Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B.R. NICHOLLS
ROAD RACE SEASON OPENS
The British road race season has started in classic style with a club meeting being canceled because of snow. Nevertheless, the first national at Mallory Park started in bright sunshine, though it was very cold.
Man of the day, Barry Sheene, cleaned up on 250 and 350 Yamahas and took the 125 class as well on his ex-works, 10-speed Suzuki. This is the ex-Stuart-Graham bike that Sheene bought last year and will contest the world title with in 1971. It is virtually unbeatable in the U.K., so it will be interesting to see its performance in the grands prix. Second man home in the Mallory 125 race was last year’s 250 champion Steve Machin. He rode a Yamaha which he has converted to water cooling by putting a jacket on the cylinder block and modifying the radiator from an LE Velocette; it seems to be a neat conversion that looks like paying dividends.
By the time the 500cc finalists were on the line, it was overcast and very cold.
From the flag Percy May (Norton) took the lead and was soon challenged by Jim Harvey (Kirby Metisse). Charlie Sanby (Kuhn Seeley) kept within striking distance in a safe 3rd place. Despite Harvey's efforts to pass him, May held his 1st place until a couple of laps from the end, when he ran out of gas-an expensive blunder. As Harvey thundered by into the lead, a minute-long but
intensive snow flurry hit the circuit, and Harvey hit the deck in the wake of two others at the esses. Sanby held a lurid slide at the same point to gain a win he had hardly expected.
The finale was just as exciting as the sidecars left the grid with Peter Brown in the lead. He was chased hard by Norman Hanks, who is now passengered by John Glastonbury.
On the second lap Norman Hanks took the lead and left the big battle for 2nd place to brother Roy, Brown, Mick Boddice and Bill Currie, whose Weslake conversion was the only non-BSA in the first five. It was a memorable day for the Hanks family. Roy made a last lap dash that took him into 2nd place, to give the family a 1-2 placing, with Brown 3rd.
DAYTONA AFTERMATH
The BSA/Triumph onslaught at Daytona proved that they value the American market beyond all else and that the old maxim “nothing succeeds like success” still applies when it comes to the actual selling.
In an effort to maintain the supremacy gained at Daytona, Paul Smart and Mike Hailwood may yet be seen again on the paved circuits. At first I doubted the wisdom of signing Hailwood, when he had not even raced a motorcycle for 12 months. But, if a guy can rush off into the blue, throw it away at over the ton, and then go out and lead the race before retiring with mechanical trouble, then he must still be among the best in the world. And with the name Hailwood in his program, any British promoter will eagerly reach for his checkbook. Even though they only count the winner at the flag, let’s not forget young Gary Fisher, who had those moments of glory early in the race. Let’s see if he goes on to make the grade. It only remains for me to add my congratulations to Dick Mann and to say that the U.K. is looking forward to seeing him ride here in the match race series that will be reported in full next month.
750-cc MACHINES SPOTLIGHTED
This contest has certainly caught the imagination of the public and, given good weather, could well draw record crowds to the three venues, Brands Hatch, Mallory Park and Oulton Park. At Brands, the short circuit, which is little over a mile, will be used, and the race distance will be 12 laps. At Mallory, it will be 11, and at the much longer Oulton, only 5. With two races at each meeting, it seems a helluva long way to travel for 1 1/2 hours of
competition over four days, but the essential thing is to maintain spectator interest, which would be quickly lost if processional races dragged on for half an hour or more. Now comes the news that Nixon will be fit enough to race and lead the Yankee team, so all is set for battle. Overall prize money totals $12,000, with a possible $2160 maximum if one rider wins all six races. All will, of course, be mounted on BSA or Triumph 750 Threes.
