NAfter many years of silence, Sylvain Geboers speaks about a very dark period surrounding the then Suzuki Team. In the previous decade, Suzuki was still present at the highest level and therefore active in the world championship motocross. For many years, Sylvain Geboers was the owner of the team, but that would change when ten-time world champion Stefan Everts took over the team in 2015. Less than two years later, Suzuki Japan unexpectedly pulled the plug on the team, which caused a lot of bitter reactions.
The take over
In November 2015, big news came: after many discussions between the parties involved, the spectacular news came that the successful Suzuki World MXGP Team of Sylvain Geboers would be taken over by Stefan Everts and his wife. Geboers turned 70 and thought it was time for a successor to ensure the continuity of the team. With Everts, the team was injected with a lot of know-how. He became world champion (1991) for Geboers' team at the time and therefore knew perfectly well how a successful team works.
Less than two years later, dark clouds hung over the Suzuki concern in Japan and the plug was pulled on the team at the end of 2017. After years of silence, Sylvain Geboers tells the story about the bitter end of the team during an interview with the editor-in-chief of sister site MXVintage.
Danny Hermans: Back to your time as team boss. You had been looking for a new owner for your Suzuki team for several years. Then, at the end of 2015, you were able to reach an agreement with ten-time world champion Stefan Everts. But unfortunately, a few years later, in 2017, Suzuki unexpectedly pulled the plug on the Suzuki World MXGP team. The news, which hit our country like a bomb at the time, caused bitter reactions in the press.
Everts alluded to that in Belang van Limburg that there was possible prior knowledge in the takeover of the team. That must have hit you pretty hard, that reaction?
Sylvain Geboers: “Yes, that is incomprehensible to me. First I have to say that I have not been looking for a takeover for years. I turned 70 and that was a point for me to think about a transfer. I immediately had a takeover. But suddenly I get the question from Stefan Everts whether we could talk about the future of the team. I agreed to that and then I had to notify the party with whom I had a verbal agreement and spoke to them to know their opinion.”
“I have a meeting with those people, then decide, we will go for Stefan Everts, that other party also offered to help Stefan if necessary, but that was rejected because he wanted to do that together with his wife. We start and then immediately in October, I opened the doors for Stefan and his wife, to learn how we function, what was present and finally at the end of December, we reached an agreement.”
“Financially, everything went well and it was finished off well then. But then we started with the team in function. And the agreement was that we would continue working there for a year as we were used to before. The same staff, working in the same way. Stefan could get used to it and after a year if changes had to be made, we could do that in consultation.”
“Okay, we're leaving. And after the first race, an international race, I conclude: Kevin Strijbos is not happy with the function of the engine. We had a meeting every Tuesday with the staff, with the riders and mechanics. A review of the race we had done, and a preview of the race that was to come. And then it was suggested that Kevin Strijbos was not happy with the performance of his new engine. And I suggested that we compare the engine of last year with the new engine. And then there was a reaction from Stefan Everts' wife, who said 'no way'. And nobody in the meeting reacted. And I thought, where are we at here? So that was the first conclusion.”
“We continued working after that and during the year some people were laid off. Yes, we come for a renewal of the story. We have a renewal of the story. We have a renewal of the contract at the end of 2016. We go to Japan, we make an agreement for the next two years and there the program is finally presented for 2017.”
“That is accepted by Stefan, everything is responded to positively and then the contract is extended. So Suzuki first wanted to be sure that Stefan would cooperate in the way they wanted to work. We leave with the 2017 season and in March the Japanese come to Belgium. It was promised that there would be a workshop and a place for storage available to be able to carry out the tests of the new models in Lommel. Unfortunately, nothing was provided. That was a disappointment for the Japanese. We continue and suddenly in June Stefan receives the message, that was a normal course of events, that we were then called to Germany for a meeting.”
“Stefan absolutely wanted to take his wife with him. I wasn’t allowed to go then. Stefan went with his wife and at that meeting he was told that Suzuki was stopping and pulling the plug. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what was agreed. Knowing Suzuki, I’m sure that they… came to a good agreement there, that they arranged their affairs properly.”
“But from that moment on, there was no more consultation between me and Stefan. He could no longer have a conversation. He assumed that I had prior knowledge of Suzuki stopping, which is absolutely not true. The contracts with Suzuki always ran from year to year and now they ran for two years. That was a great improvement. There was the commitment to bring all those tests to Europe, that was an incredible future. But Stefan has a big ego and he has achieved enormous results as a rider. But working in a team is something completely different. Personally, I never got an explanation from Suzuki as to why they stopped, so Stefan probably did, but that is the story and I take it with my hand on my heart, I have always been honest about this, but it was a very difficult stop. I have really difficult things about it.”
Tekst: Danny Hermans
Photos: Suzuki World MXGP en Infront Moto Racing
