Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B. R. NICHOLLS
HONDA SACKS Tommy Robb. This sensational piece of news shook the fans as much as it did poor Tommy and leaves one wondering just what sort of game the Japanese concern is playing. Tommy joined Honda in 1962 when they were taking their racing seriously and won the 250 class of the Ulster Grand Prix, the 350cc Finnish and both 50 and 125 races in Japan. He also finished the season as runner-up for the 250 world title to team mate Jim Redman. Last season he was racing mostly on the production racers which hardly gave him the opportunity to shine. In the 125 T.T., for example, he was on a production mount against four works Suzuki and three works Honda racers. His works 4 in the 250 class was in trouble from the word go but despite losing a megaphone and making pit stops he finished fourth.
.Then it was announced that in 1964 a full scale racing program would take place and Ralph Bryans was signed, it seemed, to strengthen an already experienced team. But Bryans has virtually no grands prix experience whereas Robb has invaluable knowledge of all the continental circuits. Tommy's contract for 1964 was until after the T.T. At the Spanish G.P. he had 50 and 125 rides. All the Honda fifties broke down as did his and Takahashi's 125 mounts. As he weighed in for the second morning of practice at the French having practiced the previous day, he was told his services were no longer required and his private machines were taken from him leaving him high and dry and unable to honour his entry at Brands Hatch for the big Whit Monday meeting. Worse still his entries for the T.T. have been made by Honda so he may not even be able to ride there. Where you or I might resent such treatment Tommy has shown that he is one of racing's gentleman, being puzzled and upset by the decision but not bitter or antagonistic toward his previous employer. As he says, he has a lot to thank them for including a grand prix win on his doorstep and a couple of trips to Japan. Let's hope this brilliant Irishman soon gets rides worthy of his skill. Now if I were the Suzuki racing manager ....
Results of the Spanish and French meetings suggest that the Suzuki four is not competitive, but as both circuits are pretty tortuous and give little opportunity for really fast motoring with the blinds down and the shutters drawn, things may well prove different in the Isle of Man and at the Dutch and the Belgian. Time and the solving of a little carburetion trouble will tell.
The Benelli four got cracking to win the 250 class of the Spanish in the hands of Tarquinio Provini where he was up against Honda, Yamaha and M.Z., but failed a week later at the French where Phil Read (Yamaha) won. So after three meetings Read leads the championship from Shepherd and Provini and as all are entered for the Isle of Man it seems that, given favourable conditions, we must get the first 250cc one hundred mile an hour lap of the mountain circuit.
Florian Camathias got the Gilera sidecar tramping well to win the Spanish but then blew it up in the French which was won by Fritz Scheidegger (BMW). But last year's champion Max Deubel leads the table by'a single point from George Auerbacher (BMW) and Camathias. The man to watch now though is Colin Seeley, for he has been loaned the Camathias BMW outfit. He had his first outing with it at the French and finished fourth despite a pit stop for, of all things, getting his passenger a helmet! Somehow or other Bill Rawlings managed to get the strap caught in Colin's leathers on a right hander; it broke and off came Bill's helmet. By the time Colin has made his own personal modifications he will be a real force to be reckoned with as the new outfit is some twenty miles an hour faster than his Matchless. One wonders what would happen if the championship suddenly became a Seeley vs. Camathias battle .... On the trials front we have had the "be all and end all' of Scottish Six Days trials resulting in a win for Sammy Miller and that legendary 497cc device he has built up, still called an Ariel. There was rain, rain and more rain before the trial started and it continued right up to the last day of the event. The desolate twenty mile crossing of Rannoch Moor on Tuesday, the second day, all but wrecked the trial when riders found that an eighteeninch deep stream had turned into a threefoot raging torrent; this between the time the course checker went out in the morning and the arrival of the first man. Riders were waist deep, fighting the river and helping each other to get machines across. Some abandoned the attempt and rode an extra ninety miles to avoid the hazard. There was utter chaos and confusion but at the end of the day one incredible fact emerged, that Sammy Miller had lost no marks on time or observation and had followed the correct route. So he took the lead in the trial and never lost it.
Whoever wins the world titles will deserve them and the next round will give all competitors the chance to assert themselves for it is over the thirty-seven mile course of the Isle of Man. For this year's races a record entry of 450 has been received, the most surprising feature of which is one hundred and three for the 350cc race — a class which is not very fashionable these days. The only notable absentee is Remo Venturi (Bianchi) but the two who will draw the crowds this year are Provini and Benedicto Calderella for surely the latter is being groomed for a full scale assault by Gilera on world championship honours next year. One odd point is that although three meetings have been held towards the 1964 championships, the Island is the first to have a 350 race. It is also one of the few that cater to all six championship classes.
However to return to the British short circuits, John Cooper has been asserting himself with double wins on 350 and 500 Nortons at Mallory Park. Aberdare, Scarborough and Sadwell and has also had a go on the new 250cc Royal F.nfield with Starmaker engine, gaining fourth place with it at Mallory. It was at the Mallory meeting that Peter Russell took his big thundering lOOOcc Vincent first past the flag to win the sidecar race and there, too, that the battle was terrific for second spot in the 350 race. Cooper had got well away, leaving five hotly disputing second berth, eventually gained by Griff Jenkins (AJS) from Derek Minter (Norton), Dave Williams (AJS) Chris Conn (Norton) and Tom Phillips (Aer Macchi). Named last month as a man to watch. Bill Ivy has proved the point with three 125 class wins including a record lap at Snetterton and second in the Brands meeting on a production Yamaha behind Phil Read on the pukka works job. senger out of the sidecar on corners. Many argue, too, that it is far safer, as the machine is easier to control than when the passenger is virtually pillion riding the whole time. To the outsider's eye the solo racing machine looks like a speed way bike but this is far from true as the "grasscutter" must have two independently operated brakes, is fully sprung and has a gearbox.
