Belgian GP at Lommel
By TMX Archives on 6th Feb 08
IT'S official well, it's out in the open now anyway the Belgian GP on August 3 will be at the Flemish sand paradise' of Lommel rather than it's traditional home of Namur.
The Namur organisers announced just before Xmas that they would not be running the event following the retirement, due to age and ill-health, of Monsieur Pierre Chonquerez, the president of the organising committee, though lingering hopes that the race could be saved had remained, as neither Youthstream nor the FIM has, as yet, confirmed the cancellation.
Rumours of negotiations with Lommel immediately arose, but a supposed reticence on the part of Flemish government to support motocross, added to the fact that the French-speaking Wallonian province in this heavily divided country would be left with virtually no prestige sporting event of any kind – the Spa circuit has not hosted any major event for a couple of years now – led to hopes that the race at the Citadelle could be saved somehow.
Those hopes were scuppered on Monday, not by an announcement by the world governing body or MXGP series promoter, Youthstream, but was hidden away in an innocuous press release from the UEM!
Titled ‘UEM supports the MX Rookie' the press release revealed the this new event, "...reserved to young motocross riders of different European countries, who, after preliminary tests from August 28 to 31 (Ed: they presumably mean July), will compete in the final event on August 1 (Ed: a Friday) ...during the Grand Prix MX1 programme” at Lommel!
Bert Anciaux, Flemish Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, assured maximum support to the event, "...underlining the importance of motocross in Belgium, a country with rich traditions and champions.”
Well-known as a training track, Lommel has only hosted a GP on three previous occasions.
The first was in 1993 when Marnicq Bervoets took the overall, despite failing to win any of the three ‘short' motos. Then, one year later, Stefan Everts won in his debut season on Kawasaki (though only after Greg Albertyn had led both ‘normal' 45-minute motos handsomely until running out of fuel!). Three years after that, the YZ400F Yamaha made it's GP debut in the season opener there. The Yams got thrashed, Jacky Martens took the final GP moto win of his distinguished career, but the overall went to Avo Leok, the Estonian privateer who was so tragically paralysed three years ago. Avo ran rings round the factory boys using an ultra-wide Russian tyre, designed for military sidecars!
No doubt the FIM technical staff will be keeping an eye out for such scams in August, and the teams will already be making plans for using larger fuel tanks – Albertyn was just one of a dozen riders to run short of fuel in 1994, and the deeper, softer sand of Lommel using more fuel than even Lierop!