And Stefan Everts is superstitious: yesterday he was wearing a yellow gear but he wanted a blue one for today. Sunday colour for Everts is only blue and it brings him luck.
That luck, combined with his talent and his strong will, finally brought him there: to the Olympus of Motocross, with a Ten World Titles crown.
Stefan dominated both motos: he really wanted to make his crowd happy and so he did. In the first moto people waited a bit because Melotte was leading the group for the first two laps: Stefan made the move in the third lap then Melotte was passed also by Ramon in the following lap. While Everts was keeping his fast pace up, Ramon was chased by Coppins who moved past the Belgian in the eleventh lap.
The New Zealander crashed a all Belgian top two but the crowd did not look that sad because the D-Day was coming closer and closer. Runner up Strijbos made to end the race with eighth after having lapped in tenth place for almost the entire race.
First laps leader Melotte was fourth and behind him there was another Belgian rider, De Dycker.
In the second moto Everts dominated from the start. While Coppins and Melotte were fighting for the holeshot, the virtual Champion sneaked through them and got the lead. Full gas till the end, the “virtual” became “real” and a few seconds after the beginning of the last lap all the Yamaha Team guys were putting on a special T-shirt that was displayed at the podium. It was the gadget celebrating the 10th Title and it was also the start of a special celebration with Youthstream President
Many presents for Stefan today, but the most important ones came from FIM/CMS President Wolfgang Srb and Youthstream President
And with Stefan Everts, of course, who was given a red plate with the number 72 by
The King launching his crown to the crowd
In the second moto Coppins tried his hardest to stay close to the rival but after some laps he decided to secure second and avoid risks. Stefan was too far and neither Ramon tried to close the gap: he had not such a good start and he could not manage the race as he wanted. Strijbos brought fourth place home and ended an unlucky weekend characterized by yesterday’s crash in the practice session. Stefan’s team mate Melotte ended the top five.
Today was definitely Everts’ day, with the Belgian rider finally making to conquer a World Title in his home GP in front of 30 thousand people going mad for their Champion. And it was also Stefan’s son birthday: 2 years old for young Liam and 10 Titles old for his father; it is a nice age for a motocross rider and this event was definitely an important mark in history of Motocross.
With such MX1 racing, almost all eyes could have kept focused on the top class but it did not happen because of two exciting MX2 heats.
Cairoli won the GP thanks to two back to back wins.
In the first race Cairoli lead from Philippaerts during the first 2 laps then the KTM rider passed and started pushing. He was too hard on the gas and hit the green net by the track. It rolled on his back wheel and made his slow down quite a bit; Cairoli passed him and rode smoothly to the win while Philippaerts made to keep Christophe Pourcel behind. The Championship leader did third despite some problems with the suspension and his brother Sebastien grasped fourth after a final battle with De Reuver, fifth at the chequered flag. Rattray crashed at the first lap and finished seventeenth.
Pourcel Christophe stormed out of the gate at the start of the second moto but ran wide at the first turn. Cairoli got the lead after a crash at the first jump where also De Reuver, Mackenzie and Philippaerts got involved; while the Italian defending Champion kept the lead for the entire race, Pourcel Christophe had a crash during the sixth lap while he was second. Also Philippaerts crashed again and went out of the race while Christophe re entered in fourth place, passed his brother, passed Nunn and secured second place. Nunn arrived third and Rattray was fourth after he had passed Sebastien Pourcel at the tenth lap.
Sebastien was fifth in the second moto but he went on the podium in third place behind his brother Christophe.
Pourcel family podium but the winner was Cairoli
There were no important changes in the MX2 standings while in the MX1 ones, aside from first place having been locked by Everts, De Dycker moved up to fourth and Leok dropped down to fourth. The Estonian today crashed in the first moto and the second one was conditioned by pain coming from the previous crash.
The FIM Veteran Motocross World Cup was won by Thierry Godfroid in the Senior class. The Frenchman won also the second moto after he grasped the first win yesterday: as he said, his hardest rivals were Jo Martens, second in the Cup, and Jean Charles Tonus, third.
In the Veteran class the second moto was won again by Marc Van Den Brink. Thanks to two back to back wins he also won the Cup, with Harry Everts grasping the silver place and Stephen How finishing third.
The next World Championship round will be in Desert Martin, Northern Ireland, the 27th of August.