In the 125 class Chris Vincent continues to improve and on a recent continental trip won that class of the Saar G.P. Errol Cowan of South Africa had his first European meeting at Brands Hatch on Whit Monday and was exciting to watch, but then so was Jim Redman when he first came to Europe. Redman's initial impetuousness was severely curbed when he tried reading the rev counter at the bottom of Bray Hill in the Island where speeds are well in excess of one hundred miles an hour. He ended up riding on the pavement in the prone position used for record attempts, a shaken but very much wiser racer. Cowan could well follow in Redman's track but not. I hope for his sake, on that pavement.
Rules were stretched, bent and broken to get as many back into the trial as possible the next morning. But no one ever looked like catching Miller, though a sheep did on Friday by leaping in front of him at the crucial moment sending him a right purler that resulted in five stitches being put in a head wound, but only after he had finished the day's run and signed off. So Miller won his second Scottish and AJS once again took the team prize, their best rider being Mick Andrews who finished as runner-up for the second successive year; aged only nineteen he is the most likely future winner of this gruelling event. Grass track racing does not get much mention in this column but it has a very strong and partisan following in this country and on the Continent. The National championships held each year draw a crowd of ten thousand or more. The only other meeting to approach this figure regularly is the big prize-money Folkestone Grand Slam. Perhaps a word or two on the subject would not go amiss.
Racing takes place on the grass as the name implies with the course usually oval or kidney shaped, anything between six and eight hundred yards long. Solos always race in an anti-clockwise direction, the "inside" footrest being sprung so that it does not dig in the track. Sidecars race in either direction but there can be no doubt that it is far more spectacular when they race anti-clockwise, forcing the pas
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Motive power in the big.time is virtual ly exclusively J.A.P. with bore and stroke 74 x 80 - 344cc for the 350 and 80 x 99 - 498cc for the 500 model. It takes quite an experienced eye to discern the differ ence between the two power units. King pin in the British grass track world is Alf Hagon who has won ten National titles in as many years and with his vast expe rience on these machines has now perfected a frame that is extensively used in Europe. Rear suspension is usually by Girling units but the front forks are now mostly controlled by rubber bands which permit a great degree of adjustment for the dif ferent tracks with the utmost ease, simply by adding to or taking away from those on the unit. Tracks in Britain are nol necessarily flat and usually far from smooth. The situation on the continent however is different, especially in Ger many where tracks are used but once a year and graded after each meeting so giving a very smooth surface. Crowds are bigger on the Continent, averaging fifteen thousand with as many as twenty-five to thirty thousand for a really big meeting. Here again the J.A.P. is the basic power unit with a two speed gearbox. Top German riders are veteran forty-five-year-old Josef Seidl and twentytwo-year-old Manfred Porchenreider, whilst Sweden's contribution to this sport is Sven Fahlen, whose 500 J.A.P. is re puted to produce 58 bhp.
Top of the sidecar - class, winning all their races, were national champions of 1963 Nigel Mead and John Justice on their 650cc Trinor who gave a spectacular display of high speed pillion work racing in a clockwise direction. It is the sidecar class that is the real crowd thriller and also gives the enthusiast variation for there are no two outfits alike. Six-fifty twins are the favourite power units with one competitor even going to the extent of a 1000cc Ariel square four. No white rabbit this either, for it appeared in last year's championship with an exhaust sys tem the cross between a plumber's night mare and an organist's delight.
And so to moto-cross where it has hap pened at last: Smith has beaten Tibblin, and Bickers has won a round of the 250 championship. Roif Tibblin had not been beaten in the first four rounds of the 500cc moto cross championship, Jeff Smith had always finished second and Sten Lundin (Lito) was third on each occasion. Then came the fifth round in Holland and vic tory in both races, held on a sandy course, for Smithy; in the first of which he was followed home by Ove Lundell (Husq varna) of Sweden and then Tibblin. In the second race both Tibblin and Bill Nilsson (Eso) beat Lundell who never theless finished third overall. However the championship table after five meetings shows that Jeff Smith and his 420cc BSA are really up against it as the other five are all Swedish riders.
R. Tibblin Hedlund J. V. Smith BSA S. Lundin Lito B. Nilsson Eso P.O. Persson Husqvarna 0. Lundell Husqvarna 38 points 32 18 5 4 4
With nine more rounds to go, Tibblin's position is far from secure whereas the 250 class with six meetings gone and eight to go seems more settled with the Belgian wonder boy Joel Robert very comfortable at the top of the table. He failed to score in the first round but then took the next four being beaten in the sixth, held in Luxembourg, by Dave Bickers (Greeves Cha1len~er).
points J. Robert T. Hailman I. Grigoriev V. Arbekov D. Bickers K. Pilar & V. Valek CZ Belgium 38 Husqv. Sweden 26 CZ Russia 13 CZ Russia 12 Greeves Britain 11 Czechoslovakia 9
The odds must he heavily in favour of the CZ mounted Belgian taking this year's title, but in moto-cross anything can hap pen and there is still time for either Hall man or Bickers to take over. The Russians Grigoriev and Arbekov, both CZ mounted, have scored their points in only three meetings.
