Continental Report

CONTINENTAL REPORT

B.R. NICHOLLS

HARTLE RIDES FOR MV

It seems Count Agusta is determined that MV shall win both junior and senior TT races at the Isle of Man this year, for he has offered bikes to John Hartle for both races. Hartle was set to race his Matchless Metisse, and was looking forward to seeing just how quick it could lap the mountain course now that it is handling well. However, the MV offer is too good to miss, though John does not yet know whether he will have Threes or Fours for the occasion.

Hartle now is a veteran as he first raced at the Island in 1955, and was lapping the circuit at 100 mph on an MV Four as early as 1958. He was one of the first to achieve the 100 mph plus distinction. His lap at 105.54 mph on a Gilera in 1963 still is considered by many to be one of the finest rides of the past decade.

Hartle was out on a multi as recently as the Hockenheim meeting when he rode the Fath Four. It was a disappointing outing, as the machine was hampered by fuel injection trouble, and so much time was spent seeking a remedy that no consumption tests were made in practice and he ran out of fuel when in 2nd place five laps from the end. He experienced no handling problems on the fast German circuit, though the handlebar-mounted fuel control lever, which he was constantly operating, did not help matters. He likened its performance to the MV Six which he rode in 1959, the out of phase crankshaft giving that impression. John's appearance on the Gallarate machinery will give added interest to the racing even though he obviously will be playing second fiddle to Agostini in the same way he did when No. 2 to John Surtees in 1958-59. Before John got the offer Stuart Graham had been offered a 350, but was unable to accept as the entries had closed.

MILLER WINS

Sammy Miller, on his 252-cc Bultaco, won

the final round of European trials championships, so made a clean sweep of all five events that counted toward the title. The British was the final round, and it gave Miller an easy win with 13 marks lost to the 25 for runner-up Gustav Franke of West Germany (Zundapp), a previous champion. Gordon Farley (Greeves) was 3rd, with another former champion Don Smith (Montesa) 4th.

SUZUKI STIR

Suzuki has caused quite a stir by signing Olle Pettersson to ride that marque for 1968. Now on a vastly improved model, he lies 4th in the championship table after four rounds, and has earned two fine 2nd places. The first of these was at the second round in Belgium, where he raced to a first leg victory chased by local boy Sylvain Geboers (CZ). In the second race, Geboers again took 2nd place, but this time behind Hakan Andersson (Husqvarna) with Pettersson 3rd, so that on overall classification he tied with Geboers. This was resolved by adding the riders' times for both races, and Geboers won by 9 sec. Andersson finished 3rd and Malcolm Davis gained 4th place to give the new AJS stroker its first championship points. For Geboers it was his first championship round win.

A week later, it was the turn of Hakan Andersson in Czechoslovakia, for he won both races on his Husqvarna with the CZs of Joel Robert and Victor Arbekov behind him on each occasion. The next two rounds saw Robert flash into form and take the lead in the championship table with two wins, the first of which was at the French, where he won the first race from Torsten Hallman (Husqvarna) and finished 2nd to Andersson in the other leg. In the Dutch meeting he made no mistake, winning both races. It was here that Pettersson finished 2nd overall, with 6th place in the first race and runner-up in the second. For Andersson, however, it was disastrous. Before the meeting he was lying joint 2nd in the championship table with 18 points to the 20 of leader Robert. Now he is sidelined with a broken leg, result of a spill in the second race of the Dutch meeting. Now Robert has a clear lead in the championship table from his countryman Geboers, while last year's champion, Hallman, who won the jinx-ridden first round in Spain, has managed only two points from the ensuing four events. The table after five rounds reads: Robert, 28; Geboers, 22; Andersson, 18; Pettersson, 13; and Hallman, 10.

In three rounds in the 500 class, three different winners have emerged. The first was Bengt Aberg. Then, in the rain soaked Italian meeting, Roger de Coster of Belgium (CZ) scored his first championship round win, with Czech Petr Dobry (CZ) taking 2nd place on time after a tie with Alan Clough (Husqvarna).

