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September 18, 1973 Austrian 250 GP Last Tango in Launsdorf AcIeIph Weil out in front. By John Huetter r-~':"""----------l I' LAUNSDORF, AUSTRIA, AUG. 26 A sIgnl ach· In I American tor rac g sport was finalized today, not in the US, but I I I in the Car· thian Alps of Austria tPlease accept the enclosed dona-. I tjon for $ to the 48th' lISDT. Send my souvenir sponsor I sticker to: • I I 11 lodd,... I I. I CO" I I..... L.-- I I I I I' I .ip (213) 427-7433 I .J near a town no one outs e 0 a few, dozen Grand Prix motocrossers has ever heard of. The end of the last 45 minute 'World Championship moto in Austria marked the completion of the 1973 season and left American Jim Pomeroy seventh in the world, the highest a rider has ever Imished for the Bultaeo marque and second. Oftiy to Torsten Hallman for a ftnt seasOn performance. Not too shabby and uftpn:cendented for a US riller. , With a harsh note of reality, though, DOlle of 1l10ry in Austria went to Pomeroy. Adolf Wei! (Mai) displayed the unbelievable smoothness of his style to dominate the lust moto completely. He then came on with professional precision of placement to take second ~ehind an explosive Heikki Mikkola in moto two for another overall victory. Torlief Hansen confirmed his like for the re-designed KX-250 Kawasaki and continued his late season surge for a second overall and a ftml grip on fourth in the world standings after hanging back about eight most of the year. For the fust time in his rookie year on the GP circuit, Jim Pomeroy (BuI) failed to score any Grand Prix points in finishing a moto. Jim never was able to get his mind back on track after the bummer Russian experience/crash. His riding was uncbaracteristically lackluster in Sweden and, this week, Austria. Of course, for Pomeroy this still means he was running in the top ten or 12, but his timing was off, his starts not in tense enough, and his usual gu t-binding comer passes not as much in evidence. Despite the slump which saw his slide from the fifth in the world position he'd held most of the season, Jim had the proven performance to rest securely in seventh, narrowly edged by the young Czech Jaroslav Falta (CZ). More importantly, every rider on the 250 GP circuit kno"(s_ ~at Jim Pomeroy, an Amencan rilI!:t-'.is a force to be reckOlled with in World ChaJllPionship C;OIIIpetitiOll. . .m4 Brad. Lackey, both in their t fun season of Gnnd Prix, have put American motocross on the map of Europe. In Saturday practice, which was shonened by a fierce hailstorm, Heikki Mikkola looked fast. He had won overall in Austria in 1972. Joel Raben showed nashes of brilliance on the slic k, grassy track doing feet-uk.:~:es around the rain-wet sweepers. Andcnson. as always, was running fast. Nobody noticed Adolf too much unless you took some lap times on him. He was getting from stan to finish very quickly, but you seldom know it to look at him - Mr. Control , As usual, the qualifying times for start position were screwed up. Not as usual, the organizing club then decided not to use them in any way and opened the gate for a drag race to the stan line to determine position. Much to their credit, the riders refused to start. Joel Robert rode around in front of the gate waving for the other riders to join him. Most of them did. The club relented on their stupidity and used the inaccurate lap times to line up moto one. Finally, the three-deep pack of riders blasted over the start gate with Adolf Weil (Mai) getting the hole shot. Nobody got by him for the next 45 minutes. After an early chase by Gunnady Moisseiev (KTM) , nobody else got close to him as the mature German Maico pilot stretched out a commanding lead. Pomeroy got off a mediocre 17th but went to work on lap two, -closing tremendous amounts of ground until he caught up to the front dozen where he staned racing with Puch-mounted Uno Palm but couldn't get past. This was not Jim's usual performance. Hakan Andersson (Yam), the new world champion, had also gotten a bad start bu t moved up to fourth and started dicing with Torlief Hansen (Kaw). Andy Roberton (Hus), sole Briton, got one of his better starts and ran in seventh or eighth for the rest of the moto, fading only in the final minutes out of the points-paying positions as Palm and Pomeroy went by. After 30 minutes elapsed, Adolf had lapped everybody up to Pomeroy. Torlief had shaken off Hakan and flat out went faster to go by Moisseiev on the outside of the stan hill comer. Then Mikkola moved out of the crowd and started running a three-way race for third with Moisseiev and Andersson. The Russian won that sub-contest; Joel retired. A t the end of the last whi te-knuckle controlled fall-down through the trees, Adolf had a big lead followed by Hansen, Mossei.ev - barely ahead of Andersson, Mikkola, Falta, Rulev, Rybaltchenko, Everts, and Tarao Suzuki (Yam) coming off his Japanese GP win to ride in 250 World Championship. Pomeroy was 12th. The too-soft, hard sprung shoclu on the Bultaeo were changed back to the stock Beton. Jim hasn't run on the same suspension for a full Sunday for months. That situation has to be malting a difference in performance - and attitude. Every other successful bike in the 250 class has switched to Konis or special design suspensions. Once again, .Gunnady Moisseiev wicked the bright red KTM into one of his classic explosions off the start. It' looked like he was gone, with a shot at the overall. Then on lap two, Mikkola kep~ it on over the back-stretch w)100p-de-doos and had the lead. When ~ gets in front, he gives renewed cqp.fjdence to Husqvama. The trite title, .. lying Finn", does fit him. Pomeroy had crashed on the fust lap afte..-~tting a terrible start. It was not an encouraging sign, He got re-started and staned playing catch-up for real. He racea-with KaIcvi Vehltonen (Mon) a while and then passed him, as the "other" Finn was also having an off day. But meanwhile, the front fIVe weren't rolling over ud playing dead. They! cleared off in a big hurry. P~eroy circulated in about 15th and tileR, after about five laps, he was thJ:ough for the day and tile 1973 Gl'and Prix season. The agony of defeat and his seeming iJubiity to get it together in tile last two motocrosses was ....ked on his young ~ace. There was nothing he could do to make it better. Meanwhile, Adolf Wei got by Falta into tilird and started eroding the lead MOisseiev had built up in his chase of Mikkola. The front two make a race of it for 20 minutes but Heikki just didn't look back and kept the revs high. With 30 minutes gone, Adolf was right on Gunnady's tail and the fU'St three were charging the long, long uphill wa)'-ahead of everybody else. Adolf went outside the berm on an off-camber left-hander and passed Moisseiev. He looked very slow in doing it but would have passed Mikkola but he didn't need to. He had the Grand Prix won; he was second in the world in the toughest 250 field of con tenders ever assembled. Hakan retired in the second moto and Joel crashed on the narrow downhill path. He left for the hospital and ended the season with his leg in a cast. Next year... ? Mikkola won the last moto of the World Championship season. Adolf Wei!, grinning broadly, won the GP. The '72 Champion, Robert, was in plaster and American Jim Pomeroy summed it up, shouting into the Austrian night, "I'm so glad it's over!" •