Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Tim Luikart ·THE FINNISH GP Ii! .. The F1nD1sh GP began almost lmmedl tately alter tile Swed1sh race in AnN derstroP was over.An ex-Amerlcan, now :;; a natura11zed Finn, had chartered an ~ entire boat for tile 8-hour crossing from ~. Sweden to Finland, wltll free passage . for race people. All tile racers, etc. had to pay for was tile fare for tIleir II) vehicles and food. The 400 Idlometer \rlp ~ race from tileatdock in Finland to tile w circuit Imatra was broken in Z half by a stop at HameeUnna, home of W ...J tile International Rider'S Union, andalso o city for tile Wednes> host following a road race GP. Here tile o day tile Flnnlsh riders were a,llowed to run on tile course, as well as work on tIletr machines in condltlons somewhat better tban would be avat.lable to tIlem at lmatr.. And everyone had tlme to spend a few hours at tile really beautlful JaIce In a NatIonal park rtght next to tile ,race track. Finland Is dotted wltll plctures'que laltes and forests, spread over a gently 1'01Ung countryside, and Is one of tile more hospitable countries in EuroPe as well. One of tile thlngs I have been amazed at through tills season Is tile conditions tile mechanlcs work under. One man arrived Thursday evening at lmal:ra, and by tile tlme tile sun was down he had tile engine completely apart, and ready to have new mains for tile racing. He was up at 5 a.m. and on tile job again. He did tile same tblng to anotiler bike between tile end of tile practice sessions and tile beg1nn1ng of tile racing. And all tills work was done in tile oPen air, wltll an 'oll-clotll under tile bike serving as a workbench. In tile back of tile van he had his apparatus for truing tile crankshafts, and assorted tools. Another mechanic was up an entlre night working on a bike, and towards morntng he had collapsed In a chair. Not even tile scream of tile racing engines could awaken hlm tile next dsy. Whlch Is another_ ~te-!!lS~point. The days hel'e are quite dlfferent irciin anywhere else I've seen; The sun may 'rlse in tile East each morning, but It's progress across tile sky Is not directly west. First It sloops around to tile soutll, tIlen hlts what Is tile west, and Rna1ly sets in tile Nortll. Or vice-verse. In any case, tile route Is circular. And i- Dal(e Simmonds placed fifth In the SOD event aboard his Kawasaki 3. tile nights are .not very dark at this time of year. It gets dark around 10 p.m., what! would call dusk, and remains tbat way unW tile next morning. A native told me tbat 700 kUometers Nortll of lmatra Is tile region of tile 6 montlls Of sunllght, 6 montlls of darkness. And 10 Idlometers from Imatra Is the Russian border. However, no Russian road racers ~ed, and tIlere were no Russians on a holldsy, eitller. The weather was absolutely perfect as tile track oPened for practicing on Saturdsy. The usual favorites were turning tile fastest times around tile 6.03 km (3.75 mUes) circuit, and some of tile riders were scarlng themselves very severely at tile full throttle jnmp In tile middle of one of the straight sections. Anotller lot gave tile straw bales around the turns a good testing, but tIlere was no report of anyone being badly hurt. Saturday ended witll various parties and dinners, among wIlich was one In tile paddock area sponsored by a . :.. :!~,..-...-..> ". ~ FEATURES apr.,. • Hen, duty rust preyentiwe for outd9or protection. even under npolUfe to Ntt water • • Film will dllfttop an outer crust, while 'ilm MIt to met.1 remains soft providi.... hNIi"l charKteriltic. it the film i, tlr'Hen. Iet,- HeaY)' resistanee to abrnion. RecluCft fric. tion and ...... • Cub exterior of caDle strands and chlin Ii . • Gi immediate .nd I..th,. protection. With.t.nd, ••treme he.t .ad pr•••..,,.. Penetr.... core of cable .nd inner chain " .... TEST EXPERIENCE • fIlrotKted motorcycle chlin tor tour CDnsec:· kt--uch runnl,. at "nt mi", ,.app'iation! utive __ 100 • netl:tnd of Enduro-without No buiklup--dirt. crea.., sift actually reo pelted! • No siln of Oftr·heatinc in two thoUUlnd' miles of Mrd drivinc. • In two thouund miles of motorcycle drivinc . no tensioninc was t'1!quired. P. O. BOX 52681 HOUSTON, TEXAS 77002 group of Germans. Highllght of tills party was tile burning of a sacriticlal offerIng over an oPen fire. The offering was a bi-cycle, and during tile early burning, tile wheel,s only were ignited, and some brave (crazy) :Soul (probably a sidecar passenger) rode this bicycle fitted wttll flaming wIleels around and around tile paddock area. Last year's ceremon1al offering was tile buUdlng that served as tile paddock toUet. At the end of the session tile riders banded togetller and set fire to it, as a sign of tIleir appreciation. ThIs year, tile paddock was fitted wltll a nice new set of "bogs" that flushed, and even hot showers. Sunday's day of ractng