The Swedish round also was bedeviled with bad weather. The most consistent rider was de Coster who finished 5 th in both races to gain 3rd place overall. Victory went to Ake Jonsson (Husqvarna) with a win in the first race and 6th place in the second. His fellow countryman Chris Hammargren (Husqvarna) was runner-up. So Belgium now leads the motocross scene, with Robert on top of the 250 class and de Coster the 500 leader. The 500 table after three rounds reads: de Coster, 12; Aberg, 10; and Jonsson, 8.

S MARKS THE 500

The theme this month seems to be Suzuki, for the marque also has asserted itself in road racing, not in classic racing from which Suzuki has withdrawn, but in the Motor Çyc/e-sponsored 500-mile race for production machines run at the Brands Hatch circuit. A distance of 500 miles at Brands means 189 laps of the tricky 2.65-mile course. There are three classes in the race: 1) over 175 cc, but not over 250 cc; 2) over 250 cc, but not over 500 cc; and 3) over 500 cc, but not over 750 cc. Each machine is allowed a two-rider team. Neither rider is allowed to race for more than two hours at a time. All machines in this Grand Prix d'Endurance must be standard machines, of which at least 100 have been sold to the public. In addition, only manufacturer-listed optional extras may be used, and these are limited to within 25 percent of the price of the machine. Unfortunately, the antiquated rules of the FIM prevent dohcengined models from competion, so the Honda 450 was not allowed. The 500-mile race has been run since 1955 when it was won by a 500 BSA Gold Star. In 1956-57, BSA won again, but with a 350 Gold Star. Then, in 1958, two youngsters entered on a 649 Triumph and won. Now, a decade later, those two are famous names on the grand prix courses of the world—Dan Shorey and Mike Hailwood. This was the start of large capacity wins. The following year, victory went to a 592-cc BMW, and since then it has been 650s all the way.

However, 1968 saw a change that no crystal ball foretold. First of the aces to drop out of the 500 were Joe Dunphy/Griff Jenkins with a holed piston in their 649-cc Triumph; then Percy Tait crashed the Triumph he was sharing with Rod Gould; Tony Rutter/Barry Randle encountered piston failure in their 654 BSA Thunderbolt; Tom Phillips/Keith Heckles' 500 Velocette suffered magneto failure; and Rex Butcher/Alan Baker were another pair to have piston failure in their Triumph. That took the

race up to the end of the third hour, with Ray Pickrell/Dave Croxford on the 745-cc Dunstall Dominator in the lead over Paul Smart/Pat Mahoney with a 654-cc BSA Spitfire. Both teams had completed 92 laps. Five laps behind was the David Nixon/Peter Butler 490-cc Triumph Daytona. All eyes, however, were on 5 th place, held by Gordon Keith/Brian Ball (247-cc Suzuki). During the fourth hour, the Dunstall Dominator retired with a broken primary chain to put the Smart/Mahoney BSA in the lead which they still held at the end of the fifth hour-by which time the Suzuki had moved into 3rd place overall, with a 248-cc Ducati Mark III ridden by Tom Dickie/Charles Mortimer in 6th spot. Nixon/Butler now were 2nd. Then the Smart/Mahoney BSA started to handle badly. When it came into the pits for a plug change, an official spotted a break in the machine's swinging arm. This put the Nixon/Butler Triumph in the lead by two laps over the Keith/Ball Suzuki at the end of the sixth hour. Two laps farther behind came the Dickie/Mortimer Ducati, being pressed on the same lap by a 500-cc Suzuki Cobra ridden by Tommy Robb and sidecar ace Chris Vincent. Its progress was considerably slowed by lack of ground clearance, a fault that must be remedied before it is ridden in the Isle of Man TT by Frank Perris, who has come out of retirement specially for that event.