Following hard on the new 750 British championship comes the news of an additional race in this year's Isle of Man TT program to be run under the 750cc Formula agreed upon between the ACU and AMA. It will consist of three laps to be run on the Saturday evening preceding race week, and will be open to machines from 25 1 cc to 750cc. The entries will be basically production engines, of which 100 must have been manufactured. In addition to the race in The following week the British championships started at Oulton Park. Sheene, defending the l 25 title, started in great style with a win on the Suzuki. In the 250 class, though, he had to give best to the 250 Irish champion Ray McCullough, who scored an unexpected, though deserved, victory on his Yamaha. He also put in the fastest lap for good measure.
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OULTON PARK MATCH
Tony Rutter (Yamaha) lost the 350 title last year at the final round of the championship. This year he started off with better luck, getting a class win at Oulton from the man who took the I 970 title, Derek Chatterton.
It was a similar story in the 500 class, although last year’s winner, Peter Williams. has virtually retired the man he beat. Alan Barnett rode a 500 Aermacchi to victory in front of Brian Kemp (Seeley) and Percy Tail (Triumph).
At the Mallory opener Chris Vincent had retired in a heat with mechanical problems and consequently never made the final. He soon showed who was the king at Oulton by streaking his BSA to the Island, there will also be one over a distance of 200 miles run concurrently with the annual 500-mile production machine race at Thruxton. Looks like 1971 will see the opening of a new era in racing.
an early lead, chased by Peter Brown (BSA). That was the order they finished. Behind them, though, the Hanks brothers and Currie were having a ding dong when suddenly an “unknown” Peter Williams with his four-cylinder, Imp-engined outfit rushed past into 3rd place. No relation to the Norton Villiers man of the same name, this is a name to look for in future sidecar events, for which the 875-cc car engine qualifies, as the class is for engines up to lOOOcc.
PIONEER RUN
Taking things slightly slower, the annual pioneer run to Brighton trom Epsom caught out some of the early numbers when it started to rain; that is something that belt drive never really did overcome. Early anguish soon vanished as the weather got better toward the finish. Numbers one and two on the rally, riding a pair of Rexs, were Eric and Oliver Langton two names that will mean nothing unless you are nearer being a senior citizen than a teenager. Theyare contemporaries of the Milne Brothers and Wilbur Lamoreaux, who rode the cinders in the late Thirties, with Eric riding briefly after the war. Past president of the Antique Automobile Club of America, Mahlon Patton, rode passenger to Frank Davis on his massive 2168-cc Etna tricycle which first thundered down the road in 1904. It must have been even more frightening on the unmade roads of yesteryear than it is on a macadam surface as it is distinctly underbraked for the 70-mph potential of its power unit. Oldest machine was a Leon Bollee forecar of 1895, a fantastic 3 blip single-cylinder device with hot tube ignition. The oldest rider was 78-year-old Bill Moore on a 1914 Douglas; his grandson, John, rode a 1903 Anglian. However, both were put in the shade by John's 16year-old girl friend, Beverly Hyatt, who rode a 1901 Dart to collect Best Lady, Youngest Rider and Best Timekeeping awards. The Pioneer Run is now a traditional part of our calendar and presents to the enthusiasts who go to see it roadworthy machines manufactured up to 1914 which are still capable of covering the 46 miles from Epsom to Brighton. Not all who enter succeed, but most do, some even pushing part of the way just to get a finisher’s award.
SECOND CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
After Oulton, competitors had a quick cross-country dash to Cadwell Park the following day for the second championship round. Machin distinguished himself by taking a 1 25 and 250 double on his Yamahas. Derek Chatterton (Yamaha) had an easy win in the 3 50 class, but Charlie Sanby (Seeley) had quite a fight before relegating Barnett to 2nd in the 500 battle.
At Oulton, Percy Tait (Trident) had taken victory m the first round of the new 750 championship from Brian Adams (Rickman Triumph), with John Taylor 3rd on the Monard, and Sanby trailing 4th on the Commando. It was a different story at Cadwell, where Sanby dueled with Mick Grant (Commando) and lost with Adams, 3rd.
The sidecar race at Cadwell again brought trouble for Vincent, who failed to I inish, and provuied a win br Nor man Hank s. who was followed home once again by boat her Roy.
