Continental Report
Continental Report
B.R. NICHOLLS
SILVERSTONE MEETING
The second day of the recent Silverstone meet saw a fantastic crowd of 40,000 on hand to watch the aces do battle. The pattern was set on Saturday, when Paul Smart got the better of Peter Williams in the l000cc event. The big Suzuki Three is obviously a faster bike than the John Player Norton, and it was that edge that helped Smart win.
At one stage of the race, Kim Newcombe, a New Zealand rider, was up front dicing with Smart, but he crashed his König at Stowe corner and was taken to the hospital with severe head injuries, to which he succumbed the following Tuesday. It was a tragic end to the career of a man who had complete faith in the potential of the four-cylinder König boat engine for motorcycle racing.
Saturday’s 125 race resulted in a scrap between the Yamahas of Neil Tuxworth and Steve and Jack Machin. The verdict went to Steve. Then came a sidecar race which saw Chris Vincent out for the first time this season, riding the big four-cylinder URS. But even talented Vincent was no match for Gerry and Nick Boret, riding the 680cc König. They came from behind to win, setting a lap record equalled by Vincent at 97.57 mph. Third was the Hardy brothers Imp powered outfit.
Sunday’s sidecar event was a virtual repeat of Saturday’s, with Boret getting a bad start but going through the field to win from Vincent. Bill Currie (Weslake) was 3rd. It was a British championship race so Boret and Vincent scored their first points of the season.
Boret has been competing in the world championships with his König, but has had problems, so his win at Silverstone was not only a surprise but also a great morale booster for him.
The 350 race was the chance for John Dodds (Yamaha) to show the British short circuit spectators that his fine form in the world championship races was no fluke and he showed just what a fine rider he is in catching and passing Mick Grant (Yamaha). Dodds made a bad start, but in the process of carving through the field for his win he knocked a second off the lap record set last year by the late Jarno Saarinen.
In 3rd spot was an up and coming youngster, John Newbold (Yamaha), who looks like a star of the future.
Grant and Dodds were out again in the 250 race, but neither finished among the gold, for Dodds fouled a plug on the line and Grant’s Yamaha seized on the first lap. Tony Rutter (Yamaha) won the race. Behind him there was an all-Yamaha dice between four riders who finished with Rod Scivyer ahead of Steve Machin, Martin Sharpe and John Williams.
I suppose the big two of the meeting really were Phil Read and Giacomo Agostini, out on works MVs in the 500 class. It was Read’s first appearance in front of his home crowd since winning the world crown from the Italian, and what a welcome the crowd gave him. They got even more excited as Read took an early lead from Agostini and drew away, setting a lap record in the process.
But there was even more excitement to come as young Barry Sheene (500 Suzuki) harried the Italian and finally passed him in the closing stages of the race to take 2nd place from Agostini.
However, the event the crowd must really have been there to see was the FIM Formula 750 championship round which was decided over two legs of 20 laps each. Main contenders were duHamel (Kawasaki), Smart, Sheene, Findlay and Mandracci, all on Suzuki Threes, Grant and Dodds (350 Yamahas) and the John Player Nortons of Williams and Croxford.
Smart was lucky to be in the Formula races at all, as he had broken his front fork legs. Fortunately, however, he was able to borrow a pair from Suzuki Europa.
The first race started with duHamel taking an early lead and then finding himself harried by Smart. Then the gearbox started playing tricks on him, but he pressed on to finish 2nd to Smart, with Sheene ahead of Findlay, Grand and Dodds. The Kawasaki ace had prevented a Suzuki 1-2-3.
The same trouble asserted itself in the second race. Yvon turned the wick up a little too high and blew the lights out. But Williams was already out front with Smart soon acting like his shadow, though Paul had to set a new lap record at 106.87 to get there.
Monotonously, they reeled off the laps, with everyone expecting Smart to make his move on the last lap and out accelerate Williams to snatch victory. He made his move a lap earlier and Williams was promptly sidelined with fuel starvation, a bitter end to such a fine ride.
Behind these two came Dodds, who took 2nd place. Findlay was 3rd.
Sheene had blown his 750 on the startline and so made a quick grab for his 500 Suzuki, on which he took 6th place but that denied him a place in the results, as the FIM ruled that the same frame must be used for both races. The decision cost Sheene his lead in the championship, which now goes to Findlay, who has 42 to the 37 of Sheene. There are still two rounds to be raced.
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SMART WINS SNETTERTON
Two weeks after Silverstone Paul Smart was racing in England again over the traditional late summer holiday weekend.
His first meeting was on Sunday at Snetterton, where he rode the 750 Suzuki and won both his races, equalling the lap record at 99.15 mph. It was a day of records, as Mick Grant, who won both the 250 and 350 classes, set a new figure for the 350 class at 97.37, and Barry Sheene (Suzuki) beat the old Agostini record with a speed of 96.21 in winning the 500 class.
