For this week's List, we dug into the stacks in the back of the Racer X library for some Stefan Everts covers. Everts is the most successful rider in FIM World Championship history, with ten world titles and 101 Grand Prix wins. That places him well ahead of his nearest challenger, Tony Cairoli, who has seven world titles and is closing in on seventy GP wins. That means he needs to be as dominant as ever over the next three years to get close to Everts' marks. That puts him about as close to Everts' record as James Stewart is to Jeremy McGrath's SX wins (72 to 50) or RV is likely soon to be to Jeremy's SX title haul (seven to four).
Among the many, many impressive things Everts did as a professional racer from 1990 to 2006 was win a world title on four different brands—Suzuki, then Kawasaki, then Honda, and finally Yamaha. (Ironically, he now works with KTM, the one brand he never raced for.) Stefan also won on every sized bike: 125, 250, 250F, 450F, 500. He was so versatile on a motorcycle that he won all three classes at the 2003 French GP (MX1, MX2, and MX3) while racing for Yamaha! After that, they changed the rules to limit riders to one class.
Everts was arguably the best mud and sand rider the FIM World Championships have ever seen (though Jeffrey Herlings could make an argument about being the sand king). He also ended his professional career with the greatest "walk-off" win in motocross history, sweeping both motos of the 2006 Motocross of Nations in England.
And now Everts, himself the son of four-time world champion Harry, is raising his own son in racing. Liam Everts is already making small waves over in Europe, and he finished second at the Indianapolis SX last year in the KTM Jr. Supercross Challenge.
Here are some of the covers we found, and there are plenty more, so consider this Stefan Everts Covers: Volume 1.
