CN CON
on and Masehio ele
wo Frenchman stood atop the podium
at the Grand Prix of Europe, as Tiscali
Honda rider Mickael Pichon won the
MX I class and factory Kawasaki rider
Mickael Maschio cleaned up in the
MX2 class. In front of 18,000 spectators and under
cloud -covered skies , the French riders produced consistent results to make a day
neither rider will soon forget .
With four rounds left to run , both
class points leaders had a real
chance of clinchingtheir respective titles in Germany.
However, after this weekend, Ben Townley, in MX2,
and Stefan Everts, in
MX I, will have to wait
one more week to
finally be crowned
World Champions. As
for Pichon, he knew
going into Gaildorf
that he had a real
chance of postponing
Everts' title celebration.
" I've ridden every
weekend for the last two
months and I am feeling
really strong on the bike,"
Pichon said. "I knew if I could
T
40th Anniversary
get a break on EvertS, he could not follow my lines
and he would struggle to match my speed."
Maschio, of the Jan De Groot Kawasaki team , had
a great Grand Prix, carding his first victo ry of the year,
but it didn't come easily. Maschio crashed hard on
Saturday, giving himself a concussion . The former
World 125cc Motocross Champio n never gave up,
though , and fought back to take the victory, just ahead
of fellow Frenchman Sebast ien Pourcel and Italian
Claudio Federici.
"Yesterday was difficult because of the crash in practice," Maschio said. "But I was surprised with my good
start in the heat and I did not find it difficult to win;
maybe the crash helped me . The new engine was bette r for the starts and also riding."
In the MX I class, Pichon got the first-mote
holeshot , but Everts was on his rear wheel by the sec ond corner. Pichon made a little gap but crashed on
the fifth lap and lost more time as he tried to restart
his Honda. From then on, he wasn't able to catch
Everts, who won the first mota, followed by Pichon,
Joshua Coppins and Kawasaki rider Antoine Meo.
In the second mota, Pichon got another great
start, but this time Everts wasn't so lucky, as he got a
bad jump out of the gate and rode out of control into
the first corner. However, Everts was able to come
back to third after one lap and then, a few laps later,
he passed Steve Ramon for the second spot. Everts'
spirited charge to the front wasn't enough to stop
Pichon, though, and with each lap that went by,
