Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

_'Crot YOU AlI fIPKT HOTSHOE'S HOT LINE Ettelbruck, Luxembourg - The last of the 500 Grand Prix series in Luxembourg was a spectacular upset in the mud. Most of the top names didn't figure into the results. A ke Jonsson fell quickly in one lap from second to fOurth in' the world championship. Paul Freidichs moved into a surprising second in the world championship. Billy clements unwittingly scored the USA's second GP point. Rain Saturday night and Sunday turned the one and one half mile track into a test of endurance. Only the bikes that managed to avoid the deepest puddles could possibly keep going the entire 52 minutes (the total of forty minutes plus two laps) of each mota. The last moto there were only 12 finishers. with just three that completed all 13 laps. Just as the first moto was to begin, the heavens opened up. The rain was so heavy that the steep hill that was the biggest spectator attraction had to be cut out. Right away at the start Kenney got off badly. The gate fell before all the riders were positioned leaving many of them wondering what happened. Mark Blackwell rode two laps when a rock hit him squarely in the eye. He spent the afternoon in the hospital. Although it wasn't a serious injury, it should take several days before he can sec anything more than light. Mark has had a j!;ood summer of experience and more than h is share of bad luck. Nen year he should bring home some top notch results. Meanwhile, Kenny was steadily picking off the clientele in front of him until he moved into 10th place. As Friedrichs passed him, he fell back to J lth. DeCoster broke a chain: Heikki Mikkola and Adolf Weil were watered out. One lap from the end, Kenney was in 8th place when the Malco stopped dead. Giving it up for hopeless, He $4000 of gas! Billy Clements needed only to ride across the line to finish 16th. The second heat there were more riders on the sideline than in the race itsel£. DeCoster, with nothing to gain by riding the second heat, sat alongside Mikkola, Aberg, Banks, Roberton, Kenney and several others. The only American survivor. Clement~ .. continued calmly and steadily in the thick mud to finish 11th, four laps from th~ top runners. 500ee World Motocross Champion Roger DeCoster spons a snob T-shirt. (Does this mean that he secretly wants to be a road racer?) pushed the bike to the pits only minutes before Ake Jo!,sson swept across the finish line as winner. According to FIM rules, in order for a rider to be classed in a GP he must cross the finish life after the willner. As Kenne~ preceded Jonsson to the pits, he lost what would have been J Oth place even though he missed a lap. Bengt Aberg made the same mistake on the last lap when his Husky stopped in second place. They were both non-finishers. After Kenney a,,-d mechanic, Gunter Gmelin, searched in vain for the bike failure, it was discovered that the Maico had run out It looked at though Maico would take a lust and second place this moto with Jonsson and Wen blazing a trall for the others. As the checkered flag fell on the first Imisher, and the crowd bcgan cheering for who they though was Jonsson, a second look told them that this first finisher was Wei!. Jonsson had run out of gas the last lap way in the back of the 'course, too far to push the bike within the required five minutes. This upset changed the entire result sheet. Overall winner for the day was Jaak Van Velthoven with two second places followed by Paul Freidrichs in second place. In' the world' championship points, this meant that Freidrichs finished second, Mikkola, third and Jonsson, fourth. Van Velthoven with his first Grand Prix win moved into fifth place. Roger DeCoster accepted his 1972 title with his usual self confidence. The US of A has now scored two GP points: Kenney in West Germany and Clements in Luxembourg. We can look forward to a successful season next summer on the GP circuit. Ciao, HotShoe Trees, bushes, loose dirt and tight track full of turns characterize the Escape Country course for the AII..pro MX on Sept. 10. JEFF SEXTON'S AceE ..O'JES WOTOCFOSS Track 'N Travel Largest Line of MAlCO parts in the Pomona Valley. Call for special out-the-door price on the new 175 Puch_ 13132 7th 5t" Chino Calif. J (714) 6~8-781~ • PFO:LCTS (714)595-9100 ~ O • • by John Huetter Escape Country is one of the newest motocross tracks cum riding facilities to be established in the Southwest. In ·order to draw attention, and riders, to their facility, the management have come up with a lot of innovative ideas to attract would-be racers, beginners and novices to their bi-weekly motocross productions, including limiting use of the track to members of their racing organization which means that it stays in a lot better shape for racing. Now th ey've switched to the opposite end of the spectrum and are sponsoring, along with the Premier helmet-builders, an all-Professional three class motocross with a $4000 purse. That's enough money to get some of the big shoes interested, and running just the three profdsional/expert classes (without the novice, etc. motDs in between) should be enough to get some spectators interested. Anotner benefit for the pros is that they don't have to travel all that far (Orange County) to get into a race that pays down to tenth place. It's very nice to see some bigger purses being offered the top riders, on top of whatever contingencies are paid by people in the industry attracted to this motocross. What can the racers and spectators expect for $4000 dollars? The. spectators, forking over their hard-earned gold to watch the pros earn their gold the hard way, can expect to see at least 75% of the fairly long track from any point on the course. But the track at Escape Country is not really a Uspectators' course". It is a very tight course, but not so small that you're following yourself around the track every thirty seconds. Lotsa turns, and a lot of those are off-eamber. With one exception, there was room to pass in all of them. The track is wide enough to offe.r two good lines through just about every comer. There are also a lot of explode-out-of-the-ground short dips and jumps. They are so close together that it will take an expert to negotiate them at speed without landing out of shape in the next hole. I can't quite figure out how the pros are going to get over that part of the course as fast as they usually go in winning. Very tricky. The purpose of this blurb is not to give a tum by berm descrip tion of the course but to indicate that it will take some very skilled riders to get around this long, natural tetrain course at speed. The track places emphasis on ability rather than horsepower. There's no real point in gearing very high, either. Well, maybe if you're a pro MX racer there is. Four thousand dollars for three classes is an OK purse and if th is race comes off as a success, Escape Country management is planning to increase the size of the purse for the next one, then eventually stage all-pro invitational motocross on a quarterly basis. 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