MX500

Stefan Everts clinched the World 500cc MX title at the new Kärntenring facility in southern Austria to complete a remarkable season, and the Rinaldi Yamaha team completed the double by clinching the Manufacturers' championship (won already last week) with the fabulous factory YZ500FM four-stroke bike in it's debut season.

Needing just two points to secure the title, Everts sensibly took no risks and came home second in the final round of the year, whilst team-mate Marnicq Bervoets confirmed his third place ranking in the series with that position on the day.

Australia's Andrew McFarlane was unlucky though, dropping to ninth in the standings after another rider knocked him off on the first lap and forced him to make a pit stop for repairs. He persevered to the finish, but had lost too much ground to get higher than 23rd.

Everts got the holeshot, "Yes, that was very important in these conditions, but I know my Yamaha will get me to the first turn in front."

Already at turn three however he had been demoted to second: "Smets pushed me straight away, but that didn't matter. He had to win, so it was normal." But within four laps Everts was back in front: "Smets started to play games. I think he was trying to make me nervous by waiting for me to pass and then riding behind me, but I knew what he was trying to do, and it didn't work."

After one more lap Smets charged back to the front, and, realising the futility of trying to unnerve such a great champion as Everts, rode to the win as the Yamaha man concentrated on completing the job of wrapping up the title. With the title getting closer by the lap, many riders would have started to make mistakes but not Everts: "I was getting very emotional as the title got closer, but I wasn't worried. I knew my YZ would take me to the title."

Everts' fifth world title culminated a fantastic season in which he has equalled the all-time GP win record and also become only the second rider in history to have claimed world titles in all three classes - 125, 250 and 500, giving Stefan yet another paddock nickname, ‘Mr. 875’. Another
milestone that Stefan achieved was to win his five titles on all four Japanese manufacturers. "Every title is very special, but to win the 500 crown against such strong opposition is not something which you achieve every day. And to do it after two such terrible seasons with injury. But my Yamaha was the perfect bike for me. It was a dream season to achieve so much in cooperation with Yamaha and such a great Rinaldi team."

McFarlane, a genuine candidate for fourth in the series just a few weeks ago, was terribly frustrated after dropping to ninth: "I can't believe my luck in these last few races. Today I was going round a turn on the first lap and another rider just nailed me. It's not the first time we've clashed this year. That guy has a problem. The controls were all bent up in the crash and I had to stop at the pit box to straighten them, so that put me way behind." The Australian persevered to the flag, but inevitably could not rise past 23rd by the end of the race.

500cc Results: 1. Joël Smets (B) KTM; 2. Stefan Everts (B) Yamaha; 3. Marnicq Bervoets (B) Yamaha; 4. Andrea Bartolini (I) Husqvarna; 5. Francisco Garcia Vico (E) KTM; 6. Peter Johansson (S) KTM; 7. Bernd Eckenbach (D) KTM; 8. Shayne King (NZ) KTM; 9. Joakim Karlsson (S) Honda; 10. Johnny Lindhe (S) Husqvarna

500cc Championship: 1. Everts 291 (world champion) ; 2. Smets, 273; 3. Bervoets, 211; 4. Garcia Vico, 138; 5. Lindhe, 104; 6. Johansson, 85; 7. King, 85; 8. Bartolini, 79; 9. Andrew McFarlane (AUS) Yamaha, 79; 10. Karlsson, 77

- MX250 -

Kawasaki Racing Team’s Chad Reed climbed to the podium again yesterday in the final round of the World MX Championship.

The Karntenring circuit some twenty kilometres north of the Austrian’s southern most city of Klagenfurt staged its first ever Grand Prix. The layout was fairly flat with a supercross style track which saw riders launched some ten metres into the air. Conditions changed drastically overnight as heavy rain fell during the early morning practice, easing slightly as racing got underway.

Reed had qualified in 7th position during Saturday’s dry timed session lined up behind the metal start gate confident that he could repeat his recent form. " I had a good drop from the start gate but Pit Beirer came across from my right, he was carrying much more speed into the turn so I had to back off the gas. I was a little worried about the first turn, I did a few practice starts this morning, you couldn’t see over the crest of the hill until you hit the first turn, the weather today was pretty bad so I knew the turn would be very slippery, the last thing I wanted was to go sliding off or be brought down into the straw bails. " said Chad.

