Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B. R. NICHOLLS
THERE IS ONLY ONE racing certainty and that is while Honda are in the racing game there will always be wonderful rumors about what they will produce next, and the rumors will only be beaten by exotic truths like the 250cc six and 125cc five. Latest in the long line of whispers is that of a 650cc four-cylinder road burner, aimed of course at the American market, and of a V-8 for the 500cc class of road racing which should certainly have the required speed to beat the MV. The Guzzi V-8 which raced in 1956-7 was very fast, in fact its acceleration was such that it had to be held in check at times to prevent the front wheel becoming airborne, especially on uphill sections. Handling was a problem and one that will probably cause the Honda concern its biggest headache.
Count Agusta has stated that he will not reveal his racing plans until next March, although Agostini has already been signed for 1966.Morini have dropped out because of lack of a quality rider. Their only interest is the Italian championships, in which an Italian must ride the machine, and there is no one in the class of Agostini and Provini, both of whom rode the fabulously fast little 250cc single in the past. Provini will again ride for Benelli in 1966, being supported at home events by veteran Remo Venturi. Whether they go the full round for the world championship will probably depend on results in the early meetings where a 350 will be raced as well as the 250.
Incidentally, if you want to buy a Benelli four or a Morini single or a beautiful 500cc Gilera 4, then Provini is your man for he owns a factory making superb oneninth scale models of these famous race machines which, if not already available in the States, no doubt soon will be. It is doubtful if Gilera will race again in 1966 but do not be surprised if one of their engines turns up in a sidecar again, for in the right hands it is well capable of taking the championship.
Alan Shepherd has now changed his mind about retirement and hopes to race again next season. He already has the 125cc MZ that the factory gave him, and hopes to get a good 250 mount as well. Alan had hoped to import MZ machines into England but has consistently been refused permission over the past three years by the British government. The reason given is that it would be harmful to British industry, but how this can be reconciled with a long standing agreement with Japan that unlimited numbers of her machines may be imported, not to mention Bultacos, is difficult to understand. Oh, of course, there is no such place as East Germany so how can we trade with them? But make no mistake, MZ bikes would have sold like hot cakes after the International Six Days Trial.
Going foreign, however, is certainly the trend and if it's something Czechoslovakian then you are definitely in. CZ have an impressive lineup for '66 with Paul Friedrichs and Rolf Tibblin in the 500 class, and every chance that they will be joined by Chris Horsfield, who has forsaken his works Matchless and gotten a brace of CZs for the British winter television motocross series in which he scored a brilliant win over Dave Bickers in the 250 class recently. The Russian team that came over for the TV match were all CZ-mounted, and gave the British boys a helluva fight before losing by five points. With four riders on each team, scoring was based on 8 for the winner down to 1 for last man home, and the contest was decided over two races.
A system has been adopted for race length that may well become standard practice in the future and it is done on a time-plus-one-lap basis. This enables racing to fit in much easier with television time schedules and is also a better system where the weather takes a hand in proceedings, as was proved in the 1965 250cc moto-cross round in Czechoslovakia where rain turned the circuit into a quagmire and Joel Robert ran out of gas when leading the second race. To revert to the motocross match, the Russian team consisted of world champion Victor Arbekov, Gunnar Draougs, Igor Grigoriev and Yuri Ageev, while the British team was Dave Bickers and Alan Clough (Greeves), Bryan Goss (Husqvarna) and Chris Horsfield (CZ). The conditions were atrocious, being very cold and muddy.