Surprise sidecar winner was Les Langridge on an Imp engined outfit.
OULTON PARK
The following day at Oulton Park Smart was again in record breaking form in the 750 class, when he broke brother-in-law Sheene’s lap record by 3 seconds to set a figure of 96.13 mph. But Smart lost his own 500cc lap record, which he set on a Ducati, to Phil Read.
Read hustled the 500 MV Three round at a speed of 96.88 mph to set an absolute two-wheel record for the circuit as he piled on the pressure to pull away from Sheene on his very fast Suzuki. Record breaking did not end there, however, for John Williams and Alan Barnett, in finishing 1st and 2nd in the 350 event, shared the record lap at 93.59. The charioteers were not to be outdone, for Bill Currie (Wcslake) and Peter Hardy (Imp) shared a new figure of 87.64. They had finished 1st and 2nd respectively in both the sidecar races.
The unrelated Williams, Charlie and John, who, along with another famous Williams, Peter, made such a name for themselves in the Isle of Man TT, were paired up for the 24-hour road race found the famous Belgium grand prix circuit at Francorchamps. They rode a 750 Honda Four entered by Alf Briggs, which averaged 102.38 mph, the fastest ever average speed for a 24-hour race. Covering just over 2450 miles, their prize money worked out at roughly $ 1 per mile.
Six laps behind them came a 750 Norton ridden by Peter Davies and Peter Lovell, who just got the better of two Belgians, Jules and Charly Nies (750 BMW), who finished on the same lap. John Williams has really had a good month, for in addition to the wins already mentioned he went to Ulster for the Grand Prix there and cleaned up the three solo classes.
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ULSTER GRAND PRIX
No longer a world championship event because of the violence in the province, the 1973 races were international and held over the Dundrod grand prix course.
John had an easy win in the 250 race after a bad start, but was well ahead in the 350 when his gearbox locked up. However, it freed itself and, throwing caution to the wind, John struggled to keep ahead of Tony Rutter, who had caught up with him. It took a record lap by Rutter, at 107.06 compared with Agostini’s old figure of 106.37, but at the flag it was Williams’ race by 0.2 second. He had no trouble at all in the 500 race, which he won by almost two minutes on his 382 Yamaha.
The sidecar class went to Dennis Keen and Dave Houghton (König).
EUROPEAN TRIALS
At the Finnish round of the European trials championship Malcolm Rathmell (Bultaco) scored a narrow, 1-mark victory over title holder Mick Andrews (Yamaha) with the score being 13 to the winner. The trial marked the first appearance of the new 250cc Kawasaki models, but they were never in the hunt. Of their two riders the best was Jack Galloway in 17th place, while Gordon Farley in his first International with the Suzuki was down in 12th spot. Even title leader Martin Lampkin (Bultaco) was in 5th place after a disastrous first lap of the two lap course.
But a week later in Sweden he showed his true form when he lost only ten marks to the 21 of runner-up Andrews, who lost the same number of marks as local hero Benny Sellman (Montesa). Farley had a minor tragedy when he was penalized for lateness and so took 4th place when he could well have been in contention for 2nd place.
Now with only two rounds to go, Martin Lampkin is in a very strong position to win the title, for if Andrews is to retain it he has to win both the remaining events. Andrews, of course, is a very cool customer and quite capable of doing just that, but the dice are certainly loaded against him at the moment and it would be a terrific feat if he pulled it off in his first season on the Yamaha.
That would be the second title for Yamaha, as Hakan Andersson has already won the 250 world motocross title to give the Japanese factory its first MX title. It will obviously not be the last. Indeed the statisticians of the British weekly paper Motor Cycle have already shown that, had the title scoring system not changed this season, Jaak van Velthoven would have been the 500 motocross champion instead of Roger DeCoster who finally scraped home more by the failure of Willi Bauer in the final meeting at St. Anthonis than by his own efforts.
Motor Cycle also pointed out that if the Austrian round is scrapped from the results then Bauer could still become the champion. The Austrian round was boycotted by most of the aces as too dangerous when a narrow course was bulldozed out of the snow that covered the area at the time. But it was DeCoster that had more points at the end of the series and that is what wins the title.
MOTOCROSS DES NATIONS
It was not an easy win this year, foi having got the weight of the works Suzuki down, the weight limit rule threw the handling almost haywire. Talking of the weight and handling problems in the paddock at Wohlen during the Motocross des Nations, Sylvain Geboers laughed as he recalled the works Matchless he rode at the tender age of 19. That was in the days when men rode massive heavy fourstrokes and the ring-a-ding menace was just looming on the horizon.
When the first set of results came out for the Motocross des Nations, Jim Pomeroy said, “Third ain’t too shabby, I must admit.” “Pretty boss,” was John DeSoto’s comment. “You don’t say much do you?” I remarked when Mike Hartwig just said, “Bitchin.” “Don’t know much,” came the dry reply.
