The greatest motocrosser of all time Stefan Everts now influences every track in the world, from GP and AMA heroes to the bikes ridden at local races.
TAKEN FROM ISSUE 80, JUNE 2012
BY ADAM DUCKWORTH
Stefan Everts is not only the most successful world championship motocross racer of all time, he’s the most powerful man in motocross with influence in everything from world championship and US racing right down to the very bikes we ride.
His influence is far and wide. The son of four-times world champion Harry Everts, Belgian Stefan won 101 GPs and 10 world championships, and is the only rider to win world championships for every Japanese manufacturer. And he’s won world titles in every class.
He is the only man two win GPs in three classes on the same day when he roared to a triple win at Ernee in France in 2003. He won 15 of the 16 GPs in 2006 and beat everyone at the Motocross des Nations that year, too.
He helped Belgium win the Motocross des Nations and even scored overall victory in the 2003 International Six Days Enduro in Brazil. Not only that, but his feet-on-the-pegs style defined a new, smoother way of racing. A style that’s been copied by many but equalled by nobody yet. He’s smooth, efficient and easy on his engines and bikes. When he faced the inventor of the scrub, James Stewart, at the Nations, Everts just rode around the outside of him and left him in his wake. It was an epic moment for Stefan Everts and European riders everywhere.
That’s an unrivalled racing pedigree, and one that sees him revered the world over for his racing. And his popularity seems to be untarnished despite him retiring six years ago. When Everts organises his own charity race, for example, then world champions and half the GP paddock turn up. And when he got involved with running the Belgian GP at Lommel, he recreated the famous Hakwstone Park double jump. Everts knows and respects motocross history.
It’s his career since stopping racing that has seen his importance to motocross flourish. He has turned KTM from being a decent team into the dominant player in the GP paddock. The team everyone dreams of joining.
Under his guidance, Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings have been polished into race and championship-winning superstars.
He changed KTM’s bikes from being PDS linkless oddities into linkage-equipped machines that appeal to the whole world. And his next plan is to dominate the same in the USA where, courtesy of Ryan Dungey and his new 450, KTM has won three Supercross races this year and is suddenly a serious player.
And Everts’ brainchild of a mid-size bike, a 350, came to fruition and won the world MX1 championship first time out with another of his riders, Tony Cairoli. It’s a bike that’s never existed before that’s suddenly on tracks all over the globe from Amsterdam to Adelaide. And you know every other manufacturer has had to re-evaluate their range of bikes in its wake.
KTM not only offers bikes in every size for four-strokes – from 250 to 350 and 450 – but also if flying the flag in the continued development of the two-stroke, too. Now equipeed with Everts-spec linkage suspension.
With a unique racing pedigree, influence on GPs and US nationals and Supercross, and on the bikes on tracks everywhere, Everts is truly powerful and important.
“It’s true and I’m happy someone noticed it!” said Stefan Everts in an exclusive interview with MOTO magazine. “And all the things I’ve done have been done with pleasure.
“It’s never been that I want to have the attention on me. I love the sport, I have a huge passion for motocross and everything I have achieved had something to do with the sport. My love is to motocross and it will always be there.
“I have had a lot of success from the sport so I try to give many things back to it.”
I’m much slower than Jeffrey Herlings!
Many people think that if I put my riding gear on right now I’d finish near the top in a GP. In theory I could, because of how I ride. But I’m not fit any more. In summer I try to ride a lot but I can’t go at GP speed any more. Mentally I’m not as sharp any more, my eyes aren’t as sharp any more and my body aches after riding.
Many retired riders think they still can’t do it but I don’t. This week I went riding with some of my riders and I was three seconds slower than Jeffrey, and it was hard work to do that. And it was on a hard track. I thought to myself where the hell does he get three seconds a lap from! In the beginning when I first retired from racing, I was faster than the riders I managed. But not any more. If the track suits me, and I have a good few days riding on a 350 with Jeffrey, then I could match his speed. Last winter I didn’t ride for five months after an injury. I started riding again with the team but they had been flat out for months so I was never going to keep up with them! I don’t need to prove anything as a racer
I‘m 39 but 40 at the end of the year so I could race the Veteran world championship. But I don’t think I will. I did a one-off race a few weeks ago and was supposed to do Farleigh Castle last year but I got injured. I will do some races but not the vet world championship.
It makes no sense for me to do it. My life has changed, I’m in a different position now and I’m not a racer. It’s my job is to work with my riders and not be a rider myself.
I love to get close to the actionMy first race was when I was 10 at Overpelt in Belgium and I didn’t win! My father Harry won four world championships so from a young ace, I always travelled to races. And I always wanted to be a rider. I grew up at tracks and I was interested in watching all the other riders. I’d go out on the parts of the track where nobody else was and just watch the riders. To see the difference in their styles and the lines they take. I still do it now. I like to be very close to the racing and see the track, the lines. Now it’s hard to get that close as they fence it off.
I started riding at age three!
I got a bike when I was three and half. I stayed a lot with my grandparents as my father was always travelling to races and I had to go to school, of course. It was hard to stay home and not go to the race but my parents made me go to school.
