Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B. R. NICHOLLS
HAVING MADE due comment last month about the need for sponsors (if Americans are to have a really good go at road racing over here), let me start this month by paying tribute to A1 Fergoda, of San Francisco, who has provided the Yamaha, together with spare engine and parts, for Bill Boyd to race this season. Bill had bad luck in the Ulster Grand Prix when the Yamaha refused to start, then packed in after one lap. What happened at the TT can be read elsewhere, but Boyd can be proud of one thing. He won at Crimond the week before sponsorless Lance Weil took his Norton to victory in the 350 race at Lydden. Since that date Lance has won again, in the 500 class at Crystal Palace, but his finest ride to date over here has been at the Hutchinson Hundred meeting held at Brands Hatch, when the racing was run
in the reverse direction, so that no rider would have an unfair advantage by track knowledge.
“It sorts the riders from the scratchers,” commented Mike Duff.
The Hutch was a big international meeting which included most of the continental circus men on their way to the Ulster Grand Prix. Suzuki ruled the roost in the 125 class, with Hugh Anderson winning from Frank Perris, while in third place was the rapid Aussie, Kelvin Carruthers, Honda, who seems to have a great future. Phil Read, Yamaha, led the 250 race until the last lap, when it tightened up within sight of the winners’ flag. Then out came the clutch, and as he coasted home, Mike Duff whistled past to win by a couple of seconds. Mike had trouble starting, and in the rush through the field to catch the leader, set the fastest lap. Interesting experiment on his aircooled Yamaha RD56 twin was a disc brake designed by Bryan Bailey of Newbury. It has twin discs with one pusher on each floating caliper. No doubt Yamaha are watching the experiment with interest, for braking is a two-stroke problem.
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Only Read was expected to give Hailwood anything like a battle in the 350 race, but plug trouble and a spill put the 252 Yamaha out of commission and Mike went on to win on the elderly Honda four. Second man home was Derek Minier, Norton, who was naturally anxious to beat John Blanchard, who had taken over the Seeley AJS and finished third. Then we saw one of the hairiest racesever with John Cooper, BSA, battling against the Triumphs of Percy Tait and Mick Andrews in a production machine race. The handling characteristics of the BSA were not helped by the riding style of Cooper clambering on and off at every corner and his efforts to outbrake his rivals. However, John won and watching him was ex MZ and Honda star Alan Shepherd, who has now joined BSA. Could be that his number one problem will be to produce top class handling for the big twin.
Max Deubel and Emil Horner won both the sidecar races on their BMW outfit, but only after being led on both occasions by Chris Vincent and Terry Harrison, BSA, who were bedeviled by ignition trouble.
Big race of the day was the Senior Championship event, more than twentyfive laps for solos over 250 and under 500cc. Hailwood built up a good lead on the 350 Honda, but burst his gearbox, fortunately stopping before the oil on the rear tire could do its worst. This left John Cooper, Norton, and Peter Williams, Arter Matchless, battling like fury for the lead until Williams ran out of gas four laps from the end, thinking it was a twenty lap event. So Cooper won from Dan Shorey, Norton, who had diced with Gyula Marsovsky, Matchless, most of the way.
Pride of the Yankees, Lance Weil, Norton, had scrapped with and disposed of Rodney Gould, Griff Jenkins, Fred Stevens, Rex Butcher and John Dodds to earn fourth place, the best-ever-placing over here in an international event by an American since the war.
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Reverting to the 350 race, Bill Ivy crashed on the Kirby AJS, when an oil pipe broke and smothered the rear with oil. He gashed his back and suffered concussion which put him out of the Ulster Grand Prix. So we come back to Ireland, which is where Bill Boyd did most of his racing and took thirds in the Cookstown 100 and at Bangor Park. He also set fastest lap at Athboy and was leading there when the Yamaha blew up.
On the motocross front, Paul Friedrichs won the Luxembourg round of the 500cc championship, and in so doing, got a maximum points score for his championship win, as the seven best rides count to the title and he has seven wins. But the major meeting has been the Motocross des Nations team event for 500cc machines held in France. Ten teams contested the event, with five riders allowed per team of which the best three were to score. With Sweden not at full strength because of an injury to Tibblin, the battle developed between Belgium and the British team. Run over two races, Victor Arbekov, CZ, won the first with Joel Robert, CZ, taking second place for Belgium. Dave Bickers, CZ, was third and Don Rickman, Metisse, fourth, only separated by Swedish rider Torsten Hallman, Husqvarna, from their third team man, Arthur Lampkin, BSA. Then came the other two scoring riders for Belgium, CZ-mounted Roger DeCoster and Walter Baeten. So at the end of the first race, the score was Britain, 13 and Belgium, 17.
Bickers was the ace in the second race, winning from Robert and Arbekov. Ake Jonsson, Husqvarna, riding for Sweden, was fourth, with Vic Eastwood, BSA, coming in fifth and Rickman, seventh. Victory was assured, and now we wait to see if Great Britain can become the first to win both Motocross des Nations and the Trophée des Nations in the same season. We shall know by next month.
This year’s TT was generally lacking in technical “goodies,” but one or two items are worthy of mention. The first is the lowboy racer that twenty-four-year-old South African from Cape Town, Ray Flack has built. At a time when every ingenious idea must be used to get that bit extra over your competitors, Ray has reverted to a kneeling position for his solo 350cc Norton. The height to the top of the screen is only 35 inches and the accompanying photographs show just what a neat job he has made of it. Jawa abandoned the oil tank under the sump that is so obvious in the Ulster Grand Prix photo, and now have it situated at the rear of the seat.
In the 250 race Barry Smith raced a standard Suzuki T20 Super 6 to which had been fitted special tank and fairing and racing plugs and tires only. With silencers still in place, it purred round the six laps to finish in twelfth place at an average speed of 82.88 mph. Yamaha tried out their 125 and 250 four-cylinder machines in practice, but used the twins in both races. John Cooper did not race because of the effects of his Ulster GP crash. Immediately after the 125 race, Frank Perris announced his retirement and left the Island. There could be a spare Benelli at Monza so that retirement may be short-lived. Tom Kirby had no solo riders at the TT — only Vinicombe in the sidecar class, who upped his race average by three mph on last year.
One thing about the postponed races is that it gave an insight to some holiday makers that would liever have seen racing and the majority were quick to voice praise for the skill of the riders. Those that disapproved crept away to the south of the Island and everybody was happy.
