Preview - Grand Prix of Germany.

The 2003 Motocross World Championships enter its final three week period this weekend with the first of three Grand Prix remaining in the 12 round campaign for the MotocrossGP, 125 and 650 classifications.

Gaildorf is the host for the fifth consecutive year of the GP of Deutschland and has been the scene of numerous title winning celebrations in the last few years but will not witness such jubilations on Sunday thanks to the relatively close nature of the three categories and with 75 points still up for grabs.

Round nine in Lierop proved to be a decisive race in the inaugural MXGP contest. Yamaha's Stefan Everts may have recorded his sixth win in a row and KTM's Joel Smets his eighth podium of the season but a crash by the winner of the opening three GPs Mickael Pichon shoved the Frenchman down to sixth position his lowest finish of the year.

The 27 year old had led the standings up until round eight at Namur where another victory by Everts and a third place that day for the 250cc Suzuki man saw him toppled from the number one position in a points table for the first time in over a year and a half.

Pichon now lies third and 12 points adrift from Everts (half of what the Yamaha man faced just before round four in Italy) and 10 points away from Smets who has muscled his way into second but has yet to give KTM a debut win in the class.

Mickael Pichon will be all too aware that he returns to a venue and occasion this weekend that captured the spirit of his strength and domination of the old 250cc class for the last two years. In both 2001 and 2002 the Suzuki man was unstoppable around the grassy German slopes and clinched both of his world titles at the circuit with a brace of comprehensive victories.

Smets comes to Gaildorf confident in the fact that he has also taken the winners trophy in the last two years (old 500cc category) and this makes him joint favourite with Pichon who will be summoning all the good vibes of those Championship memories to guide him back to highest step of the podium.

While the majority of the attention is focused on the chase for the first ever MXGP crown the rest of the field are busy trying to sort out the rest of the ranking as the curtain begins to rustle on the 2003 season.

Less than 20 points separates Brian Jorgensen in fourth place (who in turn is seventy six behind Pichon and can rise no further) and Yoshitaka Atsuta in eighth position. In between the two Honda 450 men is the two-stroke Kawasaki pair Kenneth Gundersen and Andrew McFarlane and Yamaha's Claudio Federici.

KTM's Jamie Dobb is set to miss out after a hefty crash at Leirop left him with a dislocated shoulder and fractured ribs. His team-mate Pit Berier, who was seriously injured at the GP of Bulgaria in June is attending his first motocross meeting since the career-ending accident.

The 125 series has been a hot bed of activity this season. Four riders have taken GP wins from nine races and the top three remain within 30 points of each other. Factory KTM representative Steve Ramon leads the way by 23 points ahead of Andrea Bartolini on the 250cc four-stroke Yamaha.

The recurring headline over the last few races has once again been hogged by Stefan Everts who has completed four double moto successes (consecutively) and has claimed five wins from the six 125 races he has contested, pushing his way to fourth in the points table.

Defending number one Mickael Maschio, who has signed on again with Kawasaki to ride their new 250cc four-stroke in 2004, stands in third position overall and with a slim chance of holding onto his title. The Frenchman triumphed at Gaildorf twelve months ago while his countryman Luigi Seguy was a deserving victor back in 2001.
Suzuki are set to unveil their new 250cc four-stroke in the hands of local rider Marco Dorsch. The German branch of the company have secured the use of the machinery yet to be seen on the World Championship stage and Dorsch's progress is sure to be followed closely.

The 650 category resumed normal service in Lierop with Joel Smets guiding the KTM to his eighth win from nine races after Cedric Melotte's brief 'interruption' in Namur.

The Honda man crashed twice and then suffered a mechanical breakdown two weeks ago, which dented his aspirations of the number two plate or even a unlikely World Championship; he now faces a 29 point deficit to Javier Garcia Vico who has been on the podium all season and has missed the runner-up berth in only two GPs. Thanks to the Spaniard's consistency Smets is not running away with the World Championship and heads the pack by 26 points.

The weather for the weekend is predicted to be warm and cloudy.