Stefan Everts - Part Two

My first world 250 crown was very emotional

My world 250 crown was a big emotional win. I’d moved away from Sylvain and my Dad but suffered in 1993 and 1994. So to come back and win in 1995 was proof of my hard work.

I’d been determined to change how I worked. Before I was so over-focused on winning and everything had to be right. I went to every race with high expectation. In 1994 I was a broken man after losing the title. I went away from motocross for a few months and I didn’t want to race any more.

But after a time away I realised I absolutely love it, so I came back a different man. I wasn’t expecting myself to win any more. I just did what I had to do go to the race and see what happens. Before I knew it, I was leading the championship. I was in the lead and I thought it was impossible as I knew I wasn’t trying as hard or riding as fast as the year before. It was a different approach and it worked.

I also ran into Dave Grant and during the 1995 season and that’s when my relationship with him began.

I still don’t understand Kawasaki’s move

Alec Wright really wanted to win a 500 title. He was suddenly sidelined by Kawasaki which wasn’t very nice. Even now, I don’t know why. He was disappointed then he stepped out completely in 1995.

The next disappointment was Kawasaki didn’t want to give me any bonus or a pay rise despite me winning their first world championship. I said no way. So I left and went with Dave Grant to Honda.

My mechanic made my life difficult

My Honda ride was with Colin Reed who was such a nice man! He was very sweet and his wife very nice. But my mechanic really made things difficult. He thought he was the hero, the superstar.

He made it really difficult and we had fuel problems. The bike suddenly didn’t run well any more. At one point, the Japanese had to come came back and get involved and suddenly it ran well again.

I kept believing that I could win the title. I still don’t know how I did it. At one point I was 71 points behind and I came back and won the title. But I’d had it with the team. Not with Colin, but the way things were handled with the fuel problem I’d had.

I was lucky to have Dave Grant as without him they would never have given me my points back after my fuel failed tests at the Foxhill GP and they took my 40 points away. Dave proved the system they used to control the fuel was not sealed. It was not the correct way to test, I got my points back and won the title. Without those points, I wouldn’t have been champion.

I tamed the beam-framed Honda

In 1997 Honda changed to an aluminium frame and I struggled with the bike. But once I was dialled in and knew what the bike was doing, I started winning. I won nine GPs and I won the championship four races before the end of the series. I dominated that year.

I’m a bad loser!

What made me so good was a natural feeling for the bike and the track. But also intelligence, fighting spirit, determination to win and my passion for racing has always been so big.

I was a bad loser! I had to learn how to lose. I always tried to do better, something my father taught me. Be harsh on myself, and always look at how to do better.

I also changed my style a lot. I was more controlled and I control every detail of my riding. For many years I used the same handlebars but when I went to Honda I tried a new set up. I put on higher bars, and a lower seat.

My riding style changed too. What made me ride so much on the footpegs was trials riding. There was a period of around five years when I wasn’t riding trials. Then I started trials again and there is no seat on a trials bike. So you have to stand up like when you do a lot of motocross riding in the sand. If you can’t sit down it teaches you to stand up.

I loved the 1992 Austrian GP!

I had so many great races. My first win, my first double win, for example. But I’m hugely proud of passing Yves Demaria in the last turn before the finish line to win the 1992 Austrian GP. I was in second place 60 metres before the finish, I passed him and won the race. It was a great win.

It’s very memorable as my plan had failed and I had two turns to fix it before the finish, and I still did it! It was just a single race win!

I followed him all race, knowing that at that speed, he’d get tired and slow down. But he didn’t. On the last lap, I planned he’d go outside into the whoops and I’d go inside and that’s where I’d make the pass. But he was so smart as he went inside so I couldn’t do it. My plan failed.

He struggled as he hit a rut and he lost his confidence on the whoops. There were two corners left, and I managed to get on the outside next to him, then come across him over a tight corner and I just got past him. It was one of my best wins.

Namur was my greatest defeat!

At Namur in 2004 I was second and it’s still one of my greatest rides. There had been a lot of rain and the track was one line. There was no way to pass. I crashed at the start and it seemed impossible to pass as everyone was just riding in a line like idiots!

I was so angry and I knew I needed to find a place to pass. On the steepest downhill I took a little risk to get on a line nobody else was using. I passed everyone there. Every lap I set my pass up and passed people.

