Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125797
. ~ ... :0 « ~ w Z W ..J () > () Big Mike Konle and Sonny Nutter go at it up front at Ventura. Dan Becker and Mike Curoso close behind. from Bany Briggs in England Sorry to have been off the writing scene for a while, but things have been so darn hectic here in England lately that it's been a full-time job trying to get the racing going right. Bikes that go bang in the night, injuries and so on ...it has been a rugged year for Briggo. S till, I'm a sucker for motorcycles as I discovered after taking a break recently. Because of all the problems which had been heaping up, I decid.ed to take a fortnight's break and consider my racing future. But a few days in the Spanish sun and I was keen to go again. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before I was taking another break, an enforced one this time, after pranging in a Test match at Belle Vue, Manchester. It's a fast quarter miler and one of the quickest in Britain. John Langfield (Australia) got out of control and 1 was carted into the fence at 70 mph. No joke. The boys reckoned it was one of the worst-looking accidents on speedway for years but fortunately all I got was a series of bumps and bangs, a black eye and damaged ligamen ts in the righ t knee. • Sounds painful, maybe - it was enough to keep me off for three weeks anyway - but it could have been worse. I was lucky. Worse things happen at sea though. Now I'm wondering about my next States visit and the changed formula should make it interesting this year. Tbose 250's don't suit me so much and after Houston and Daytona I decided definitely not to go to Santa Fe Park for the National Championship event for the rust time in three years. Unless I was able to spend a Jot of time finding and testing a suitable bike I wouldn't see myself as being able to compete on the terms I want. Mind you, I've had terrific backing from Yamaha and can't complain there. At Redwood City I tried Jimmy Odam's'winning short tracker and tried converting a few small details to suit my riding. But ultimately it didn't prove the type for my crazy style. Enough' of me for a bit. It was good to see some great road racing performances from blokes like Cal Rayborn. He surely showed the short circuit boys a thing or two. I am looking forward to the same thing happening on the speedway and 1000 meter long track events when the U.S. men are in these, to make them real genuine World Championship events. There's a big storm going on at the moment over nitro. A Russian called Gordeev was banned after traces of nitro had been found in his tank after he'd got fourth in the 1971 World Final in speedway at Gothenburg, Sweden. But through all the eastern bloc qualifying rounds that name keeps cropping up again - rumOr is that it's his brother, but 1 have my doubts. This nitro business has got silly because the F.I.M. have banned it for major events. Vet it is still being freely used in domestic meetings. I cannot see why it should be outlawed anyway. I heard that some American boys are coming over here soon and that there might be some doubt about whether they're F.J .M. sanctioned. The powers. governing world speedway and other associated forms of racing will have to get their house in order because we have enough diplomatic incidents as it is! On my own front, now that various injuries are getting better, I'd like to feel that my racing luck was going to get be-tter as well. Naturally when you're down everything seems to go wrong, and vice versa when you're up. I reckon I've had more bad breaks in the last 18 months than in the previous 18 years put together but you just have to grin and be phUosophicai if possible. If our next big speedway event, the British Final, of the world championship, goes ok, then Briggs will be smiling. Bill Cody led the Irwindale Eagies with 11 points but they stili tied with Ventura at 36 ali. 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