Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B.R. NICHOLLS
NEWS FLASHES
Paul Smart on the big Ducati wins at Imola in the 200 mile race, with the MV nowhere in the hunt when the winner’s flag falls. Jarno Saarinen powers the new works water-cooled Yamaha Twin to victory over Giacomo Agostini riding the works MV-3 at the Nurburgring in the opening world championship races. Both items of news show just how hard life is at the top, from which position there is only one way to travel and that is down.
It leads to the question of what MV will do now that its brand new 750 four-cylinder has taken a beating in front of a home crowd and the 350 has been shown sadly lacking in speed by comparison with the Yamaha? Time alone will tell, but I think pride decrees that MV fight back in both classes.
The Ducati 750 V Twin must have shaken everyone except the factory and provided Paul Smart with as happy a 29th birthday as anyone could wish for—especially as Ducati gave him the machine he won on. Will he be so keen to race Triumph in the UK now? Imola will be reported in full elsewhere, but it is interesting that Smart, Spaggiari and Agostini were all credited with the fastest lap at 100.10 mph. So Formula 750 racing took another step forward with an estimated 70,000 crowd at Imola and Smart richer by well over $10,000; just how long will it be before the FIM comes up with a world championship for this category?
ROAD RACING OPENING
The opening round of the 1972 world road racing titles had its share of surprises, first when Saarinen beat Ago, and then in the same race Japanese rider Hideo Kanaya was 3rd on a Yamaha and went even better in winning the 250 race.
Chris Vincent made an inauspicious start to his title hunt on the Munchpowered outfit he has built, finishing in 12th place; but this was only a start for the hard riding, determined Vincent who will probably need two or three races to find out the characteristics of the four-cylinder device.
In winning the 350 race Saarinen, aptly nicknamed “the flying Finn,” set an absolute motorcycle lap record in cold, cloudy conditions at 90.91 mph, which Ago found impossible to equal the next day in warm sunshine on the 500 MV, being some 9-sec. slower, thus underlining the fabulous performance of the Yamaha.
SCOTTISH TRIAL
But let us leave road racing for the more relaxed atmosphere of trials riding. Relaxed, that is, for spectators as the pressures can be pretty great on the works team riders, particularly in an event like the international Scottish Six Days trial first held back 1911. Now dubbed the Highland Holiday, the event is proving more and more popular each year with riders and spectators alike.
This year Mick Andrews achieved something that even the mighty Sammy Miller never managed during his record setting five wins. Andrews made it three wins in a row, equalling that set by the maestro Hugh Viney (AJS) from 1947 to 1949. That was in the immediate post war years, when bikes were big four-strokes and even 350s were considered for boys and sprung frames were a thing of the future. > British factory teams were once thick on the ground with AJS, BSA, Matchless, Norton, Royal Enfield and Triumph big four-strokes competing for the manufacturers award. In 1972, the only manufacturers teams were the Spanish companies with Ossa, Bultaco and Montesa each fielding two trios all mounted on the familiar .two-strokes. Victory went to the Montesa team of Rob Edwards, Rob Shepherd and Gordon Farley, who finished 3rd, 5th and 7th respectively. Bultaco hopes took a knock on the first day when team man Martin Lampkin went out with a seized big end before he reached the first section.
For Farley it was a disastrous week, though he started brilliantly enough on the Monday when the reigning British champion made the only clean climb of the four sections at Edramucky, but then he lost three on the much easier Meall Glas and the rot set in to the extent that by Thursday night he was down in 11th place. He had lost 62 marks, compared with the 30 of leader Andrews—a leeway it was impossible to make up, although he did make one of the best performances over the last two days.
Thursday was crunch day and that fact was predicted by Andrews during a film interview at the weigh-in reputedly being made for Honda. Determined, confident and very professional, he had obviously realized just how tight the time schedule would be that day, but when chatting to me had only mentioned the difficulty of the sections. Mick virtually won the trial that morning when riders had to cover 22 miles, of which 10 were rough going, and negotiate 10 sections in 1 hr. 6 min., for an average of 20 mph. It was not that difficult to achieve, especially as allowances are made for any delay if riders are waiting to ride observed sections.
Andrews lost nothing on time to take the lead, which would not have been his had Rob Edwards not lost 11 on time to total 37, Geoff Chandler (Bultaco) 12 on time for a total 39, and Malcolm Rathmell (Bultaco) 20 on time for a total 48.
Just how important these time marks lost turned out to be was evident when the final results came out, which showed that if Edwards and Rathmell had not lost marks on time they would have finished with 49 marks lost, like Andrews.
That three riders could finish the week on equal marks lost on observation says more than words can of the closeness of the competition and all three were on different machinery.
Rathmell’s 20 lost on time was the biggest personal disaster, because had the triple tie occurred then he would have won the trial on result of the special test included specifically as a tie breaker.
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By the same yardstick, Edwards would have been 2nd and winner Andrews relegated to 3rd place, which all goes to prove that reading regulations and route cards carefully is just as important as riding the sections. For Rathmell it will have been an expensive error in lost bonuses, and mere mention of the word “Scottish” will be a constant reminder of the year he came so close to winning and yet finished fourth.
So leaving the realm of what might have been, the first six finishers were: Mick Andrews (Ossa) 49; Alan Lampkin (Bultaco) 58; Rob Edwards (Montesa) 60; Malcolm Rathmell (Bultaco) 69; Rob Shepherd (Montesa) 71 ; Geoff Chandler (Bultaco) 74.
