Quiz Answer: Did you get it right?
So for this week’s Tuesday Teaser we asked you:
And the answer is… Kurt Nicoll!
Words: Ben Rumbold, All other images: KTM Media Library
So a few of you did guess it correctly, knowing that Kurt went on a complete winning spree in 1991 and 1992, two years where he genuinely should have been World Champion, denied only by a broken leg one year, and the tactics of Georges Jobe the next (you wanna blame that start gate, go right ahead, we’ll have this debate over a beer!).
He didn’t win an overall, or even a GP moto, in 1990, despite finishing second in the world and the Champion at home. In 1991 he won two of the first four GPs and crashed in qualifying for round five in the Netherlands when holding a 19-point lead over Jobe. Then in 1992 he amassed 5 victories from the 12 rounds, narrowly losing the title to Jobe by two points. After four years in the 250 class netted him 2 GP wins for Honda, he returned to the 500cc class in 1997 with KTM’s 360cc machine, and won the penultimate round of the season at Bockholtz in Luxembourg. An injury sustained in pre-season training for 1998 led to his retirement from full-time racing.
Joel Smets won more than anybody on the big bikes through the 1990s.
Overall, Joel Smets won the most 500cc class GPs in the 1990s, with 23 in total as well as the 1995, 1997, and 1998 world titles. But they were all on four-strokes.
Jacky Martens famously took the first modern four-stroke title in 1993, after winning 5 GPs for KTM in 1990 & 1991. He went on to win a further 10 GPs on his four-stroke Italian Husqvarna.
The next best on all bikes was 1999 Champion Andrea Bartolini, with 8 victories on the new YZF machines, matching the number for Nicoll. Peter Johansson sneaked into the top five with 7, although that was all four-stroke with 2 for Husky, 1 for Yamaha, and 4 for KTM (as well as one on a 250cc Yamaha in 1991).
There were a few who guessed Shayne King and Eric Geboers, both of whom won 6 GPs in their respective title-winning seasons of 1996 and 1990. Geboers retired after his fifth and final world crown, while King simply never won a GP outside of 1996. Shayne’s title on the 360cc KTM was the last in the big class for a two-stroke.
Shayne King was the last ever two-stroke World Champion in the big class.
Swedes Marcus Hansson and Jorgen Nilsson grabbed five apiece, Nilsson in his title loss to Martens (by only three points) in 1993, and Hansson in his defeat of Jacky the following season. All on beautiful private 500cc Hondas!
You might scratch your head at Darryl King’s numbers, as he did win motos on two-stroke Kawasaki and Honda machinery, but all of his overall victories came on four-stroke Husqvarnas.
Billy Liles had his 5 wins across 1990 and 1992, like Nicoll lost to both injury and Jobe, and then on just 3 was the most popular guess, Georges Jobe! More of a winning machine during the 1980s, by the 1990s he had to win titles through guile and consistency, taking just 1 GP in 1991 and 2 in 1992. Quite a low haul for two title-winning seasons! Even DT wrestled the Kawasaki to the same number through 1990 and 1991.
Finally, to complete our list of two-time 500cc GP winners, we have Trampas Parker during his 1995 battle with Smets, Jean-Michel Bayle with his two USGP wins in two attempts, Belgian Gerald Delepine with his two in 1995, Italian Franco Rossi with two in 1992, and finally the only other rider to win with either type of engine apart from Martens, Johan Boonen, whose Kawasaki-mounted win in 1993 was only matched again by a win at his home GP at Namur as Martens’ Husky teammate in 1995.
| Pos | Rider | Total Wins | 4-Stroke | 2-Stroke |
| 1 | Joel Smets | 23 | 23 | – |
| 2 | Jacky Martens | 15 | 10 | 5 |
| 3 | Andrea Bartolini | 8 | 8 | – |
| 4 | Kurt Nicoll | 8 | – | 8 |
| 5 | Peter Johansson | 7 | 7 | – |
| 6 | Shayne King | 6 | – | 6 |
| 7 | Eric Geboers | 6 | – | 6 |
| 8 | Marcus Hansson | 5 | – | 5 |
| 9 | Jorgen Nilsson | 5 | – | 5 |
| 10 | Darryl King | 5 | 5 | – |
| 11 | Billy Liles | 5 | – | 5 |
| 12 | Georges Jobe | 3 | – | 3 |
| 13 | David Thorpe | 3 | – | 3 |
| 14 | Trampas Parker | 2 | – | 2 |
| 15 | Jean-Michel Bayle | 2 | – | 2 |
| 16 | Gerald Delepine | 2 | – | 2 |
| 17 | Franco Rossi | 2 | – | 2 |
| 18 | Johan Boonen | 2 | 1 | 1 |
In case you’re wondering, here are the one-time winners – two stroke first:
Jeff Leisk (1990, Honda), Paul Malin (1991, Kawasaki), Dirk Geukens (1991, Honda), Gert-Jan van Doorn (1994, Honda), Mervyn Anstie (1994, Honda), Leon Giesbers (1996, KTM), Avo Leok (1997, Kawasaki), Stefan Everts (1998, Honda)
And just two on the four-strokes, both on Husqvarna:
Bernd Eckenbach (1998), Yves Demaria (1999)
Hope you enjoyed that look into the last full decade of big-bore Motocross GP action! More Tuesday Teasing next week!