began slowly, except for tile harried mechanics. Their's is a hard lot, and some of them feel mistreated. "I work for hours making that machine run so fast, and, tIlen he goes out and races it. No res~ pact for good machinery wIlatsoever." • But at race time, every rider who had qua11t1ed was on tile Une bUpping his tIlrottle. There was no 50Cc race at Imatra, but the 125's offered tIleir usual excitement, and even did a Uttle more. For the first few laps it was a four man race between Kent Andersson (Y..m), Angel Nieto (Derbi), Borje JanSS\lO (Mal), and Charles Mortimer (Yam). Then Mor,timer droPped back suddenly, and with less than half the race to go he was out with a packed-up gearbox. And I thlnk it has ended hls chance at a world title for thls year. The other three men were going at it as hard as possible, changIng positions often. Andersson was in the lead more consistently tban the otller two, and his race was made a bit easier wilen Jansson was forced out very near the end wltll a broken fuel tank. Nieto stayed close enough to hoid second, and Dieter Braun on a Mateo was third, followed by Harald Bartol (Suz) and Dave Simmonds (Kaw). Andersson's average speed for tile 63.75 mile race was 84.5 mph. The next race was the 350 Junior, and tile racing here was for second place behind Agostlnl and tile MV 4. Ph11 Read didn't even get off tile starting Une wlth tile second MV, so he just sat tile race Qat. But Saarinen was out to give tile bometown folks sometblng to see, andhe was actually close to Agostlnl for two or three laps. Then he began to fall back, and Renzo Pasollni (who started poorly) bepn haullng hlm in. On tile very last lap, wltll· tile two of tIlem going wIleel to wIleel, Pasollni's Aermacchl ran out of fuel. He was able to coast across tile line for tbtrd place, 8.6 seconds beh1nd Saarinen. 4t1l place went to Bruno Kneubuhler on a Yamaha. Agostlnl averaged 92.85 mph, but tile fast lap went to Pasol1ni "as he chased Saarinen wltll a lap at 94.05 mph. Most of tile 350 racers were back on tile track for tile 250 run. The l!50 Is always a hotly contested tblng, espectally thls late In tile season, wltll so many people wltll a c!lance at tile world title. Saartnen was tile favorite, along wltll Rod Gould and Pasolln1. But Gould was into tile pits at tile end of tile first lap, and never continued tile race. Saarinen and Pasollnl did a replay on tile 350 race, except tbat thls time Pasolln1's H-D Aermacchl began to sputter and miss. He dropPed back steadily and finally was out of tile race on tile 16t1l lap. Saarinen worked his way through tile fleld,lapping all but tile toP 6 f1nIshers. HIs average speed was 88.55 mph, well ahead of SUvlo Grassettl (MZ) in second and Kent Andersson (Yam) in tbtrd. Teuvo Lansivuori (Yam) pleased his countrymen wltll a fourtb place. Jarno Saarinen is tile new 250 world champion, as tIlere is only tile Spanlsh GP left to contest, and hls lead is uncatchable. The 500 race looked as it it would be Tery e.xciting at tile beg1nn1ng. Da~e Simmonds (Kaw) and KIm Newcombe (Konig) had an early, large lead. But Agostini eventually worked his way back to tile front and started pulllng away. Altllough he didn't pull away from Newcombe too rapidly. Simmonds Kawasaki didn't seem as fast as the MV and some others, and Alberto Pagani, Rod GoUld, and B11l1e Nelson all caught him before tile end of tile race. Pagani was having a rough time catching Newcombe, and In fact, he was not catching him at all until tile Konig began to talk funny, and finally, on the 14t1l lap of the 23 lap race, Newcombe was out, leaving the MV factory with another 1-2 fln1sh. The World Championship for 500Cc sidecars ended with the Finnish GP, and Klaus Enders/Ralf Engelhardt from Germany on a BMW outtlt are the new world champions. The race at Imatra was won by Chris Vincent and Michael Casey (Munch URS) from England, but not without an early battle with Enders/ Engelhardt. They turned tile fastest lap at 85.25 mph and finished second, about 15 seconds ahead of Siegfried Schauzu/ Wolfgang Kalauch (BMW). Witll the Finnish GP over, and nearly two months until the next and final GP of tile season, the r.iders will be wandering towards their respective countires, picking up races as tIley go. The next one is the HameeUnna TT whlch is directly on tile route to home for most of the riders, and Is supposed to be contested by tile MV's as well as tile otller toP men. It Is IlPw late in the season, and many of tile racers are beginning to show the effects of the long grind of the Continental Circus, as it was so aptly called by tile movie people, and tIley are looking forward to a fewdsys rest and some time to really work on tile machinery before the big finale in Spain. 11 i lU; ,.,./.; ,• .' lll;~ 'I'll . . ~ ..iJdilJ~~"-:~,,,:g~'i: ;'iP

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