Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Belgian Stefan Everts was distraught after having to pull out of the second 125cc moto with a flat rear tire. Jeff Emig was America's best perfonner, recording 1-2 moto finishfS in the 125cc class. ·· G . . 14 not troubled by the injury during racing. Second-fastest outright in free practice and best in the 250cc class was B~lgian Yamaha pilot Bervoets with a time of 2:10.713, fractionally ahead. of French ace Bayle on his Ron Hebentuned Honda CR500 at 2:10.791. Bayle did not even ride the first one-hour session, holding back for the drier second session, and promptly getting on the leading pace in only a handful of laps. LaRocco was fourth-fastest in the 250cc class at 2:12.386, while Emig was best of the 125cc pilots with a time of 2:14.805. Riders from America, Belgium, Holland and France dominated the free practice times, leading many European teams to speculate tqat this year the American squad looked more vulnerable than ever - particularly. without "superstars" such as Jeff Stanton and Damon Bradshaw on the team. Belgian team leader Jobe explained: "Bayle may well be the fastest guy on the track on Sunday, but his team is not so strong because the other two guys are not so strong in the sand. I think the Belgian team has three riders who can gdclose to winning each class. Most of the teams have two very strong riders, but not three," Jobe said. He . . ··0···."'·····1···;···.·:·· .,~ ,< .•. , , ' . also added that the American team, and i.o particular MX des Nations firsttimers LaRocco and Emig, looked more beatable than American teams of the past decade. Jobe was a member of the Belgian team that won the MX des Nations in 1980, and with his retirement looming at the end of the year, the 31-year-old, five-time World Champion was hopeful of ending his career on a high note with another MX des Nations victory. Moto 1 - 125/500cc After a one-hour morning warm-up session and a parade of riders in fourwheel-drive vehicles around. the circui t, each team's 125 and 500cc class riders lined up at the 32-rider start gate for the commencement of the first 30minute plus-two'iap moto. As soon as the gate dropped and' the field blasted down the almost billiardtable smooth, graded start straight to the hairpin right first turn, the tone of the moto was set. Bayle got a strong start from the outside, and he looked across to the inside as.he hit the brakes for the first turn. Seeing no one next to him, Bayle squared off the turn and simply ran off into the distance. After four laps Bayle was six seconds ahead of the battle for second place between Nicoll, Jobe and Liles. After eight laps the gap was 14 seconds. And when the checkered flag came out after 16 laps, Bayle had cruised to an easy 18-second win, barely raising a sweat. "I just made a good start and then rode my own pace," said 'Bayle afterwards. While Bayle cruised up front, the fight for second place was on in earnest between Nicoll, Liles and Jobe. 'Nicoll had charged out of turn two in second place on his factory KTM, and after four laps was holding off the challenges of regular 500cc World Championship rivals Jobe and Liles. On lap five Jobe attempteq to stuff his Cinti Honda beneath the Englishman in a sandy right turn in the infield, but lost the front end and crashed, dropping back to fourth. Liles moved up to take his turn attacking Nicoll on lap six, and after probing for two laps, blasted past on lap eight as the pair raced through an uphill section at the back of the course. "Bayle was long gone," Liles admitted after the race. "So I just settled fbr second place." Behind Bayle, Liles crossed the finish line in second place, almost six seconds ahead of Nicoll, with another two seconds back to Jobe in fourth. Crossing the line fifth, with a stunning first 125cc was Emig, who had wrung out his Yamaha YZ125 for the entire distan(;e. Emig beat Belgian 125cc rider Everts, who at one stage had moved close enough to hit Emig in a desperate passing move. Both riders went down in the altercation, with Emig remounting first and holdIng his standing on the track. Everts crossed the line in sixth overall and second 125cc, but 17 seconds down on Emig. When questioned about his clash with Everts, Emig responded, ''I'm not worried about that. The race went. pretty much as I planned. The bike is perfect and finishing that high up was great." Husqvarna 360cc-mounted Danish rider Jesper Kjaer Jorgensen finished. seventh, with Dutch rider Remy Van Rees finishing eighth on the track and third in the 125cc class. Two 500cc class riders, local Aussie Jason Marshall and Sweden's Marcus Hansson rounded out the top 10 placings. Moto 2 - 125/250cc The second moto saw Englishman Rob Herring snare the holeshot and quickly open a two-second lead over Frenchman Yves Demaria and Bervoets. After an average start, LaRocco worked his Kawasaki up to fifth place by the end of lap one. But back at the first turn, a pile-up had taken down Czechoslovakia's Miros Kucirek, Swedish 125cc rider Joakim Karlsson and Emig, among others. . After his brilliant first-moto performance, Emig's fortunes had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. "Going into the first turn I could see what was going to happen and I knew I was going to get tangled up in the mess, but there wasn't much I could do," said Emig. "After the crash, I just rushed to get back on my bike as fast as possible. All I could think about was going as hard as 1 could and making as many places as I could. I just went for it and started passing guys anywhere and everywhere and just didn't give up until the finish." While Herring continued to set the pace, with Bervoets and LaRocco settling into second and third, respectively, by lap. four, Emig set about mowing through the field. After ·remounting second-to-last from the turn-one crash, Emig charged through to 12th after 15 minutes of the 30minute plus two-lap race. Twenty minutes into the race, Emig had broken into the top 10 and was still charging. Up front Herring crashed, allowing Bervoets. and LaRocco through to the top two positions. "I was coming down one of the hills over at the back of the circuit, when I caught the front wheel in some sand and it spat me over the bars," said Herring. "I wasn't hurt or anything, but it dropped me back to third." Clearly at home in the rough and sandy conditions, Bervoets turned in one of the best performances of his career. He held off occasional challenges from LaRocco, who never quite got close enough to make a pass stick. A delighted Bervoets took the checkered flag a scant five-hundredths of a second ahead of fast-finishing LaRocco, with early race leader Herring close behind in third. Another 250cc rider, Sweden's Peter Johansson finished fourth ahead of 'the top 125cc rider, Holland's Van Rees in fifth. German 250cc rider Dietmar Lacher finished sixth, less than one-10th of a second ahead of Emig, who blasted through the fiel~ to finish seventh ontrack and an incredible second in the 125cc class. DeMaria, Karlsson and' French Yamaha 125cc rider Frederic Bolley rounded out the top 10, but the performance of the moto was that of Emig. "I've got to admit that I think that was one of my best-ever rides," Emig said afterwards. "I knew I had to get back up there and get a high placing in class to keep the team in the running. I knew I just had to go for it, so I did." After the race, Emig revealed that he had ridden both motos with a badly swollen thumb and first finger, having injured his left hand in a crash in the morning's warm-up session. After two motos, the American team had a combined total of seven points from Emig's first-mota class w~n, and second-place finishes in class by Liles iil race one, and Emig and LaRocco in the second mota. The Belgian team also had seven points, but from just three results, after 125cc rider Everts went out of moto two with a flat rear tire. Everts dropped his stricken Suzuki on the infield midway through the race, sat atop his bike and put his head between his knees, distraught at being forced out of the mota and denting the chances of his Belgian team for the victpry they so desperately wanted. If Belgian riders

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