I knew I had only once chance per lap to pass people and it was risky but I took it. But Brian Jorgensen was so far ahead, time was up and I finished second.

I loved beating Jeremy McGrath

Another great win was against Jeremy McGrath in the Fastcross in Italy in 1993. It was a 20-lap main event, and with two laps to go, MC was in the lead and I was second. He got tired and I past him. He’d just won the supercross title, so me beating him made 35,000 Italian fans went nuts! I didn’t know where I was any more. A late pass on JMC was unreal!

Whenever I raced the Americans, it was as if everyone in Europe wanted me to beat them. Like at the Nations in Matterley in 2006. It didn’t matter Belgium didn’t win. But I beat Stewart.

Tortelli was my biggest rival

I raced against lots of the greats. Bobby Moore, Donny Schmit, I even raced against Eric Geboers and Jean-Michel Bayle, Greg Albertyn, Mickael Pichon, Joel Smets. But the best, just that one year, was Sebastian Tortelli in 1998.

It was the best year ever. He didn’t make any mistakes. And all the other years, he always made some mistakes. I was waiting for the day when he made a mistake, but it never came. All year it was me and him first and second. I wasn’t just hoping, I knew he’d make mistakes. But he didn’t. He was the greatest.

Some say I’m the greatest ever

I don’t like to say I was the greatest. All the big champions are the greatest of their time. One day Tony Cairoli will be known as the greatest, Ricky Carmicahel was the greatest. They are all the greatest of their time. I’ll leave it up to the fans to decide. Everyone has their own favourites.

But I do know that at certain races I was invincible. Probably the best I’ve ever been was the MX of Nations at Matterley Basin in 2006. All my experience was building up to that point. My style, technique, experience:  2006 was the year I pout all the things I’d learned from my whole career together and it was magic.

I wanted to do one perfect year. RC had done it a few times and I wanted to do it. I knew how difficult it was achieve it and finally I did it on 2006.

Carmichael claims he was the best sand rider

When I beat James Stewart at the Nations, some said he was just riding for the team. But if RC had been riding, he would have ridden for his own pride. If he’d won the race, the team would still have won. He wouldn’t have lost his own pride. If RC was racing that day, it would have been a close battle.

He beat me fair and square in Zolder, but it would not have been that easy to beat me in Matterley. I never had my chance to really go against him in sand. But he always told me he was the best sand rider. The year we raced Lierop I was really bummed out I didn’t have the chance to race him there.

I dreamed of racing Supercross

I did six Supercross races in 1992 to try it. It was always my dream to go there. I planned to win the world tile in 1992 then had my spleen injury. Then my plan to move to the US got changed. In 1993 I was second again but for me it was important to be world champion before going to the USA. In 1995 I won again and then it was Dave Grant who convinced me not to go. I’ll never forget the words he said to me. “Better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond.” And he was right.

Joel Robert predicted my future

I decided to focus on Europe and try to match Joel Robert and get a sixth world title. I know Joel and he became manager of the Belgian Nations team. The day I beat his record of 50 GP wins, he said I’d win 100 GPs. I said no way! You’re having a laugh old man, you’re crazy! In the end I won 101. He was right! When I beat his record and won seven titles, he promised me he’d be there when I won. And he was. We had a little champagne moment. He came to France and was there at the podium . It was so cool. He said I’d go on to win ten titles. And I said it was just another of his jokes!

I love to ride at Namur My favourite track changed trough the years. Foxhill was my favourite for a long time, then Namur. Not just because it’s a historic track and in Belgium, it’s because of the feeling you get riding along the streets. You go between the houses and into the forest. It’s totally different to any other track.

I still have all my championship bikes

Of all the bikes I raced, the best were my 1996 steel-framed Honda and 2006 Yamaha 450. When I got off the Kawasaki and on to the Honda, it felt like I’d been riding it for years. It was so good right from the first day. The 1997 bike was the alloy framed one. Jeremy McGrath didn’t like it, and neither did I. I adapted to it but McGrath went to Suzuki. The 2006 Yamaha was a bike which I had such a good feeling on. It was so good that I was scared I was wrong! All winter I knew there was something magical about that with bike. In the past I’d made the wrong decisions in testing and gone into the races with the wrong set up. With the Yamaha I had the same feeling as on my 2006 Honda but I had to wait until the racing started to see if I was right. And I was right. Every event I did, I won.  There were just three single motos that I didn’t win that year. I didn’t win motos at Zolder, Bellpuig and Ireland. But I won overall and won every other race. I still have that bike. In fact I have all 10 of my championship-winning bikes in a bunker! I never start them but just look at them.