That was the order at the finish, with British industry saved acute embarrassment by the Nixon/Butler Triumph's 75.52-mph win. The crowd departed awed that the first large displacement machine, a 649 Triumph, was in 6th place. Point of interest to American readers is that in his first ride of the 1968 season, Lance Weil teamed with Martyn Ashwood on an Elite Motors 649-cc Triumph to finish 11th. Derek Minier came out of retirement to ride a 350 Ducati, and was really showing the way round until a brush with another rider resulted in a spill that put all ideas of comeback out of his head.

500-MILE RACE RESULTS

1. D. Nixon/P. Butler 500 Tri. 189

2. G. Keith/B. Ball 250 Suz. 187

3. T. Dickie/C. Mortimer .... 250 Duc. 186

4. T. Robb/C. Vincent 500 Suz. 185

5. R. Knight/M. Carney 500 Tri. 185

6. J. Strijbis/R. Harrington . . . .650 Tri. 185

CADWELL CASH

With Cadwell Park organizer-owner Charles Wilkinson paying start money to big names, Hailwood, Read and Ivy were the attraction for that circuit's major international meeting. Attendance at road races so far this season seems to be less than last year, with the big three sticking to continental meetings. Although the season was many weeks old, the Honda and Yamaha team men had not been seen in England. This, combined with the fact that Read and Ivy had their works fourcylinder machines, and Hailwood the 350 Six and 500 Four, drew a record crowd of around 35,000 to the tricky 2.25-mile Lincolnshire circuit. It was a pity that the weather did not match the standard of the racing. The course was wet for the first race, a production machine event which Ray Pickrell (Dunstall Dominator) snatched from Chris Hopes (Bonneville) by half a length after a bad start.

Then came the first sight of works machinery when Ivy entered his Yamaha against the Suzuki Twin of Stuart Graham, but the prospect of a good scrap was very short-lived as the Suzuki went temperamental and later retired.

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Hero of the race was Trevor Burgess on a disc valve stroker built by Terry Shepherd. It is very light, is capable of 11,000 rpm, and has an Italian Careveggio six-speed gearbox. The idea of building the bike first came to Shepherd at the Isle of Man TT last year. Burgess will ride one of these specials in this year's race. Bore and stroke are 53.8 by 55.8, respectively. Around $1300 is necessary to buy one. Burgess was 2nd to Ivy at Cadwell.

Helmut Fath was not at all happy with the circuit, for it favors left-hand chair outfits. His is a continental right-hand rig. Thus he was easily beaten by Tony Wakefield (BMW) in the first race for three-wheelers. The previous day at Oulton, however, Fath, with his four-cylinder URS, had won the Sidecar Race of the Year 500 class from Wakefield and gone on to take 2nd to Vincent in the 750 class.

The Cadwell 250 race was easy for Read, as Ivy's bike preferred to Twin rather than operate as a Four. Brian Ball (Yamaha) got involved in a good scrap with similarly mounted John Cooper and Rod Gould, but Rod's clutch gave up the struggle and 2nd place was snatched by another Yamaha, ridden by fast-finishing Vic Chatterton.

Then came the second race for threewheelers. And it was the sort of race which has earned Cadwell reputation as the circuit on which unorthodox equipment beats conventional sidecar outfits. Thus when Vincent dropped back when leading fractionally over Terry Vinicombe (Kirby BSA), the crowd's attention fell upon 2nd placeman Jon Worthington (650 Triumph-Scitsu), but Vinicombe held his lead to the flag.

Then came the long awaited Read vs. Hailwood battle in the 350 race, another round in Castrol challenge trophy competition. Hailwood managed an absolute flier of a start, but after a lap Read was with him, and for six of the eight laps there was little more than a machine's length between them. Then, in the last two laps, Mike bagged a lap record, an eight-lap race record, and a 1-sec. lead to win. Behind them came Dan Shorey (Norton), and 4th the man who has a clear nine points in the trophy, Kei Carruthers (H-D Aermacchi Metisse).

