Roger De Coster would follow that era with five titles of his own, then came Andre Malherbe (three titles), Harry Everts (four titles), Gaston Rahier (three titles) Eric Geboers (five titles), Georges Jobe (five titles), Stefan Everts (10 titles) and Joel Smets (five titles). All in all most of the leading top ten riders in the history of the sport are Belgians.

Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO^. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 10.7 million. It is also home to two main groups, the Flemish and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons, plus a small group of German-speakers.

Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north, with 59% of the population, and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia, inhabited by 31%. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region and has 10% of the population. A small German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political and cultural conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.

A little over four months ago around 5000 Motocross followers marched into Brussels and made a protest over the way the sport is being treated in Belgium. Names like Stefan and Harry Everts, and Eric Geboers walked along the streets of Brussels hoping that their desperate plight would be heard. The problem you see is that only three Motocross circuits remain open in the north of Belgium, and those three could be closed within the next 10 years.

Four time World Motocross Harry Everts knows too well the changes of his sport in Belgium. As a young boy he made the 200 metre ride up his parents street to the local forest, where tucked between the village of Neeroeteren and farm land was a Motocross circuit. That circuit would be the place he would hone his skills and later in his career as he was claiming World titles his son (Stefan) would ride in a small field behind the family home. Both enjoying the carefree nature of the country as they enjoyed their passion for Motocross.

Times have changed though, the Neeroeteren circuit is gone and even that small piece of land where 10 times World Champion Stefan Everts trained is also off limits to anything that resembles noise.

“They closed the circuit of Neeroeteren a couple of years ago,” Harry Everts told. “Of course for the Everts family it was a really special place, both Stefan and I spent a lot of time and spilt sweat on that circuit. Even behind our house you cannot ride anymore. We had a little circuit here were Stefan would ride, but if you so much as start a Motorcycle around here the police will be here in 10 minutes.”

“We used to have seven or eight circuits in the area of our house; you could drive 30 minutes and pick one of the eight circuits to ride on. Now we have maybe two, and we are in the centre of the busy area for Motocross. I think many Belgians now go to Holland to ride, they have more circuits there.”

“When we went to Brussels (for the protest) I couldn’t believe it. It was a work day and we had maybe 5000 people, the streets of Brussels were just full of people. It was impressive to see how many people turned up and I hope it showed the politicians that the sport is important for this country.” 

Former Grand Prix winner in the 1960s and team owner of the Teka Suzuki team Sylvain Geboers is from an era when racing Motocross in Belgium was not only a family passion, but that of a nation. When kids would play with their motorcycle on the street just as they might now play with their footballs. The sport was growing and Belgium as a country grew with it. Not only in population, but also in housing and quality of the streets.

"When I was young we had a motocross circuits just 500 metres from our house,"Geboers told. "But we often practised on the street, back then the streets were made of dirt. Of course times have changed, but that isn’t a surprise. Belgium is a small place and we as a country have never been organized with building houses so you have houses all over the place and if somebody has a Motocross near their house there is a problem.”

“In Holland for instance it is different, there they have been organized for years and placed housing in areas that are suitable for a small country with a large population, in Belgium we have housing in Industry area’s and no regular rule to where you can build.”

“People are still riding sometimes in the forest, but it’s not allowed anymore and if you get caught you get into problems with the police. It’s not possible to just take a leisurely ride anymore, because there isn’t really anywhere you can do that.”

“What we are trying to push for is that each region has a Motocross circuit, so spread over say 10 regions we have 10 new facilities, with good showers, toilets, good circuits. That is what we can hope for, but it is a lot of work and until now there isn’t a lot of progress in that area.”

Jamie Scevenels was a former Grand Prix rider and even rode for the factory Honda team of Stefan Everts back in the day. Now as European manager for Parts Unlimited (THOR) he visits a lot of smaller events and knows how the grass routes of the sport is.

“One of the problems is people don’t have circuits close to their homes anymore, so you have families having to travel to the circuits and that cost time and extra fuel. When I was young you just rode your bike to the industrial area and could ride there. The police sometimes came and watched us, but very often they would leave and we would just keep riding. Now if you start a motorbike the police are there and you get your bike confiscated.”

“I also used to live right across from Motoland circuit in Belgium (one of the major training circuits in the 1980’s) and I enjoyed that, but I can imagine as a non-Motocross person that it wasn’t fun. If you hung your washing out for too long then it was covered in dust. The noise was also a problem, the track wasn’t really prepared well, and it was often dusty.”

“The problem is that the present circuits are often open and that means there is a heavy load of riders on the circuit, and that is daily. I think the answer is to have more circuits and have them open less, so maybe the local people don’t have to listen to motorcycles every day, but maybe once a week. What we are trying to organize now is that each region has one Motocross circuit, so maybe 10 regions have circuits and we have 10 good facilities, but the problem is every time a spot is picked to make a new circuit it is protested by the locals and the local politician comes in and it doesn’t go ahead.”

“One of the problems with Belgium Motocross is that at the moment we only have hard core riders riding, we don’t have hardly any hobby riders anymore. If you want to ride motocross in Belgium there are only motocross circuits to do it and all levels ride on those circuits. If you are a new to riding you might find yourself on the same circuit as a Grand Prix rider, and that is scary. It’s not like at Lake Elsinore in America where they have a pro track, a minibike track, a veterans track.”

Part II tomorrow