Belgian Gp

BELGIAN GP

Ago Cinches 500 Title With Sixth GP Win, While Santi Herrero Squeaks Into 250 Class Point Lead

HEINZ J. SCHNEIDER

THE BELGIAN Grand Prix, held in the beautiful Ardennes foothills, was marked by the highest lap speeds ever recorded in motorcycle racing. A crowd of 120,000 came to the Spa-Francorchamps circuit to see Giacomo Agostini tour the 8.8-mile track at better than 130 mph on his fabulous MV Three. And Englishman Dave Simmonds, with his eight-speed Kawasaki Twin, is now almost a certainty for his class championship; he won the 125 race at a record average of 106.89 mph. In the 250 race, Santiago Herrero scored a surprise victory over Rod Gould (Yamaha) and Renzo Pasolini (Benelli), giving him a slight point lead toward the class title. Helmut Fath took his sidecar around and around the track at the incredible speed of 112.73 mph, again illustrating his total domination of three-wheeler racing.

The 50-cc event saw a pair of Spanish Derbis finish ahead of the fabled Kriedlers. At the start of the race the Kriedlers of Aalt Toersen, Cees Van Dongen and Jan Huberts led the Spanish opposition only briefly until overtaken by Santiago Herrero’s Derbi. Barry Smith, on another Derbi, soon battled his way into 2nd spot. Positions remained unchanged until the last lap when Smith passed Herrero. Nonetheless, it was a 1-2 win for Derbi (a Derbi derby?). The Kriedlers of Toersen, Van Dongen and Fassbender followed.

The 125 racers stood little chance of winning against Dave Simmonds’ Kawasaki. Even Dieter Braun (Suzuki), who pursued Simmonds for the greater part, of the race, simply could not stay with the Kawasaki whenever its pilot turned the wick. Barry Smith, on a Derbi V-Twin, mounted a short-lived assault in the race’s later stages only to be forced out by mechanical problems. Van Dongen (Suzuki) finished 3rd behind Braun.

A surprise victory for Ossa marked the 250 race. In the beginning, Rod Gould (Yamaha) led for several laps with Santi Herrero (Ossa) close behind. The Benelli team of Pasolini and Carruthers, however, soon charged through the pack and secured the first two places. At the halfway point, Pasolini’s Benelli retired with a dead engine, leaving Kel Carruthers to increase his lead over Gould. Well behind the leaders, Santi Herrero struggled valiantly but without success to catch the draft from Gould’s Yamaha. Then, with a lap to go, Carruthers was heard thrashing the Four wildly through the gears approaching the hairpin. Coming out of the turn, it was Gould in the lead, with the Ossa in his slipstream and Kel about 50 yards back. His engine had stopped dead for a moment and never regained full power. Then, Herrero just barely got the nose of his fairing ahead of Gould at the Blanchimont left-hander. They crossed the finish line one-half second apart. The usually calm Spaniard leaped about a foot high in his saddle as he took the flag.

Giacomo Agostini (MV Augusta) won the 500 event, leading all but the first lap. The factory-prepared Triumph of Percy Tait came in 2nd, followed closely by Alan Barnett’s Kirby Metisse. Jack Findlay, who had forsaken his Linto for an Arter-Matchless mount, escaped serious injury when the front fork broke at 135 mph at the end of the Masta straightaway. His nose and lip were battered slightly, along with a lot of bruises but his injuries were gratefully minimal.

The sidecar race was another startfinish affair for Helmut Fath and his Four. Klaus Enders again showed that at least he has the second fastest sidecar, while Georg Auerbacher placed 3rd after a brief battle with the Castella brothers on their C.A.T.-BMW. Siggi Schauzu’s Apfelbeck-BMW proved just too powerful for his chassis. In practice, the engine stripped two gearboxes, [o]