Dirt Bike News - Everts and JorgensenDominate at the Namur GP - Dirt Rider Magazine

The 50th GP of Namur, in Belgium was a cold, windy and rainy one. The track was slippery and dangerous especially in places with deep ruts and exposed roots. Tyla Rattray can attest to that—on Saturday during the qualifying race, he twisted his right leg and hurt his knee badly. It unfortunately looks like it may be the end of the factory KTM rider's season.The harsh weather and track conditions did not stop Stefan Everts, who was brilliant and determined: the Belgian wanted to win his home GP at all costs. In Moto1, two mistakes compelled the Yamaha rider to recover from eighth place to finish second. In Moto2 he got a second place start and immediately went to the head of the race where he won, skillfully "sailing" on a sea of mud, ruts and roots. Together with this one, Everts now has seven victories at Namur (tying Roger De Coster's record) and is now king of the Citadel (Namur).Stefan Everts: "I didn't get the best start in the first race and then I lost two places when I got stuck on an uphill. When I was back in eighth I just thought how far off another GP win in Namur was! I tried to relax and set up a good strategy for the rest of the race. I decided that the tight lefthander before the steep drop-off was a good place to pass and that's where I passed one rider after the other. Obviously the others knew this for the second race, but it didn't matter because I was in front from the beginning. I'm very happy with my win at Namur, it was hard today but it remains a very good place for me."Yamaha Rinaldi Team rider Brian Jorgensen (Evert's team mate) also had a wonderful race. In Moto1 he holeshot and ran away with the lead, carrying it to the finish. In Moto2 he was held up by the continuous changing of trajectories caused by mud and finished fifth, but he was admittedly still quite satisfied with his results."To win the first race was just a blast," said Jorgensen, "Things simply 'clicked' today like they sometimes just do in racing. I took my time to study the track during warm-up and watching the MX2 race helped me. When I got the holeshot, my confidence was really good. In the second race, some of the lines I used didn't work so well anymore and I lost a couple of places. Overall I'm very happy and I feel like I've turned my season around here."Third place overall went to New Zealander Ben Townley. If the young KTM rider—World Champion of MX2—was stronger off the starts, he might have been able to best Everts in the second Moto where he finished only feet behind him. Townley went 7-2 in the motos, finishing third overall

| | MX1 Moto 1 1. Jorgensen 2. Everts 3. Van Daele 4. Pichon 5. Smets 6. Coppins 7. TownleyMX2 Moto 2 1. Everts 2. Townley 3. Smets 4. Pichon 5. Jorgensen 6. Coppins 7. MeoChampionship After Round 3 of 17 1. Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 172 2. Micakel Pichon Honda FRA 145 3. Joel Smets Suzuki BEL 132 4. Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 131 5. Ben Townley KTM NZL 121 6. Steve Ramon KTM BEL 100 7. Paul Cooper Honda GBR 79

The MX2 class was spectacular and eventful as well. The Australian Andrew McFarlane (team Yamaha Ricci) won the overall thanks to his 3-2 finish. This is the second GP win of his career—the first was last year in Italy.Andrew McFarlane "Things went really well, and with so many GPs to go and everybody so close in standings, this actually feels like taking a fresh start. Because the conditions were very tricky out there, I knew how important it was to stay out of trouble, and that's exactly what I did. It was my goal before Namur to move things forward here. Finally I'm completely healthy and I know that the team and I are ready for the job, so I'm very satisfied with my results. Since I've lived in Belgium for some time now, this win has a really nice touch to it, as well."At the beginning of Moto1, points leader Antonio Cairoli got the holeshot. From there, the Yamaha rider upped his pace lap by lap in spite of the track's bad conditions. In the end he easily won, but in Moto2, he unfortunately crashed three times and finally withdrew.Antonio Cairoli "The first race went perfect. I made the holeshot and found terrific lines around the track. In the second race I had a bad start and I found it very difficult to pass. I pushed very hard to come back, but you had to be really careful out there; I crashed three times before retiring. But I'm still walking away with a good feeling here. I know my speed is good and I'm still in the points lead."Second overall went to Great Britain's Stephen Sword, riding an aluminum-framed Kawasaki for the first time. In Moto1 he stuggled to catch up after a bad start, ultimately settling for fifth. Then a better start and a lot of determination, similar to last year's, brought him the victory in Moto2.

| | MX2 Moto 1 1 Cairoli 2 Philippaerts 3 McFarlane 4 Melotte 5 Sword 6 Maschio 7 Chiodi MX2 Moto 2 1. Sword 2. McFarlane 3. Melotte 4. Chiodi 5. Caps 6. Concalves 7. LeokChampionship After Round 4 of 17 1. Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 147 2. Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 135 3. Stephen Sword Kawasaki GBR 121 4. Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 114 5. Andrew McFarlane Yamaha AUS 110 6. Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 90 7. Billy Mackenzie Yamaha GBR 79