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/128619
FIM W orld Champion ship M X S e r ie s Round 7 : Tib ro Motor stadion/ Ci r cuit L e sTon n e s S T O RY A ND PH OT OS B y A LEX H OD GKI NSO N TIBRO, SWEDEN, JUNE 11 is fi fth win in seven GPs , h is fourth consecutive win in Sweden - the Joel Smets freight trai n continues to roll. His la te st su ccess was at the Tibro Motorsta dion ci rc uit in Swed en , but b efo re S m ets c o ul d cl ai m the win, th e Be lgian h ad to s urvive a firs t -mo to c o lli si on with a rch riva l Marn icq Berv o et s t hat s a w bot h g o down, and th e n he had to a gain battl e to the en d with Bervoe ts in the sec ond m oto , so you m ig h t sa y th at Sm ets ha d to re ally wo rk for this one. Be s ide s the S mets/Bervoets c on fro ntations, there was plenty else to cheer a bout for the m assive Sw ed ish crowd - several thousa nd up on the attenda nce from last week's Fra nco rc hamp s Triple - as S w ed e Pet er Joh a ns s o n took the first -moto win , a nd fellow count ryma n Jocke Karls son round ed out the to p five with the fa cto ry KTMs a nd Yama has in each m oto . Karlsson was the on ly rider on a two -s tro ke to sco re . "I was a little bit luc ky: adm itted a s m iling J oha ns so n after winning ra ce one . "The start is ve ry im porta nt here H (Above) Overall w inner, KTMmounted Joel Smets (3) had a hard time shaking runnerup , Yamaha's Mam icq Bervoets (55) at th e Sw edish 500cc - GP. (Le ft) KTM's Pe ter J ohansson gave th e home crowd a cheer when he won the fi rst m oto. 40 J UN E 28, 2000 ' eye I e n e vv s a n d I t h o u g h t I h a d it, bu t Jo el pu shed m e out in the first c orn er a nd Be rvo e ts n ipped p a s t be fo re I cou ld s ettle a ga in. I m ust admit that I could not q uite ho ld th e ir pace , but I concentrate d o n sta ying clo se enough in case something happe ned." And it d id. "I was faster," Be rvoets clai med. "I kne w th at. I lo st five s econ ds when 1 got tap e in m y rear b rak e ha lfway th rough the ra c e , but whe n 1 had burned it off , I o nly ne ed ed two laps to co me b a c k . T h e n Joe l made a s mall m ista ke a nd I saw my chance . I went fo r th e insi d e, b ut J o e l closed th e door, we c ollided and bot h went down ." Smets put a slig htly differ ent interp re ta tion on it. "I could a lso hav e gone faster : Sm ets said , " b u t I knew Marni cq could follow me no matter how ha rd I went, s o I wa s just concentrating o n keep ing him fr om m y re ar wh e el. Even when we hit th e ba c kma rkers it we nt ok a y , u n til Ze ra va [a la pped ride r]. I s a w th e blue flags , s o I don 't know why he d idn't. He cost me five s econds: I wa s a lre a dy going ins ide hi m when Ma rn ic q trie d to go e ve n tig hte r. Th ere was no p la c e fo r him