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THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND
The first two rounds brought no conclusive leaders in any class and the situation was not a lot different two weeks later after the third round at Thruxton, though Sheene's l 25 win gave him a l 7-point lead over Machin.
250 class leaders Machin, Chatterton and Sheene all failed to score. Victory went to Brian Kemp (Yamaha), whose I 5-point gain hoisted him from 6th to 2nd in the table, one point behind Machin.
Barry Ditchburn (Yamaha) won the 350 race from Rutter, hut this surprise did not alter the title leaders. However, Percy May's win in the 500 class put him into 4th place with his only points so far. He had battled hard with Kemp for his win, and 2nd-place consolation for Kemp was to take over the championship lead.
The Triumph works pair of Tait and Ray Pickrell were too much for the opposition m the 750 race. Sanby, on the Kuhn Commando, tried hard though, and equaled the lap record set by Tait.
It was the usual Beesa crowd in the sidecar final; Vincent only just got 1st from Norman Hanks. Peter Brown was 3rd and Roy Hanks, 4th. All used the 650 vertical Twin unit. Surely it cannot be long before someone sorts out one ot the Threes into a competitive sidecar power unit.
MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIPS
While some were doing that on the Brighton road. John Banks was doing the same thing under much more strenuous conditions at the first round of the British 500cc motocross championship; his battery went flat about 800 yd. from the finish of the second race, when he was leading.
He must have sweated off pounds as he pushed his BSA through the loose sand of the Hawkstone Park circuit to take 3rd place and collect what could prove to be four valuable points if the title chase becomes a close thing. Banks has his heart set on regaining the British title he lost last year to Bryan Goss through injury.
This year the boot would seem to he on the other toot as Goss missed the first round because he was injured at another of those fateful icey TV motocross meetings, under the sort of conditions where “the ground is hard as iron, water like a stone." Such was the case when Vie Eastwood crashed and smashed his leg, and with it all chance of a world title that could have been his three years ago. It was like that last month when Goss crashed and broke his jaw, when Rob Taylor damaged an arm and, worst of all, when Randy Owen broke one arm and dislocated the other. Footballers are not asked to play under such conditions; neither would horses be allowed to race. Will it be long before authority realizes that motorcyclists should not either?
Another injured rider who will be facing the beginning of the championship season from the sidelines is Sylvain Geboers, who crashed during a meeting in Belgium and injured a knee. It was the traditional Genk meeting, one of the early season internationals. It proved a successful one for Roger DeCoster, as he won both legs of the 500cc motocross on his works Suzuki.
So Suzuki must have been heartened after the bad news about Geboers and even more delighted when Joel Robert won the non-championship Belgian international 250 motocross a week later.
TRIALS SCHEDULE CHANGE
On the trials front, Mick Andrews, who was thought to have won the European championship after scoring four wins, is now not so certain that he has won; the FIM has allowed the Polish federation to change the date of their trial so that there are now 10 rounds instead of 9, and a rider’s best 6 rides will count, not 5 as previously. Andrews is still in a very strong position, but it is interesting that the Ossa is only in contention with Malcolm Rathmell (Bultaco) and Gordon Farley (Montesa). Whatever happens in Spain will determine the winner.
In the latest round of the British trials championship, Andrews was top man by two marks from Farley when they contested the Cleveland trial, but it was a very close battle. Andrews, Farley and Rob Edwards (Montesa) were all equal on 12 marks lost when they reached the last section. Farley and Edwards stopped to lose 5 apiece. Andrews lotted for 3 and victory. This could, however, be short-lived as Martin Lampkin (Bultaco) aimed to put in a protest for being docked 5 marks on a section where he says he only lost 1. If the protest were upheld then he would win the trial and also take over the championship lead from Farley. It would also give him his second national win in succession.
The sidecar class is much more clearly defined, as Ray Round (BSA) has won all three rounds so far to gain an 1 1-point lead over Bob Colein (BSA).