To give the crowd its money's worth, the next race was for the fastest 15 finishers in the previous two three-wheeler events. With Vinicombe sidelined on the first lap, it was left to Vincent (654 BSA) to uphold the honor of the sidecars, but it was not to be, for Worthington really got the Scitsu motoring to take the lead at half distance, with Vincent 2nd. The 3rd place finisher was the ex-Greenwood Mini driven by Ken Allen.

So, to the tragedy of the day-a hailstorm that hit just before the big race in which Hailwood was to pit his 500-cc Honda against the Yamaha Fours of Ivy and Read, and the Seeleys of John Cooper and Dave Croxford. Hailwood was beaten by sheer horsepower from the start because on the wet track, wheelspin started whenever he opened the throttle. As the circuit dried toward the end of the 15 laps, he moved from 5th to 4th, but stood no chance of catching 3rd man Croxford. Up front, Read had been shadowing

Cooper the whole of the race, then took him on the last lap. The day before at the North West 200 race, held over the Portstewart-Portrush circuit in Northern Ireland, Cooper had won the 500 class from Billie Nelson (Hannah Paton) with Rod Gould (Norton) 3rd. Rod had earlier won the 250 class on his Yamaha, and it was probably this hard race with a lap at 104 mph plus that put the curse on the clutch that let him down at Cadwell.

Highlight of the day was the lap record, an absolute mark for the circuit and any other circuit in the British Isles, by Ralph Bryans on the 250 Honda Six at 109.22 mph.

Bill Smith (Honda) won the 350 class, with Ireland's rising star Brian Steenson (H-D Aermacchi) making fastest lap and taking 2nd place as he did in the 250 race.

A HARD LIFE

American Marty Lunde, who is sponsored by former TT rider Les Dear (he won 11 replicas), has been having quite a ball spreading scrap metal across the Continent. Lunde has experienced two major blowups and a minor disintegration, but things brightened up a bit for him at the Austrian Grand Prix where he finished 10th in the 500 class and 6th in the 350, despite a slipping clutch. It's a hard life. That 6th place was worth $7.56!

Readers may have noticed the name of Rod Gould has cropped up consistently this season. His trip to the States has made him a better rider, for his style is more polished than last season, and there is the cool confidence needed to reach the top. He has had his share of bad luck, though, since coming back. At the last Mallory meeting he looked a certain winner in the 250 race with his Yamataco (a Yamaha in the Bultaco frame), when the streamlining came adrift on one side. Rod stopped, tore off the offending piece, and hurtled in pursuit of the field. He missed 2nd place by a length from John Cooper. The race was won by Vic Chatterton (Yamaha) who also took 125 honors. Surprise of the day came in the 350 race when Jim Curry, riding one of Syd Lawton's H-D Aermacchis, took an early lead and held off all challenges with ease. Croxford was the big race winner, with Vincent the sidecar king.

'FATTER' DUNLOPS

Dunlop has developed a new tire specially to meet the increasing power outputs of modern racing motorcycles. The new tires mark a slight departure from the company's famous triangular section covers, which place a large area of rubber in contact with the road during extreme cornering angles.

The latest tires, designated KR 83 for rear wheels and KR 84 for front wheels, are based on the triangular style, but their lower profiles place 20 percent more rubber in contact with the road when a motorcycle is upright, giving greater adhesion during braking and acceleration.

Dunlop decided that lower profiles are necessary, now that some grand prix racers are developing up to 90 bhp. The new profile is claimed to allow as high an angle of lean on corners as do the triangulars, while the rounded contours of the tires allow a smooth transition from the vertical to the full lean position. The KR 83 and 84 tires are available in 3.25-18 size. A 3.50-18 size also is available for the rear cover, but this is intended mainly for super-powerful, factory-built, 500-cc multi-cylinder machines. ■