For many Belgian riders the Hawkstone Park circuit brought success and for Geboers it was also his most enjoyable racing memory, at least in the early part of his career. During the biggest race of the year Sylvain Geboers arrived on the International scene like a rocket. Due to a team-mates bad luck the Matchless rider arrived in Hawkstone Park for the 1964 Motocross des Nations. He knew the circuit would suit his style, with the deep ruts and changing lines.

"Finally when the season finished and the Belgian team went to the Motocross des Nations at Hawkstone Park. I was coming into the team as the spare rider, one of the Belgian riders couldn't go because his wife was expecting a baby, so I got to ride for Belgium for the first time. Belgium finished second on the day, and I was able to pick up second place in the last moto of the day behind Bru Dirkx of Holland, I should have had a third place, but Jeff Smith broke his transmission. England still won the day but I was so excited about my results, I mean I was not even inside the top ten in the world at that time."

The press again latched onto Geboers, although he took another route, deciding to run in the Belgian championships, and not the Grand Prix series. It was a brave move for somebody who had only a few months earlier shocked the world with his des Nations result. For some time learnt his trade, raced against the best Belgian riders, and concentrated on getting his speed up to consistent level. A day of bad luck around the trecherous Namour circuit in Belgium would turn Geboers career around, and in one moment he would have th chance to compete against the great Joel Robert.

"Once again I was the next world champion, at least in the eyes of the press. I decided to stay in Belgium the following years, missing the GP rounds and try and be Belgium champion. I figured out that to be better in the Grand Prix series I should first have some experience. I started to concentrate on the Belgium championship, but I still did the 500cc GP in Namur in 1967. Amazingly I lead the GP for the first 30 minutes, but suddenly some rider came out of the public and I ran into him, I was in third gear and charging and crashed pretty hard. My luck changed though when the manager of the CZ company came to me and offered me a ride in the CZ factory for the 1968 world 250cc championship. At first I wanted to stay in the open class, but to be offered a factory bike with CZ, which was the top bike at that time, I was really pumped to go to them."

"I would be teamed with Joel (Robert). It worked out perfect, Joel got world champion, I was third, and I also won my first GP, the Grand Prix of Belgium, in Genk. And that is how my first full season in the 250cc championship. The following year I finished second, almost world champion. I had a problem in one race with my innertube, and had that not happen I should have been world champion. The last two rounds were Finland and Russia, but if I won in Finland, the championship was mine. The scoring was differant in that time. We had six races, plus one and I scored 122 points in the season, while Joel scored 102, he missed out on scoring in five rounds, but he had the better aggrigate and he won the title. I only missed two races, and those two were the last round rounds of the championship. I was very unlucky that year, at least I felt so."

The good results of the previous season would not go unnoticed as Geboers began to have talks with the allmighty Suzuki team personel. It was a dream come true, and without a doubt the most important step in his career.

"The next year I was offered a rider on the new Suzuki factory team, of course riding for CZ was riding for Motocross bike and parts, riding for Suzuki was a full-time job. I made a bit of money from International races, but I had my grandmother sponsoring me, she was just a lonley grandma who helped me. I paid her back afterwards, but she helped me race for a some time. You also have to remember that back in those days you had big fan clubs, and they also helped the rider. My fan club used to pay for my bikes, and my grandmother borrowed me the money to buy a car, a trailer and other things."

"When I signed with Suzuki my first question was are you going to take Joel Robert also, and they said no. One week later Joel signed with Suzuki. I had ridden the Suzuki before signing and it was much lighter than the CZ, like 15kl lighter than the CZ, they had the exotic material. I knew signing with Suzuki was my big chance, and there we were again, me and Joel together in the same team, and the best team."

 "The times Joel and I were together we were rivals, and also friends. He was of course from the French side of Belgium, I am from the flemish side, the press always made a big thing about that, they made a big thing about the fight with the French part of Belgium and the Flemish part. Joel and I didn't have a problem with it, we worked well together. With Suzuki we had to test together, go to Japan together, it was another lifestyle for us, something very new in motocross."

Part three next week