But before the 3-man American team had a chance to realize just what 3rd place meant behind Belgium and Sweden, team manager Gunnar Lindstrom arrived on the scene straight from the jury meeting, of which he was a member, to say there had been a mistake and, in fact, Russia had taken 3rd by the narrow margin of 2 points, 71-73.
It was a bitterly disappointing moment, particularly for Jim Pomeroy, who had taken 7th place in the first race and 5th in the second.
But to give the results first is rather like putting the cart before the horse, so let’s start at the beginning, for that is really where that 3rd place probably got lost. Obvious man for the team with a whole season of world motocross behind him where he finished joint 12th with Bengt Aberg behind John Banks in the title table was Brad Lackey. But Brad lost a yes-no-yes-no battle with Kawasaki at the last moment about coming, so the team was reduced to three. The Motocross des Nations is fought out by teams of four, with the best three to score in each race, so Uncle Sam was wrong footed from the outset as the team had no room for maneuver; all three knew that to figure in the final results they had to finish in both their races. Psychologically it meant giving way diving into a corner, and riding safe rather than hard.
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Riders score points according to finishing positions, so the team with the lowest total is the winner. Possibly the best prepared for the meeting of the Yankee threesome was 19-year-old Mike Hartwig from Michigan as he arrived on the Tuesday before racing, so had time to adjust to the time change, whereas John DeSoto did not get in until 8:30 a.m. on the Friday; he also had a bit of a hassle about making the trip.
Finally Jim Pomeroy had to pick up his new 400 Bultaco from the factory in Spain and drove all through Friday night to get to Switzerland.
That then is the background of the American effort in the 1973 event, which was held on a fast, grassy, hillside circuit outside Wohlen.
The first race started with Sylvain Geboers (Suzuki) getting a cracking start with John Banks (Cheney BSA) right in his wheel tracks with the pack not far behind carrying Pomeroy and DeSoto in the first 20. As the race progressed for its 40 minutes plus two laps, Geboers showed that he is now fully recovered from his broken leg and, despite stubbing his toe painfully in practice, he held 1st place for the first 11 laps when he was displaced by his teammate, DeCoster. That put two Belgians in the lead with Banks 3rd and by then Pomeroy had fought up to 7th, with DeSoto 16th and Hartwig 19th.
Then Velthoven took 3rd from Banks to put Belgium in a very strong 1-2-3 position, which they held to the end of the race. This gave them a commanding 6 points to the 23 of Sweden and England, with Russia 4th on 37.
Pomeroy took 7th and DeSoto was 15th with Hartwig 18th, having fought back strongly in the closing stages, after being blinded earlier by dust and stones. This put the United States in 5th place with 40. The second race eventually got away after two false starts and the leader was Ake Jonsson (Yamaha), who was the first Swede home in the first race in 5th place. Behind him at the end of the first lap was teammate Hammargren with Vic Eastwood (Maico) 3rd for England and DeCoster, the first Belgian, 4th ahead of Banks.
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Belgium certainly did not have it all their own way in the second race, for Jonsson led for the whole of the race and although DeCoster fought up to 2nd, Velthoven was their next best in 7th place and they looked in real trouble when both Raymond Heeren and Geboers crashed. Geboers straightened things out to finish 22nd. Sweden, too, had problems when Uno Palm (Puch) crashed and broke a collarbone and Hakan Andersson (Yamaha) had to keep the team intact riding with a flat back tire.
Just when England looked all set for 2nd place overall, Jimmy Aird (CCM) went out with two laps to go with no sparks and so the “Keep Going” board was flashed at Eastwood who had already been in the paddock to change a collapsed rear wheel and was in the same plight again.
The Russians, who had finished 8-13-16 in the first race, were again packing dangerously within the first 15 places. Then on the 13th lap DeSoto broke off his right footpeg, which made life particularly exciting for him on the two very steep drops. “Boy, you should see my butt and leg after that hammering,” he said afterward.
Despite the handicap, he held 10th place to the end and Pomeroy fought up to 5th. Hartwig also fought back well to 15th. But a couple of laps from the end his rear wheel started to collapse. He kept going to finish 18th.
Then came the problems with the results, which at the time of writing were as follows:
1st, Belgium, 27 points; 2nd, Sweden, 65; 3rd, Russia, 71; 4th, USA, 73; 5th, England, 76; 6th, Holland, 97.
Even after the disappointment of the wrong result sheet, that 4th place is three better than last year, so with the same improvement in 1974 the United States team could win.
But how can the Yankee effort be taken seriously when they do not use their strongest team and do not even send a full team over? It is not fair to the riders, it is not fair to the supporters, and in 1973 it probably meant that you lost 3rd and possibly even 2nd place in the Motocross des Nations, top prestige team event along with the ISDT in the bike world.
