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/125832
Course _ full size and at least thretHluarters vertical. Some of the 12Ss hBd trouble with the mud though most riden overcame it. Prototype Mont8sa 125 ran strong untillhearing sprockat bolts. They still have some sorting out to do in their first year. 125cc World Motocross Championship Tarao had thespeed, but Zundapp had the teamwork Courtesy of Montesa Motors Commentary and Photos By John Huetter BELGRADE, YUGOSLAVIA, SEPT. 23 By the time the two-pronged qualifying rounds for the 125cc FIM Motocross Championship had ended, there were three J8 well-established candidates for the world title. American Bill Grossi had qualified - with a ~cond in the US round of the championship - but did not attend the fmal in Yugoslavia, nor did any other Yanks. First choice amongst the odds-makeR was Tarao Suzuki, riding for Yamaha, who had dominated the 125 class all year in addition to racing in a couple of 250 Grands Prix with good results, in the top ten, every time 'Out. He is very fast and wild and crashes a lot but picks himself up and gets going again. Andre Malherbe is a I 7-year old Begian riding under a French license (since you have to be 18 to ride International in Belgium) for the Zundapp factory. He is very smooth and talented. Malherbe's works teammate, Fritz Schneider, is very secure in his moves and physically big and strong. Whose Zundapp was fastest was a point of debate all season. That both of the red and silver 123cc works machines were faster than anything else was never debated. The factory Zundapps were obviously the quickest machinery but it could be that Tarao Suzuki was the quicker rider. Others with an outside chance at the overall were Jean-Paul Mingels, son of a former 500cc European champion, on Bultaco and Raymond Boven, riding a prototype 125 Montesa with good results during the season. True to expectations and their performance all season long, Malherbe and Schneider (Zun) grabbed the lead in the first of the two 45-minute motos. Mingels wicked the fast small-bore Pursang into third with Boven fourth on the Mon tesa. The starts are doubly I imponant in 125 World Championship racing since the engines (with the possible exception of Zundapp) and the riders are more evenly matched. You can't just gas it to make up positions since all the riders are likely to be tapped out continuously anyway. By the end of the fust lap, Tarao Suzuki had worked up rapidly to sixth behind Willi Van der Broeck and Gilben DeRoover on Husqvarnas. Boven had dropped way back to tenth after a slide-out. Tarao Suzuki continued his wild charge up through the front runners to be third after five laps. Malherbe and Schneider continued to motor around in front. Then Schneider's better adaptation to the Yugoslav circuit showed and he went past Malherbe, outriding him by the halfway point of the moto. Suzuki kept closing the gap on the Zundapp duo. Mingels was first Bultaco hanginj about Iounh or fifth for the entire moto. But he's got to quit wearing that ancien t pudding bowl helmet or he's going to be hurt bad one day. Six laps after he took the lead, Schneider crashed, admi ttedly under pressure. Malherbe regained the - lead (He's Continued on page 48