Everts wins Weston Beach Race

From KTM Racing

Veteran multi champion and Red Bull KTM factory team boss Stefan Everts showed more than 900 riders how it is done on the sand on Sunday to clinch victory in the three-hour MX Weston Beach endurance race on Britain's Weston-Super-Mare seafront.

It was a guru vs. new boy affair when Everts, riding a Red Bull KTM 450 finished the race just over two minutes ahead of Britain's Shaun Simpson, who joins the Red Bull KTM MX2 factory team in 2009 and this year finished fourth in the MX2 World Championship riding for KTM UK.

It was the 26th time the race had been held on the UK beach, won on the first occasion by Willie Simpson, Shaun's father.

Everts, one of the most revered personalities in motocross racing said before the event he was not as fit as he used to be but the results indicated he still has the strength, skills and winning spirit to triumph.

Everts victory, ahead of Simpson in second, MX2 World Champion and Red Bull KTM factory rider Tyla Rattray in eighth place on a KTM 450, and two-time World Endurance champion and Grand National Cross Country Champion David Knight (KTM 450) who finished 13th, showed he has lost none of his sting on two wheels. Everts is and remains the King of Sand.

Simpson, recently crowned MX2 British motocross champion, showed his skill early in the race defying the bigger capacity bikes and rounding the first corner in the top 10. He tackled the formidable dunes and had Everts in his sights halfway through the first lap. But then he lost the front in a brave attempt to take on the maestro and instead settled in to find his rhythm for what was a very long race.

At the end of the day, the 20-year-old Scot piloted his KTM 250SX-F into second place behind his mentor to be one of only three riders to complete all 18 laps.

The race, in which there was a field of over 900 starters, was run in Indian summer temperatures in the 20's on England's southwest coast and attracted around 100,000 spectators.

Results
1. Stefan Everts, Belgium, KTM, 18 laps 3:07.26.37
2. Shaun Simpson, Britain, KTM, 18 laps 3:09.39.28
3. Jamie Lewis, Britain, Honda, 18 laps 3:11.25.01
4. Ashley Greedy, Britain, 17 laps, 3:07.46.69
5. Tom Church, Britain, Kawasaki, 3:10.13.59