article by Nicola Pucci
When talking about motocross, a couple of undoubtedly interesting ideas come to our aid: one is that unlike what happens in the world championship, the most coveted and prestigious class is that of the 250the second is that among the leading nations is Belgium, which with 52 (!!!) overall world titles leads the special ranking of world championslapping Italy and France who won in 24 rounds.
Among the Flemish champions who have chosen to excel in motocross, rather than cycling which is the national sport par excellence in those parts, The protagonist of our today’s story, Joel Robert, undoubtedly deserves a prominent place, who can be considered the first, true champion of the specialty what supreme audacity, recklessness and contempt for danger. In addition, obviously, to requiring a massive dose of talent.
In truth Robert is Walloon, born on 26 November 1943 in that Chatelet made famous by the painter René Magritte, and like his illustrious fellow citizen the young Joel soon begins to “brush” stunts on a motorcycle, given that already at the age of 6 his father, a former motocross and speedway rider, built him his first motorbike, a 125 cc Gillet, which Joel rides inspired by his childhood idols, who are none other than René Baeten (world champion in the 500 class in 1958) and Auguste Mingels (European champion in 1953 and 1954, always in the half liter ).
In fact, Robert made his debut at just 16 years old, thanks to a special authorization granted by the Federation which allows him to compete when the limit would be set at 18 years old, winning the junior title in 1960 and the national title in 1962 riding a Greeves, after finishing in second place the previous year. And when the world championship of the 250 class was established in 1962 (the 500 class had been racing since 1957), here was this extremely talented motocross rider with an overflowing personality, often overweight, a bit of a braggart and with the inseparable cigarette between his lips, he has the way of writing memorable rainbow pages.
The first two seasons were marked by the domination of the Swede Torsten Hallman, who bagged two world titles, winning a total of 15 races (in motocross two heats are held, both on Sunday, after the official tests on Saturday) and if Robert, still riding a Greeves, obtains only a few partial placings for a final 14th and 25th place in the general classification, that’s it in 1964, hired by the Czechoslovakian CZ (which had offered the position to Hallman, receiving his refusal to continue driving Husqvarna), he began a winning streak destined to last until 1972. Having one of the most legendary duels in the entire history of motocross with Hallman.
In 1964, in fact, Robert had an almost perfect season, winning 8 of the 14 scheduled grand prix, finally scoring 56 points which, thanks also to the second place in Luxembourg and the third in Imola, gave him his first world title, anticipating Hallman who added 50 points with only victories in Spain, Poland, France and Imola. And although Joel is only 21, becomes the youngest world champion in historyprojecting itself into the future with the legitimate aspiration of becoming the master of the 250 class.
Despite ambitions, in 1965 Robert was forced to give way to the Soviet Viktor Arbekovhis teammate at CZwhich with the corollary of 5 partial victories surpasses him in the standings, 52 points against 48 with only the successes in Luxembourg and Moscow and thanks to a few too many mechanical problems, snatching the scepter from him, but in the three years that followed, with Hallman forcefully returning to the top of the engine capacity, the quarter-litre motocross world championship experienced its golden epic.
In fact, between Robert and Hallman, a rivalry ignited that reached unthinkable technical heights, with the Swede who in 1966after Arbekov won the opening match in Spain only to be sidelined by a serious injury in France, wins the title in the last racebattling with the Belgian with whom, 5 victories to 4, the challenge is renewed the following year toowhen Hallman and Robert, who this time add 5 victories each, are the protagonists of a head-to-head which sees the champion from Chatelet leading the rankings up to three races from the end, and then, thanks to three consecutive retirements in Sweden, Finland and Moscow, being overtaken by just 2 points, 52 against 50.
Before the start of the following season, with Hallman at 4 world titles and Robert at 1, the two great rivals move to the United States to compete in a series of “exhibition” races, aimed at popularizing motocross across the Atlantic. And, as we will see, the project will prove successful. But Joel aims above all to take revenge on him, and for the next five years, really, there is none for anyone.
In 1968, joined in CZ by his compatriot Sylvain Geboers, Robert jumped to the command of the world championship by virtue of three consecutive victories in France, Holland and Germanyand if Hallman matches it with successes in Moscow, Yugoslavia and Sweden, the challenge for the world title will be resolved on August 11th at Dodindgton Park and, above all, in Austria on October 6thwhen the Belgian scores a winning poker in the four heats, also taking advantage of the Swede’s misfortunes who in Launsdorf, leading with a 23 second lead, punctures and is forced to retire, thus securing the second world title of his career, 54 points to 52.
In 1969 Robert found his most dangerous opponent in Geboers in the race for world championship confirmationbut six partial victories against the four of his compatriot allow him, at the end of the year, to still boast the world title, 102 points against 96.
Courted by Suzukiwhich aims to interfere in the top battle of a sport that seems to only speak “European“, in 1970 Robert, together with Geboers himself, changed his shirtma “by reversing the order of the factors, the product does not change“, e for the next three years, until 1972, Joel brought the Japanese company three world titles.
In 1970 Robert won in Spain, Yugoslavia, San Severino and Bristol, and in the standings, 96 points against 94, he beat Geboers, in 1971 he dominated eight of the twelve grand prix on the calendar and with 105 points, against the 72 of the Swede Hakan Anderssonwho took over from Hallman within the team Husqvarna, the consecutive four of a kind drops, which then becomes five the following year, 1972, when he secures the final victory by winning six of the first eight races of the seasonstill prevailing over Andersson, who in the meantime had been hired by Yamaha, 102 points against 82.
With 1972 we could pull down the banner and send Joel Robert’s extraordinary career to the archiveswho also found a way to become an ambassador for motocross in the United States by taking part, in 1970, in the Trans-Ama, a series of races that sees the best European motocrossers compete against the best American motocrossers, scoring six consecutive victories, as well as triumphing with colleagues Roger de Coster and Sylvain Geboers in the Nations Trophy in the two-year period 1969/1970. Why a knee injury which occurred in 1972 affected him in the following seasons, the last of his competitive activity as a winning motocrosser, which ended in 1976 riding the Austrian Puch after that in the previous three years, with Suzuki, he had only managed to impose himself in the second heat of the German Grand Prix in Bielstein on 9 June 1974.
6 world titles and 50 victories in the 250 class, a record that will last until 2004 when, look at what a coincidence, another great Belgian, Stefan Everts, will do better than him. If this wasn’t a phenomenon…