Reed was careful and came out of the turn in 5th position, quickly on the throttle he tucked in behind Italian Federici, Gordon Crockard was the only rider who could possibly take second position overall from him was back in 12th position on the opening lap. "I was getting filled in by Federici, my goggles were starting to get choked with mud so I dropped back a little to stay clean. I found I could easily come back on both him and Pichon just in front." added Reed. German Pit Beirer had grabbed the holeshot and was trying to pull away from newly crowned World Champion Pichon, Chad said "I was trying different lines but it was so slippery out there, I wanted to get by Federici and maybe have a go at Pichon and Beirer, but it took more that seven laps for me to feel confident." Just as Chad was thinking about pushing ahead Bolley came by him dropping him to 5th. "I think he thought he had me beaten."

As Reed took a second breath he passed Bolley back on the next lap. "I don’t know what he was doing, it looked like he just let me by when I attacked him " said Reed who then benefited from a mechanical failure that saw Federici retire. As Reed moved to 3rd place on lap nine of sixteen the track was starting to cut up badly with ruts and stones stopping the drive on the approach to the many large jumps. " Some parts of the track were quite hard to ride, rutty and stoney, I like it like that, I knew I was going to get second in the classifications so I was happy with my performance today and content to take 3rd position behind Pichon and Beirer."

Reed reflected on the past season, his first in Europe. "Looking back on the season I made a poor start, everything was new to me, the bike, the team the countries we were racing in but once I adapted and got into gear things started to look much better. At first I wanted to be top five, things weren’t going good, so I thought well if I can take top ten I will be happy, but at Spa I managed to turn things around for myself and really got going. After that it wasn’t so disheartening for me each week, I new I was making progress. If we could start the season over again from this points I feel that I now know Pichon strong and week points, maybe it would be a different outcome at the end of the championship."

Chad Reed is leaving the Kawasaki squad at the end of the season for a ride in the USA, competing in their Supercross and Outdoor Motocross Series. "I want to thank Kawasaki, Jan De Groot and everyone in the team for making this season so much fun, they have all worked so hard for me to get me this number two plate. I would have liked to stay and compete in the World Championship for another year but I feel that for the immediate future I have the chance to race the Supercross Series, so I think now is the right time to take that. When I look at Pichon, he raced several years in the USA and he came back to Europe a much stronger rider, I hope that I can do the same in the future. I have enjoyed everything about Europe I know that when I come back I will be in a much stronger position to be a serious threat to the World Title." said Reed.

250cc Results: 1. Mickael Pichon (F) Suzuki; 2. Pit Beirer (D) Yamaha; 3. Chad Reed (AUS) Kawasaki; 4. Frédéric Bolley (F) Honda; 5. Gordon Crockard (GB) Honda; 6. Joshua Coppins (NZL) Suzuki; 7. Mickael Maschio (F) Kawasaki; 8. Carl Nunn (GB) Husqvarna; 9. Jussi Pekka Vehvilainen (SF) Honda; 10. Johnny Aubert (F) Yamaha

250cc Championship: 1. Pichon 318 (world champion) ; 2. Reed, 190; 3. Crockard, 188; 4. Claudio Federici (I) Yamaha, 157; 5. Beirer, 140; 6. Coppins, 136; 7. Bolley, 133; 8. Vehvilainen, 93; 9. Yves Demaria (F) Yamaha, 90; 10. Durgmore, 72.

- MX125 -

125cc Results: 1. Erik Eggens (NL) KTM; 2. Luigi Seguy (F) Yamaha; 3. Steve Ramon (B) Kawasaki; 4. Alessandro Puzar (I) Husqvarna; 5. Kenneth Gundersen (N) KTM; 6. Marc de Reuver (NL) Yamaha; 7. Brett Metcalfe (AUS) KTM ; 8. Patrick Caps (B) Yamaha; 9. Eric Sorby (F) Honda; 10. Christian Stevanini (I) Husqvarna

125cc Championship:  1. James Dobb (GB) KTM, 228 (world champion); 2. Ramon, 182; 3. Eggens, 171; 4. Gundersen, 162; 5. Seguy, 161; 6. Alessio Chiodi (I) Yamaha, 113; 7. Caps, 97; 8. De Reuver 91; 9. Traversini, 77 ; 10. Puzar, 77.