SMET’S ZEROS IN ON THE RECORD BOOKS–JULY 16

The 125 class has the weekend off, but the 250 riders had to travel to Brazil and the 500 class moved to Germany. Although there was a surprise winner in the Brazilian mud, the big news was that Belgian Joel Smets and his KTM four-stroke are still romping through Europe.

250 GP OF BRAZIL

Brazil is the 250 classes only “overseas GP” and 18 European riders made the trip to Brazil (although Ryan Hughes, Justin Morris and Remy Van Rees were missing because of injuries). To fill the field, the promoters added two Argentenian and nine Brazilian riders for a total of 29 riders. Unfortunately, for those who made the long trek, they were greeted by a mud race.

The surprise winner in Brazil was Yves Demaria. “Nobody believed that I could win a GP,” said Demaria. “And, of course I’m really happy even if I had some luck this week in these difficult conditions. Everyone made mistakes today, maybe I made less than the other riders. I hope that this win will help us as we need to have the full support of Yamaha to fight with the other factory teams; since the beginning of the season I was complaining about the bike and the parts, I think that now everyone will listen to me more carefully as I proved I’m still able to win races.”

French riders swept the first three positions with Mickael Maschio second and Frederic Bolley third. Points leader Mickael Pichon was sixth, but still has a 21 point lead over Bolley for the 250 World Championship.

500 GP OF GERMANY

Guess who won the Grand Prix of Germany? Joel Smets. No susprise there. Smets is a winning machine and continues to march through what will eventually be a record setting season. It is Smet’s ninth GP win of the year and added to his massive points total. The record for the most GP wins in a class is ten (held by Harry Everts). Smets is now 92 points ahead of his closest rival (Marnicq Bervoets), With 40 points awarded at each GP, Smets has more than a two race cushion with four 500 GP’s left.

All the 500 GP players suffered in Germany except Smets. Bervoets went 2-2 (for a loss of six points), Peter Johansson went 3-3 (for a ten point loss) and last year’s World Champion, Andrea Bartolini, went 4-37 (for a loss of 27 points), putting the Italian 143 points behind Smets and only 17 points shy of being eliminated from the Championship race.

RESULTS: 250 GP OF BRAZIL

1. Yves Demaria…4-2
2. Mickael Maschio…1-7
3. FrZdZric Bolley…5-3
4. Joshua Coppins…3-6
5. Claudio Federici…2-8
6. Mickael Pichon…9-6
7. Paul Cooper…6-4
8. Peter Iven…8-9
9. Gordon Crockard…14-5
10. Danny Theybers…9-10

RESULTS: 500 GP OF GERMANY

1. Joel Smets…1-1
2. Marnicq Bervoets…2-2
3. Peter Johansson…3-3
4. Darryl King…8-4
5. Marcel van Drunen…6-7
6. Joakim Karlsson…5-13
7. Damien King…14-5
8. Andrea Bartolini…4-37
9. Massimo Bartolini…39-6
10. Jonas Edberg…12-11

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