One man stood out above the rest in winning both races and that was Dave Bickers; behind him the fortunes of others varied lap by lap. In the closing stages of the first race, Horsfield stalked Grigoriev until the last lap, then nipped past for second place but Horsfield had been in trouble earlier when he spun. Arbekov had chain trouble; the same fate befell Draougs when he was second; Ageev fell off, then drowned his motor. So the first race ended rather unhappily for the visitors, gaining 13 points to the British total of 23. The second race was a different story for it started with Goss being disqualified for failing to come under starter's orders, and Arbekov raced into a lead which he held for three laps. Then Bickers took over, but the Russians were well placed with Arbekov, Grigoriev and Ageev running second, third and fourth. Then came Clough and Horsfield, with poor Draougs once again the victim of machine trouble. Russia won the second leg by 20 points to 15 but lost the contest 38-33. Then in an all-comers race, Jeff Smith and Vic Eastwood on 441cc BSAs got the better of Arbekov with Bickers fourth and Grigoriev fifth, just ahead of Arthur Lampkin (BSA).
Despite the conditions there is no doubt that the match was highly successful and club officials, who watched the Russians practice in drier conditions the day before the race, are convinced the result would have been much different if the rain had not interfered. Two weeks later came the Bickers vs. Horsfield duel which was one of the finest races ever seen on television, with Horsfield just getting his CZ ahead of the Greeves at the line. There is no doubt that moto-cross is gaining vast new audiences, albeit fireside spectators, by these Saturday afternoon meetings, and general interest is being aroused in the national press who are always game for spectacular photos like riders so caked in mud their own mothers would not recog nize them.
(Continued on page 94)
The Rickmans are back in the news, Don having been out of action with a broken wrist and Derek having just com pleted a highly successful short tour scrambling in South Africa with Jerry Scott. Two days after his return Derek was busy discovering that the Czech Eso engine makes an excellent moto-cross power unit. Speedway ace Barry Briggs is the man behind this move as he is the sole concessionaire for the engines in England. It was Briggs' speedway unit, only slightly modified, that Derek used at the Scramble of the Year meeting at Brands Hatch. Compression ratio had been knocked down from 14 to 1 to about 10 to 1 because of the switch from dope to pump fuel. With a bore and stroke of 88x82 the all-alloy pushrod device is very much over-square. It revs to 8000 and has a total loss oil system, the Pilgrim-type pump being plainly obvious on the crank case, but a return system will be employed if the idea of Eso for moto-cross catches on. This is not the first Eso Metisse, as enthusiasts will remember that Bill Nilsson raced one, but that used the old longstroke motor.
First winner of the Scramble of the Year race was Andy Lee who reckoned it was the hardest race of his sixteen-year career. Jeff Smith won the invitation race while Vic Eastwood took the Motor Cycle News trophy race. Under a special permit Joel Robert and Roger Decoster, the two Belgian aces, rode at this meeting. Robert led the 250 race for a long while but then had chain trouble which dropped him back to third with Decoster finishing fourth. In the big race of the day Decoster was riding very well in third place when his rear wheel collapsed.
The new 500-750cc class in international moto-cross is already attracting a lot of attention with the go-ahead Thirsk club anxious to include it in one of their meetings. Harold Taylor, a driving force behind television moto-cross, hopes that the Trophee des Nations 250cc team event next year will also include a contest for the bigger bangers. With Andy Lee going all out to persuade the French to hold a couple of rounds, it looks as if the FIM will have to fork out for a trophy. Ernie Wiffen of AMC is reported to have said that he will provide his runners with 600cc single or even 750cc twin engines for the new class and Eric Cheney may build an overbored BSA Gold Star. Although the Rickmans favor the 600cc single, in the 500 class next year they will use 360cc Bultaco-engined Métissés where they will be up against the CZs and also the new 360cc Greeves, which is equipped with twin carbs. While there is little fear of a two-stroke horning in on the 500-750cc class, it might never really get off the ground if BSA dream up a 501cc Victor.
Scott Ellis, riding a 250cc factory BSA, won the British Experts Trial for the first time in a battle where all the competitors in the solo class were in the 250 class and under. He beat Sammy Miller (Bultaco) by 64 marks to 66. Sidecar winner on his Ariel for the fourth year running was Ron Langston, passengered as usual by Doug Cooper.