Later on I was lucky to go to the USA and South Africa but still had to do the work given to me by school. And when I started doing National races I got time off to go. My friends were always racers at the track. I had Belgian, German or Finnish friends. Often we didn’t speak the same language but we had fun.
I always wanted to be a championI never just wanted to go riding. From age six and it was clear to me I wanted to be a champion and I never went back on that decision. My father was not interested in my riding, he was too busy with his own career. He always gave me a bike and then sometimes he would go riding with me. But he never really bothered about me much and never made time to come and watch me or help me. He was busy with his own racing.
When he retired, we decided I should go racing in the Belgian 125 junior class. He said let’s go together. From then on, it got serious. We took it seriously and my father came to the track with me every day. We travelled everywhere together and he didn’t miss a single race.
My father was a harsh criticI was always a pretty good rider. My father didn’t teach me how to ride a bike properly or how to work things out or how to work hard. I found it all out myself. I always tried to improve and there was always something I could improve.
If I had a perfect day and won both races, he would still come and point out where I wasn’t so good, where I could have gone faster. I was always disappointed. Instead of him coming to me and saying congratulations on winning both races, he’d tell me all the bad things!
It was hard for me. But it got better! The last year I raced was the year he finally said almost nothing. He was always there, though. And when I asked if he’d seen something I was doing wrong, he finally said: “It’s all good!” When he gave me his blessing, I knew I was OK.
Supercross on TV taught me how to rideAs a kid I loved to watch the Supercross. At that time it was something really special as we could only see glimpses of it on TV. Now the magazines and internet is full of it and you can see every little detail.
Back then you couldn’t see a lot of Supercross, but I learned lots about riding styles and techniques from it. I loved to watch Johnny O’Mara on the factory Honda. He was my big hero. I also liked David Bailey as he was so smooth, but O’Mara had a really special style and that was really cool. He had the white JT gear, too.
The Motocross des Nations at Maggiora in Italy in 1986 was one of O’Mara’s best races when he beat world 500 champion Dave Thorpe. Thorpe says his back brake wasn’t working which could be the truth. But history was made that day. I wasn’t there as my father wasn’t racing any more, so I missed it. I knew all about it though.
Motocross was greatest in the 1980sI idolised O’Mara, Eric Geboers and all the big champions from the 1980s. I was just a big kid running about worshipping these guys. The history of motocross is very important to me. I was lucky to be in the good times of MX, even though I was just a kid.
The 1980s were the best time for motocross. All the Japanese manfacturers were directly involved with racing – HRC, Suzuki, Yamaha, everyone. I loved all the big 500 bikes, the sound, the smoke. I still love the old bikes now as it reminds me of my father.
I rode an old 500 KTM a few weeks ago. It was great and reminded me of being seven years old again. Only this time I was riding!
I started world championships age 16
My first proper deal was support from Suzuki to race in the Belgian Junior championship at age 15. I won series so moved up to GPs age 16 in 1989 which was a really big step. You had to be 16 to do GPs back then.
Suzuki came in with a new team, run by Guiseppe Luongo. The riders were Davy Strijbos and Pedro Tragter, both Dutch riders who won world championships. They were the two big names in 125s and I was the young kid with no experience. I learned fast that year. I got on the podium at Czecholosvakia with two fourth places for third overall. It was the highlight of my year, but then I broke my scaphoid. I finished 15th despite missing three GPs. The year after Donny Schmit came in and won the title and I got third. The last race I closed the gap on Donny and had a great fight with him. My first world title made me
In 1991 it was my year to win the world title. I went to Italy for the first GP, won the first moto but crashed. I was winning in Bulgaria then crashed out and broke my shoulder. I still won the title after a big fight with Bob Moore. That was my first world championship, only three years after I started. I was 18 and one of the youngest champions ever. At that time it was good but not any more!
From an early age people said I was special. To have the name Everts on my back made it different compared to other riders, with more pressure to win. At the beginning I didn’t really realise it but that changed when I got to GPs.
I’d always put pressure on myself to do well, so I didn’t know the difference between pressure from myself and expectation from others. So to me it didn’t matter and I learned to deal with it. As soon as I won that first title I was no longer just the son of Harry Everts. I was Stefan Everts, whose father is Harry. It all changed.
A year later I moved up to 250 and had a spleen injury. I was strong and leading the championship but crashed in Germany and my season was ruined. The following year I was second behind Greg Albertyn. I struggled a lot with my starts. Albee was fast and he got all the starts.
Leaving Suzuki made me grow upIn 1994 moved away from my Dad and the Geboers Suzuki team to Kawasaki. I am very thankful to Sylvain Geboers for the chance he gave me back then. I was a nobody, but he realised I was a talented rider and he gave me the opportunity to go to GPs. But I had to grow up and make my own decisions. I needed to do my own thing so I decided to leave and I went to Alec Wright at Kawasaki.
I did the deal myself – I had no manager. My father supported my move away from him. I said to Alec I wanted to ride for him but insisted he hired Jan De Groot as my main technician to develop the bike and have Harry Nolte as my mechanic. He was only too happy to agree.
But that season I had six DNFs, broke my collarbone but still only just missed out on the title to Albee. But the next season I gave Kawasaki their first world title. They’d never won before.