Everts and Townley crowned at Ballykelly.

Stefan Everts, 31, turned his dream to lift an eighth motocross world title into reality at Ballykelly in Northern Ireland.

Everts finished his fight for the title with a near perfect day's racing, taking second place in race one and a win in the final moto.

The eighth world championship title for the Belgian is a formidable achievement and further underlines his dominance of the sport and reinforces his position of the most successful grand prix motocross rider ever. Everts 2004 MX1 World title is his fourth straight championship on the YZ fourstroke bikes, after joining Yamaha in 2001.

Race one saw Everts take an early lead, closely followed by team-mate C?dric Melotte, Micha?l Pichon and British rider Wayne Smith. Pichon pushed hard in the early stages of the race, climbing into second place by lap two and began to gain on Everts.

The Frenchman made his move one lap later and sneaked past on the inside line, but Everts was not defeated and kept the pressure on repassing his Honda rival in lap six.

The scene was set for a dramatic showdown of the two world champions, but finally lapped riders would decide the outcome. Everts struggled to maintain his rhythm coming through the traffic and Pichon capitalised on this making a pass on lap sixteen and went onto take the race win. Third place went to Josh Coppins, C?dric Melotte was fourth and Steve Ramon took fifth.

After winning his eighth world title after the first race by taking second place in the moto, Everts was determined to make amends and win the second race.

As the gate dropped he hit the first turn in the leading bunch and pushed into the lead as the pack came around on lap one. Everts delivered a perfect score card in moto two and this time Pichon had little answer for the multiple World Champion's speed and consistency.

Everts took a well deserved win, his career total now stands at unrivalled 78 GP wins, with Pichon in second place. Third place went to Estonian rider Tanel Leok, followed by Josh Coppins and Kevin Strijbos in fifth.
Billy Mackenzie was a solid sixth.

"It was the same old story in race one today with the lapped riders," said Everts. "They just don't move over. Luigi Seguy and Billy Mackenzie were in front of me for a few corners and that pretty much blew my victory because Pichon came by me when I got blocked by them. It's a pity because I really tried to win the race.

"I made another really good start in race two and I knew that I had to push really hard to break away from Pichon and maintain my lead. Towards the end of the race I was a little stronger than Pichon and I think this made the difference that allowed me to take the win.

"Of course I'm very happy to win my eighth world title here today. The race seasons are always very long and a lot of things can happen to spoil your chances of success. I've been very consistent although the year wasn't without problems for me, but I made it through to win and I'm very happy for myself, my team, Yamaha, the sponsors, family and of course my fans."

The rain plagued race witnessed the crowning of a new world champion when the young New Zealander Ben Townley won the first race. Townley repeated his win in the second race. Rattray remains second in standings and Cairoli is now third.

Antonio Cairoli grabbed the holeshot in the opening race and led the race in the early stages. However a few small mistakes saw the new hot shot Italian drop to third place at the finish.

Mark Dereuver seemed to have an edge over his team-mate Townley, but technical problems forced the Dutch star to retire and Townley was handed first place on a plate.

Second place went to Tyla Rattray, Marvin Van Deale took fourth in front of Rui Goncalves.

Race two saw the new MX2 World Champion hit turn one in first place and he never looked back delivering a perfect score card and lead every lap to the finish.

Cairoli once again had mixed fortunes on the fast and bumpy Ballykelly circuit and eventually finished the race in fourth. Aigar Leok took second place, and Marc de Reuver took third.

"It wasn't easy to win races today because Ben was really fast," said Cairoli. "I rode quite well in race one and although I made some mistakes I was happy with my performance. In the second race I started very well but once again Ben was really fast but I rode well again and finished the race in fourth position and the two results gave me second overall which of course I'm pleased with and I'm hoping now to finish the year in third place overall."

MX1 - Moto 1

1 Mickael Pichon FRA Honda
2 Stefan Everts BEL Yamaha
3 Joshua Coppins NZL Honda
4 C?dric Melotte BEL Yamaha
5 Steve Ramon BEL KTM
6 Kevin Strijbos BEL Suzuki
7 Ken De Dijcker BEL Honda
8 Marnicq Bervoets BEL Yamaha
9 Danny Theybers BEL Yamaha
10 Lauris Freibergs LAT Honda

MX1 - Moto 2
1 Stefan Everts BEL Yamaha
2 Mickael Pichon FRA Honda
3 Tanel Leok EST Suzuki
4 Joshua Coppins NZL Honda
5 Kevin Strijbos BEL Suzuki
6 Billy MacKenzie GBR Yamaha
7 Gordon Crockard IRL Honda
8 Steve Ramon BEL KTM
9 Lauris Freibergs LAT Honda
10 Danny Theybers BEL Yamaha

World Championship standings MX1 after 15 rounds
1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 666
2 Mickael Pichon Honda FRA 573
3 Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 519
4 Steve Ramon KTM BEL 439
5 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 421
6 Tanel Leok Suzuki EST 338
7 C?dric Melotte Yamaha BEL 317
8 Brian Jorgensen Honda DNK 294
9 Ken De Dijcker Honda BEL 247
10 Luigi Seguy Yamaha FRA 217

MX2 - Moto 1
1 Ben Townley NZL KTM
2 Tyla Rattray RSA KTM
3 Antonio Cairoli ITA Yamaha
4 Marvin Van Daele BEL Suzuki
5 Rui Goncalves POR Yamaha
6 Jussi Vehvilainen FIN Honda
7 Alessio Chiodi ITA Yamaha
8 Aigar Leok EST KTM
9 S?bastien Pourcel FRA Kawasaki
10 Carl Nunn GBR Honda

MX2 - Moto 2
1 Ben Townley NZL KTM
2 Aigar Leok EST KTM
3 Mark De Reuver NEL KTM
4 Antonio Cairoli ITA Yamaha
5 Tyla Rattray RSA KTM
6 Gareth Swanepoel RSA KTM
7 Anthony Boissiere FRA Yamaha
8 Claudio Federici ITA Yamaha
9 Jonathan Barragan SPA KTM
10 Carl Nunn GBR Honda

World Championship standings MX2 after 15 rounds
1 Ben Townley KTM NZL 572
2 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 464
3 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 409
4 Stephen Sword Kawasaki BGR 382
5 Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 362
6 Mickael Maschio Kawasaki FRA 343
7 Andrew McFarlane Yamaha AUS 329
8 Carl Nunn Honda GBR 275
9 Patrick Caps Yamaha BEL 264
10 Claudio Federici Yamaha ITA 256

The 16th and final round of the championship takes place at Sun City, South Africa, in two weeks.