EVERTS TAKES VICTORY AT SUPER SUCCESSFUL WESTON

Published: 13th October 2008

10 times World Champion Stefan Everts stormed to victory yesterday in the super-tough, Doodson Motorsport solo race at the 26th Weston Beach event, in front of a bumper crowd.

It was one of the firm favourites, David Knight, who got the hole-shot to the three-hour race and thundered to the first corner in front of the thousand-strong field, but was soon taken by Stefan Everts in the opening stages. The madness began almost instantly, with bikes and riders flying all over the place as competitors tackled the incredibly tough dune course for the first time.

 Star-riders Josh Coppins, Jamie Lewis and Shaun Simpson were all up in the mix, dodging their way around the riders and bikes strewn across the super-dunes around the 3.5-mile track as they forced their way around the first lap.

Everts, pulled quite a lead over the Knighter into the first hour, who upped the pace to try and catch the Belgian-ace back, despite having to race his way around the hundreds of slower riders. Cheered on by the crowd who were enjoying the perfect sunny weather conditions, star-racers Paul Edmondson, Marc de Reuver, Tom Church and Shaun Simpson also battled on to hunt down the leading three.

At the end of the first hour, the unavoidable fuel stop switched the order around again, and as fatigue set in, many riders began to struggle in this incredibly tough endurance test of man and machine. Everts continued to dominate, while Knighter was intent on catching the sand expert around the course that this year was designed and implemented by Justin Barclay.

In the latter stages of the race it was second-placed Knighter who came across a mechanical problem with his machine, and much to his disappointment, was ruled out of the race. PAR Homes Honda pilot, Jamie Lewis was caught and passed by the MX2 British Champion, Shaun Simpson while Josh Coppins slipped down the standings, presumably with a technical issue. Local-man Tom Church managed to fight his way up the order from 11th position and crossed the finish line in fifth place.

But it was KTM's Race director Everts aboard that finally vectored for the first time at Weston on his third attempt, with Simpson in second and a superb ride by Jamie Lewis brought him a superb result to round the podium out in third.