I didn’t want to leave Yamaha

When I quit racing, it was a big surprise that I joined KTM. At the start it wasn’t my plan to change from Yamaha as I’d had such a good relationship with them. It was always different with Yamaha compared to other Japanese manufacturers. The welcome I’d get from Yamaha in Europe and Japan was great. They treated me well I was well respected by everyone there.

My plan was to continue with them but I was bummed at the proposal they had for me. It wasn’t a long-term plan, just a short term for a two or three years and I didn’t like that. I wanted to a longer-term plan.

Then someone gave me a hint: go orange. And from then, I knew KTM was it for me. It all happened quickly from then. Pit Beirer was the first guy who found out I was open for discussion with them. Many people thought there was no way I’d change from Yamaha. A week later Pit came from Austria to my house and we talked about the future. What I was thinking and what was planning for KTM were the same.

It was not just to be involved with the GP team, but more than that. My ambition was to have such a good team that everyone in GPs wanted to be under the KTM awning one day. Not just riders but also mechanics. I think I have gone a long way to achieving that.

America is KTM’s next big goal

We’re a strong team and have a good team atmosphere. I knew KTM always had the potential to be like that as it’s something I feel is important.  We also achieved race success from 2008 when we won our first title in MX2 with Tyla Rattray.

We also started development of the linkage bike which was one of my first big projects. The day I talked with Pit about joining KTM it was not only about the team in Europe, but also we needed a link bike to become strong in America. Even when the PDS bike was better! It was for marketing reasons.

First we had to get the GP team right, then make the bike strong and get the confidence of European riders. Then have a linkage bike and then the 350. The next step is America which is coming on well now.

I’m not closely involved with the USA but I know what’s happening as I follow every step there closely. I think the goals we set six years ago are slowly coming together. The next goal is to be the team in the USA that everyone wants to be on. The winning team.

I could still end up in the USA!

For the moment I don’t want to spend more time in USA as I’m set in Belgium with my family. I built a house two years ago and have a nice workshop with training facilities for the MX2 guys. And a nice hall of fame, all just six minutes from my front door. To leave that now would be difficult.

But my son Liam will be eight in August and I don’t know what he wants to do. He is into his racing so we don’t know what direction he will go, but he could end up in the US. That would change my situation!  We haven’t talked about it a lot as I don’t really want to think about it!

The 350 is a great bike

Maybe it’s not the bike of the future that everyone will be racing in five years. It’s just a bike for a certain market. There will always be a market for 250s and 450s. The 450 is more popular in the USA than 350. They call it the vets bike.

I don’t care what they call it. For me, it’s been as successful as we hoped for in many ways. Not only here in GPs but I’m convinced this bike will also win at Supercross. I just need to convince some more people about it.

I think we need to bring our MX2 guys up to the 350 in Supercross. Taking 450 Supercross guys and getting them to drop down to 350 doesn’t work. Ken Roczen or Marvin Musquin are natural to go up to the 350 in one or two years. We saw Ken get second in Seattle. I know many of the top guys were out, but I believe it can be a winning bike.

Ken Roczen is very special

Roczen is not just talented as a rider. The way he handles the press and the fans is good too. He has a cool image. The kids like him. And he’s the most interesting kid at the moment. He has enormous promotional worth to KTM. And he works really hard for KTM.

Regrets? I’ve had a few!

My biggest regret was the year I had with Husky which was the worst bike I ever raced. I should have stopped a year earlier with my manager Dave Grant. I shouldn’t have done the deal with Husky, that would have changed a lot.

But maybe I wouldn’t have gone on to win six more titles. That year made me realise many things. Maybe I needed it to happen to me.

Another thing I regret is maybe I should have become a father a couple of years earlier. Then my son would have see his Dad racing, Now he just has to watch me on DVD.

MX43 - Opinions may vary in the US but this an intersting look at one of the greatest riders of our sport.