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FIM World Championship M9tocross Series Round 3: Eurocircuit South African 17·year....ld Grant Langston rode his KTM 125 to a domination of both motos during the 125cc GP on Saturday. Langston now holds a 13·point lead three races Into the championship season. STORY AND PHOTOS By ALEX HODGKINSON VALKENSWAARD, HOLLAND, APR. 8/9 sandy Eurocircuit in Valenswaard, 1 Holland, was the site of the firstever tripleheader GP race, and nearly everybody went home happy: KTM won three motos; Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda each had a win; while Kawasaki, Husqvarna, TM and VOR all took a top-three placing. And just about every nation grabbed a piece of the podium pie before all was said and done. The triple-header format was a first in GP history where all three GP classes were held at the same venue on the same weekend. The 125cc class was held on Saturday and the 250 and 500cc classes were run on Sunday. And how was the whole thing received? Seemingly quite well, but the new format didn't go off without a few hitches, of course. After all, this was the first race of its kind and glitches were certainly to be expected. """e 14 APRIL 26, 2000' cue • e Roughly 9000 spectators turned out for Saturday's 125cc race, while' nearly twice that many made it out for Sunday's GPs. South African Grant 'Langston came away with Saturday's 125cc win, while Suzuki's Mickael Pichon and Yamaha's Marnicq Bervoets came out on top of the 250 and 500cc GPs, respectively. For Bervoets, it was his first-ever overall win in the 500cc class. . As for the Americans in Holland, only Trampas Parker, on the factorybacked TM, made it to the podium in the overall results. He finished out the 125cc GP in third place, and finishing two places behind him was Hondamounted Mike Brown. Jeff Dement had no luck whatsoever in Holland, and neither did Scott Sheak. Dement failed to finish either 125cc moto after running out of gas and then bending his bike in a crash, while Sheak re-injured his troublesome shoulder. Ryan Hughes was not ready to race in Holland, his hand still healing n e _ 51; from his get-off in Portugal two weeks earlier. 125GP The 125s provided the best action of the weekend. Norwegian Kenneth Gundersen apart, English-speaking riders dominated the racing, with Grant Langston taking the expected double win to build on his consistent scores in the first two rounds of the series. The South African led every lap of each moto but didn't holeshot either one of them. "The two races were a carbon copy, though," Langston said. "Camerlengo [took the] holeshot, and I was second both times. I passed him exactly the same place on the first lap each race." In the opener, the 17-year-old quickly escaped into the distance and was already seven-seconds clear by the time archrival James Dobb got through to second after 10 minutes. "I just can't get out of the gate," Dobb said. "I'm over 80 kilos [176 pounds], too big for a 125 really. The KTM is really strong and I'm usually top six, but Grant is 10 kilos [22 pounds 1 lighter with the same power. I set myself the goal of finishing on the podium every week, and winning as often as possible. The only problem is Grant is doing the same thing, and he usually seems to be one place in front of me. I could have gone faster, but I'm sure Grant could have done so too. There was no point in pushing it too hard when I was so far back." The final top three placings were settled the lap after Dobb hit second when Gundersen snatched third. "I had no problems catching Dobb, but I couldn't pass him and lost my rhythm," Gunderson said. "In the end, I didn't want to put my first podium in danger, so I backed off." Behind the KTM freight train, there was plenty of action, but fourth place eventual~ went deservedly to Carl Nunn. The previous weekend's double winner had to get there the hard way. "When the gate dropped I didn't move," Nunn said. "We've got some sort of electronic problem. The motor spluttered halfway down the start straight, then suddenly cleared, but I was dead last. I knew I had to get through the backmarkers quickly, and I really went for it on lap one." The 125s swarm through the first tum at the start of moto number one.