in the Super Final, as he obviously
was the fastest guy o n the track. But he
faltered o ff th e line in the Super Final and
had to deal instead wit h close contact
with so me other riders tha t res ulted in a
crash in turn on e. Seel the n jumped back
on the bike dead last .
Seel rode like a man possessed to
come up to seventh on a circuit where
passing is incredibly difficult. While he
didn't win the GP. he prov ed that he w ill
again be the man to beat this year.
The Supe r Final w in (w hich also means
the GP win) went to Italian Ivan Lazzarini,
w ho
w as
making
his
World
Ch ampionship deb ut on the facto ry
KTM . The forme r Husaber g rider had a
consistent race in Belgium. In the two
pre liminary heats he had a coupl e of
goo d third places, but he wasn' t happy
w ith them because of a poor tire choice .
He decided then got the holes hot in the
Super Final and close d the do or on the
field around the first corner, runn ing
away to get his first Wo rld Cham pionship
win. On ly the other Italian, Massimo
Beltrami, now o n a works Husabe rg,
could ride at same pace as Lazzarini for a
while, but Be ltrami went down when trying to get close en ough to attempt an
attack. From there Lazzarini had no
probl em and we nt fo r the win.
Second went to Chambon, who
showed an unex pe cte d and pos itive
aggressiveness . Afterward , Chambon's
main complaint was abo ut the excessive
sliding he suffered during the Super Final
(possibly due to a bad tire choice ), which
meant that he cou ldn't do much to challenge Lazzarini. Third we nt the ot her
Belgian, Gerald Delepine, who debuted
on the factory Husqvarn a and came up
strong in the Supe r Final afte r he didn't
have much luck in motos one and two.
There was big disappointment for Max
Manzo, who was in his first ride on the
factory Apr ilia, the bike suffering stalling
problems that the te am wasn't able to
ove rcome during the GP. After having the
difficulty in both mo to s, the team decided to skip the main even t and focus on
the next GP ove r a mo nth away in
Romania on July 25.
Perhaps even more disappo inting was
the comeback for 2002 World champ
Thierry Van Den Bosch, who wasn't really in optimal physical condition due to a
recent knee injury and who also had to
de al with an unfortunate clutch pro blem
at beginning of rnoto two. But despite all
th at , he put in an im pressive ride in the
Super Final coming up from last places
to sixth .
S2
Making its wo rld deb ut, the S2 division
tu rned out to be rea lly challenged to be
very competitive des pite the tota l do minance of Italian Davide Gozzini. The class
bro ught many positive attri butes to the
se ries, among them the introduction of
new supe rmoto mode ls by Aprilia and
the new com pany Terra Mod ena.
Fro m the first free practice it was
o bvious that factory Husqvarna's Gozz ini
woul d be a top contender. Desp ite riding
a machine still to be properly deve loped ,
the Italian showed incred ible speed and
dete rmination . He won all he could win,
the two motos and the Super Final,
which along w ith the two SI motos won
by Seel, gave Husqvarna an incredib le
day.
Second overall we nt to another Italian
specialist, Massimo Verderosa, who in
previous years raced the European series
and is a newcomer into the wo rld ranks.
He was supposed to be a factory
Vertemati rider but instead preferred
putti ng toget her his own team supported
by HM Hon da in Italy. He rode consiste ntly through the e ntire day to land sec ond in the provisional standings in front
of the young Fre nch tale nt , Fabrice
Leaconet (facto ry KTM).
Aprilia had two riders in this class, and
they bo th did well. Two-time MX Worl d
Champion Fred Bolley really showed
some good speed, es pecially in the second heat. wh ere he finished second not
far beh ind Gozzini. Bolley appeared to be
rea dy to challenge Gozzini in the main
eve nt, but a nat tire forced him to pull
ove r. He would head ho me pre tty disappo inted at not being able to prove what
he could do .
Jerome Giraudo , the other Aprilia
rider, had an eve n more cons iste nt weekend , and in Sunday 's Super Final he also
got a brilliant holeshot. For a few laps he
kept Gozzini behind him, but then with
so much pres sure from behind he used
most of his energy and suddenly had to
slow down a little bit to complete all 24
laps. Gozzin i first, then Verderosa and
Leaconet passed Giraudo .
Spa was also the awaited debut for
new manufacturer Terra Modena . but the
way things went suggested that the team
sho uld have wait ed one more month
before ente ring the se ries. In fact bo th
ride rs, Ste phan Thiebaul t and Michele
Lavett i, never co uld race in optimal con ditions, as the bike was far from being
ready for the demanding challenges of a
world competition . To be fair, part of the
Terra Moden a's R&D time crunch was
due to the early termination of its part nersh ip with Massimoto Team, the entity
previously supposed to run the racing
Davide Gouini won the new 52 division
for Husqvarna.
prog ram. Terra Modena then op ted for
an in-ho use racing department and obv iously had to deal w ith the requisite
preparation issues, which were well
reflected by the several unfortunate
accide nts t he team went into through
the weekend . Before any conclusion
regarding th e potential o f t he new
mach ine can be made , the team will
need to tak e the time to deve lo p its
equipment and to st ructure the race
program the prope r way. It wi ll have
one more month before the GP of
Romania to ge t its bearings.
eN
5PA fRANCH OR CHAMPS, BELG IUM
RE SU LT J UN E 19-20, 200 4 (ROUN D
S:
I!
51 SUPER FINA L (241. ps): I. Ivan Lazzari" (KTM);
2. ~s Chambon (KTM); 3. Gerald ~epine (Hus); ...
MasSImo Belt ram i (Hbg); S. Bernd Hiemer (Hus); 6.
Th'."Y van den Bosch (KTM); 7. Eddy See! (Hus); 8.
Man:.1 Goetz (KTM); 9. Gnzioo-.> R.spoIi (\'<>r); 10. Marc
0We0- Nsne