1st Mx 125cc World Cup

1ST MX 125cc World Cup

Marty Smith and Honda take home everything in the upset that wasn't.

Fernando Belair

At first, the inclination is to call the tromping that Marty Smith gave the rest of the world's finest 125cc motocrossers an upset. If you look at it in terms of who was there and where they finished, it could easily be called that. All of the Europeans are G.P. veterans. All of them competed in this year's 125 G.P. season, and they are in no way any less fierce or competitive than Roger DeCoster or Heikki Mikkola are in the big-bore class. Even though the newlycrowned 125 World Champion, Gaston Rahier, crashed several times -eventually tweaking his bike to a point where he could no longer maneuver it at a competitive pace, thus forcing a totally unexpected DNF -the rest of the formidable competition has proven capable of winning G.P.s as well.

The Zundapp is last year's winning 125 machine. The CZs are hand-built Czechoslovakian Elsinores both in the way they handle and in the way they sound. Yamaha's machines are modi fied versions of the production bikes. The Suzukis produce an incredible 28 (claimed) horsepower and are outfitted with the same long-travel suspension that can be found on the 250 and 500 G.P. machines.

The riders are equally accomplished. Gilbert DeRoover (Zun) has been rid ing 125 G.P.s ever since the ac ceptance by the FIM of that class.

Antonin Baborovsky and Jiri Churavy (CZ) have both competed for several years in the 250 Series, as well as in the U.S. for the Inter-Am and Superbowl events. Gaston Rahier was one of three riders contracted to Suzuki for 250cc competition.

Now, with Sylvain Geboers gone to Husqvarna and Joel Robert on the 250 comeback trail, he was assigned the job of sorting out the new 125 G.P. Suzuki. Not only did he sort it out in short order, but he went on to totally dominate the class in G.P. competition. With four rounds to go, he had already clinched the title, making Suzuki the only manufacturer ever to hold World Championship titles in all three moto cross categories. Now, if you group all of these machines and riders together, on a very fast, horsepower track like the one at Mid-Ohio Moto Park in Lexington, you would naturally expect them to put on a whale of a good race, followed by the better American riders. This is what made Marty Smith's double, wire-to-wire victories seem like an upset.

But in the pits before the race, there seemed to be little thought of an upset. The riders and the mechanics ex pected Smith to win. Everyone from John Rosenstiel (Smith's mechanic), to riders and friends of riders on different marques, knew Marty would win. In fact, they were more confident of the> San Diego youngster's abilities than even Marty himself was. He knew that he might have to tangle bars with the new World Champion. But his non chalant attitude almost hid the excite ment and pressure that were seething inside him. "If I beat him I beat him. But if he wins, then he wins. That's how I look at it."

Adding to the pre-race jitters were the highly questionable lap times that had been announced during practice the day before. Rahier, it was reported, had turned a 1:58.6 lap. This was nearly seven seconds faster than Smith's 2:05.2. Was the World Cham pion that much faster than the 125 National Champ? Did his specially pre pared, hand-built racer have that much of an edge on the factory Hondas? It didn't seem possible. All of us who had stopwatches at trackside during time trials couldn't find anyone out on the track turning lap times any faster than mid-2:04s. Marty was in the 2:04s and so was Gaston. The only other riders to get under 2:05 were Can-Am's Jim my Ellis, CZ's Baborovsky and Yama ha's Yoshifumo Sugio. Still, the clocks in the announcing tower had the Bel gian Suzuki ace cutting incredibly fast times. It was a subject. of concern to some, but others just said, "Wait. Wait until the gate drops and see if anyone can catch Marty. He's the best 125 rider in the whole world and he's gonna show `em."

Whether he knew it or not, many of his stateside competitors had con ceded victory to Marty even before the first moto. Not only victory over them selves, but victory over the entourage of foreigners. He did not let them down.

In both motos, Marty was the lone rider out in front at the end of the first lap, and he stayed there, finishing more than 22 seconds ahead of De Roover in the first moto and nearly 10 ahead of Sugio in the second, after being informed that he didn't need to press so hard.

Behind Marty, battles raged fiercely

as riders fought to make up ground lost in poor starts. Tim Hart worked his way up from the high 20s to take 7th by the end of moto one. Ellis went from 15th to 5th in the same moto. The next time around he got it to gether off the starting line and, with a smaller deficit to make up, came across the finish line in 3rd place, a few seconds behind Sugio.

Because of Rahier's crashes, the question of whether or not he can beat Smith, or Smith him, will have to be answered on another day at another race. For the time being, suffice it to say that when the World Champion did retire, he was not ahead of Marty.

Suzuki was otherwise ably represented by Japan’s Akira Watanabe who finished 4th in the first moto, crashed in the second but managed to get back up to 12th before the end of the race. His overall position was listed as 9th. One surprise was Dan Turner’s 5th (6-6) overall finish. Riding for T&M Engineering, the blond-haired Turner had what appeared to be the fastest modified production machine on the race track. And, it held together for both 40-minute-plus-two-lap motos.

There was a 500cc Support Class which Mark Blackwell turned into just as big a runaway as Smith did the 125s. Leading from early on in both motos, the Husky rider was followed across the finish line both times by Carl Zortman and his monoshock 400 Yamaha.

Just about the most exciting thing for the spectators to see was a double drop-away jump on the back part of the course. All riders in the 500 class took the obstacles as two jumps. All of the 125s did the same except for leader Smith. He had his fire-engine red

Honda tapped out in fifth gear as he approached. But rather than shut down like everyone else was doing, he clamped his ankles to the engine cases and literally lofted his machine through seventy-five feet of air, to land on the downslope of the second jump. Only Jimmy Ellis was able to accomplish the same feat, but then only three times as he played catch-up. Smith cleared it every lap of both motos.

There were a few riders who complained about the dust on the course. The Mid-Ohio track is prepared with solvents, oils and chemicals. It makes the dust heavy, weight-wise. There is quite a bit of dust, but it settles quickly. It would have been better, though, had they prepared the track with water, as is the normal procedure nearly everywhere else. The ground appeared to be very absorbent. It would take a very fast, somewhat skittery track and turn it into one of the finest in the U.S. Apart from that, and some press credential complaints by some of my fellow moto-journalists, the event was wellrun. Promoter Pete Weidner did a fine job. With this year’s successful race, and the things that have been learned from it, future 125 U.S. G.P.s may have found a home in Ohio. [51