Manufacturers Team prize—Montesa (Edwards, Shepherd, Farley). Montesa has now taken the team prize four years in succession.
One of the best performances in the trial was by the Swedish rider Thore Evertsson (Ossa), who finished with a loss of 104 in 12th place. He was easily the best overseas rider and beat many of the established British competitors. The United States was represented by 31year-old Mike McCabe, who, with a name like that, just had to ride in Scotland. He was persuaded to ride in the Scottish by Mick Andrews when he won one of the Andrews trials schools events.
Mike, from Tulsa, Okla., is a member of the North East Oklahoma Trials Team club, being the uncrowned king of his area where trials are concerned. But has no illusions about his ability compared with British riders, who are out practically every weekend riding in competitive events. He was lucky enough to be lent Sammy Miller’s personal 250 Bultaco to ride in the trial, “but you’ve still gotta be able to ride,” he said, having notched up some 40 stops on the 175 sections that comprise the event. Mike summed up the trial in one word “fantastic.”
The event featured superb scenery, better than Colorado because Scotland is still unspoiled, good organization, excellent route marking, riders and officials doing all they could to help a stranger and then the machinery—some of it in first class condition and some looking like rubbish, yet finishing the trial apparently without problems.
Mike will be back in Scotland next year to compete in the trial, for the Scottish to the trials rider is what Daytona or the Isle of Man TT is to a road racer—the tops.
It is time more Americans took up the challenge. Maybe a party tour picking up a bike in England would be the answer, but it should not be approached lightly. A competitor really must be fit and train before the event for physical fitness as much as for riding the bike itself. It is a trip and experience that is well worthwhile.
500 MOTOCROSS OPENER
All those motocross men who made the trip to Austria for the opening 500 round of the season must have been wondering why they bothered. All, that is, except Roger DeCoster (Suzuki) who revelled in the mud bath conditions and came away with maximum points from wins in both races. Willi Bauer (Maico) was 2nd overall and his teammate Ake Jonsson 3rd. Husqvarna was completely eclipsed, their best rider being Andy Roberton in 6th place.
A week later in Switzerland on the fast and dry Payerne circuit, Heikki Mikkola caused one of those racing upsets that make the spectators go wild with excitement as they see a champion well and truly beaten.
Riding a new 360 Husqvarna utilizing a 125cc crankcase with a six-speed gearbox, Mikkola gave an impressive display as he powered to wins in both races. DeCoster finished 2nd in both, but was hampered in each race by bad starts and, though he fought doggedly through the field, Mikkola always had the situation under control and so gave Husqvarna a good morale boost early in the season.
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Former champion Bengt Abert (Husqvarna) was 3rd overall and Ake Jonsson (Maico), in 4th place, seems to be making a slow start to the grand prix season.
John Banks (CZ) had his best ride in a championship event since leaving BSA, when he finished 6th, but it is obvious that at the moment man or. machine is incapable of being a serious championship contender after his layoff because of injury.
Time alone will tell whether Husqvarna is really on to something and whether Maico can fight back from a bad start.
250 CHAMPIONSHIP
The 250 championship also started off in wet conditions in Spain where Joel Robert (Suzuki) won the first leg from teammate Sylvain Geboers; but then after a minor course modification during the interval, Robert crashed at the start of the second race when his fellow countryman Gaston Rahier (Husqvarna) fell in front of him on the first lap. This reportedly led to an impromptu fight between the two riders before Rahier was able to get away again, but volatile Robert was out of the race.
The Russians have come back into the 250 battle and most notable in Spain were Pavel Rulev and Alexei Kibirin, both riding CZ machinery. Kibirin finished second overall ahead of Rahier. Their presence will considerably strengthen the CZ team and it seems unlikely, however good they are, that they will be approached to ride for any other team.
Hardly had Geboers had time to count his good fortune in starting the season with a win than he was in the hospital cursing his bad luck in breaking an ankle during practice for the French Grand Prix.
So the door is wide open now for Robert to take another 250 title and notch 50 grand prix wins long before the end of the season. His win in France was almost a formality. He was followed home overall in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places by the Russians Rulev, Moiseev and > Kibirin. Olle Pettersson, developing the new Kawasaki motocross model, rode very consistently for 6th place in each race and 6th overall. He had finished 7th in the first race in Spain but gained no points following retirement in the second leg.
Nothing is certain in the world of motocross, but it looks as if the series will now be a one man band; for at the moment there is no machinery to equal Suzuki and only Robert is riding a Suzuki, so all the competition will be for 2nd place and the bonus of 1st if Robert is sidelined at all. it is not the situation to draw big crowds.
Talking of crowds, it was a pretty small one that went to see the Vintage Race of the Year meeting at Mallory Park three weeks after the John Player Transatlantic Trophy races, where 61-year-old Eric Oliver, former world sidecar racing champion, showed that he had lost little of his ability when he belted a 1931 500cc Norton around to win both his heat and the final against a host of vintage Morgans and sidecar outfits.
Excelsiors, Scotts, Rudges, Velocettes—they were all there, being raced by real enthusiasts and creating nostalgia with exhaust notes that are so kind on the ear in comparison with the present-day, modern racing two-strokes. But there was something very familiar about the oldest machines around. Those large capacity V Twins all sounded like the Harley we had watched not so long ago which is doubtless very similar to the Ducati that won at Imola. As the saying goes, “there’s nothing new in racing, it’s all been done before.” [Ô1
