Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

~I FIM Worl d Championship 5 0 0 c c M otocros s Series R o u n d 1 0 : C ulham Motocros s C u r cuit d -- .. Joel Smets won yet another 500cc MX GP and is set to break the singleseason a ll-time GP w in record . Heikki Mikkola , who ba ck in 1977 . B y G EOFF M EYER CCll.HAM, ENGlAND,JULY9 I f ever a rider was in a record -b reak - ing m ood it has to be KTM- m ount- ed Joel Sme ts . The Belgia n wo nd er , who won the Br it ish 500cc Grand Prix won the Dutch, Swedish, Finish, West German and Italian 500cc GPs on the trot. Srnets, with his Br it ish win , is now eq ua l to Mikkola (Smets has wo n in on Jul y 9 wit h 1-1 r e su lts , is n ow Be lgium , Fra nce , Sweden , Belgium a n d Engla nd) . B a c k in 1967 Paul Friedrichs won eight GPs in a single about to br eak th e all-time recor d for most consecutiv e Grand Prix ov eralls. The old record belongs to Finish rid er season , and no 500cc GP rid er has b een a ble to m atch that t ot a l , no t Rog er DeC oster . not Da ve Thorp e , 54 J ULY 26. 2000 ' cu e I e n e VIl' s not Andrea Marlherbe , and not eve n Eri c Geboers , with the British GP ov er all , Smets has eight for th e 2000 season . Expect him to wi n at least one of the next six GPs and be co me the new record ho lder. Record number three for the season , back in 1992 Kurt N ic oll h ad won seven motos in a row , Smets with h i s two w ins i n Eng land also h a s sev en , alt ho ug h , in '9 2 , Gr and s Prix were run over t he three-mota for mat. Of co u rse , t he one r ec o rd Sm et s is eyeing is t he m ost 500cc Gra nd Prix overa lls , tha t record belon gs to Roger DeCoster w it h 36 . Sm ets has 31 and wi th six GPs remain ing , don 't count Smets out on t hat one in t h e yea r 2000. "I don 't count on taking records ." Smets said. "I'm not like Stefan Everts who looks at that sort of stuff. When I was 17 years old. I just wa nted to be a G ran d Prix rider , my aim is to win every ti m e I go out and if tha t brings reco rds , the n great. " Having pointed out that Sm ets is on fire this seaso n, lets ta k e a look at hi s Br it ish Grand Pr ix results. On a wet and w indy Culham tra ck in Southern England , Sm ets rod e rough shot over his 500cc rivals . Added to the slaugh ter was Iris h 250c c GP ride r, Gordan C ro ckard . Crock ard h as re ceiv ed a wild ca rd ride from th e British Fed erat io n and havi ng c om e of f a brilliant third overa ll in th e prev iou s w eek's 250cc G P, was expe cted to giv e Smets some trouble. It did not turn out that way . Saturday's qualification , run in sunshine, showed Smets was aga in t he quickest, second pl ac e was defending cham pi on, Andrea Bartolin i. with Mar nicq Berv oets in third . Croc k ard wo uld manage sev enth p lac e , and al read y an y dream he had of match ing the four-stro k e ma ch in e s wa s o ve r , Crockard wa s th e qu ick est tw o -strok e on th e track th ough . Sunda y m orn ing b rou gh t ty p ic a l rai n to Eng land an d , just like th e prev iou s m onth ' s F ox ill GP , th e c ro wd spent a good part o f th e da y und er umbrellas. Smets proved too go od in the first mota, tak in g a win ahead of Bervoets, Crocka rd , Bart olini, Peter Johansson, Darryll King . Gert -Ja n Va n D o o rn . W illie Van Wessels, Marcel van Drun en a nd Ja mes M a r c h in 10 th p lace . Berv o et s k new hi s day was done as soo n as Smets got a sm all lead. " I fel t I was f a st er than Srnets ," Bervo ets said . " B u t th en I c r as he d really hard and lost too much time on him."

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