Preview: Grand Prix of Belgium.

After a three week summer break the 2002 FIM Motocross World Championships kickstart into life again this weekend with round 9 of 12 occurring in Genk for the Grand Prix of Belgium.

The 250cc class and the 500cc series have two clear leaders in the points standings looking to keep their advantage as the season approaches it final stages; whereas, in stark contrast, the 125cc chase can still see one of five riders lift the coveted prize.

Defending Champions Mickael Pichon and Stefan Everts have once again proved that they are the fastest Motocross riders in the world within their respective classifications.

Pichon is the most successful Frenchman to have contested the World Championships with 21 career victories and enjoys a 30 point (at least one race) advantage over Josh Coppins in the 250cc contest. The factory Suzuki rider can match and possibly beat his tally of 10 wins from 14 races last season if he takes the spoils in the last four races.

The 26 year old has currently collected 7 trophies in 2002 from 8 events; the last five consecutively, meaning he is just one win away from setting a new record in the 250 class (at the moment he is tying with the totals amassed by Torsten Hallmann in 1962 and Marnicq Bervoets in 1996).

Coppins heads his works Honda team-mate Pit Beirer by 17 points with Fred Bolley back in fourth, another 16 points behind. The Kiwi will finally end weeks of anguish just after the Belgian race when his positive doping sample case of appeal will be heard before the International jury. There is the possibility that Genk could be the 25 year olds last GP of the year.

Jamie Dobb goes into this event, which he won convincingly in the mud last year on his way to the 125cc crown, with a nasty back injury sustained during an outing in the Open class of the British International Motocross series. His KTM team-mate Gordon Crockard triumphed in round four of the British Championship last weekend in Northern Ireland. Crockard was the other half of two British winners in Genk 2001 when he demoted Pichon onto the second step of the podium.

Crockard's previously employers and those with happy memories of Belgium, the CAS Honda squad, should be back to full strength with all three of their 250cc riders recovered from injury and ready to race. Yoshitaka Atsuta, Paul Cooper and Jussi Vehvilainen line up after missing several GPs between them. Cooper and Vehvilainen both completed events in the UK in recent weeks. The British team will be joined by an unfamiliar face in the form of American Robbie Reynard. The 24 year old is travelling to Genk to make his GP debut in CAS colours. Reynard is a top ten regular on the US scene and notched race results of 5th and 6th against Ricky Carmichael and co in the AMA meeting last week held in Washougal.

Also trying a 250 for the first time at World Championship level will be reigning 125cc European champion Kevin Strijbos riding a Suzuki alongside Mickael Pichon after the Frenchman had pushed for the promising young Belgian to temporarily join the team.

Stefan Everts holds a 30 point cushion over 500cc Yamaha team-mate Marnicq Bervoets as the top Belgian trio, including KTM man Joel Smets, prepare to do battle on home turf in front of a packed crowd and boisterous fans.

Enjoying some time off while Smets blasted the opposition in the German Championship (gaining three moto wins over Pit Beirer and Johnny Aubert), Everts returns to the venue where he defeated his great rival in dramatic circumstances last year when Smets crashed while leading and the Champion-to-be ran off the track but had carried enough momentum to inherit the lead. It's fair to say that Smets will want to exact some revenge in the only Belgian-based event on the calendar.

Everts' 100 percent podium record of results in 2002 (including four victories) may echo Pichon's iron grip on the 250cc competition but the Yamaha man has had to work a lot harder for his leading points haul, narrowly beating Yves Demaria in France and Smets by under a second in Sweden; the fun seems set to continue in Genk. After missing another race through a shoulder problem Demaria is hoping to return to the podium this weekend.

Bervoets, Javier Garcia Vico - closer than ever to recording Spain's first ever win in the senior class, Brian Jorgensen, Andrea Bartolini and Cedric Melotte will also form part of the cast come Sunday and the GP that many in the senior class will want to win.

Thanks to inconsistency amongst the main protagonists, the 125cc class, for want of a better clich?, is 'wide-open'. The difference between Leader Mickael Maschio (recently crowned French 125 national champ) and fifth place Philippe Dupasquier is only 9 points.

The jostling pack includes Patrick Caps, Steve Ramon and Alex Puzar. Ben Townley resides in sixth, only 21 points behind Maschio and thanks to his first ever career win three weeks ago in Sweden marks out Dupasquier as the only one of the group to have not stood on the top of the podium this term.

Townley actually scored several success in the Dutch National Championship last week and will be happy to return to Genk; the scene of his highest point score in a difficult rookie season last year when he gained 10th on a Suzuki.

Riders set to rejoin the Championship after an injury lay off include Erik Eggens on the factory KTM and American Tallon Vohland on a Kawasaki.