Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

around t he pits in the re nt-a-ear. I ha d seen t he Husky b ut not noticed th e rear suspension as that on the Taunus 1600 was c urren tl y bottoming out on the ruts. Brad later insisted we go look for it. Mot oc ross machines are very up-to-date, state-of-the-art, and leading edge o f technology in Belgium. It's what reall y is h appening in m otocross, But the biggest hit o f the entire weekend was Brad's minibike . T he Belgian crowd milled around, staring at it and trying to touch it as they ignored the GP bikes. They can see GP b ikes a lm ost any weekend b ut n o t real d o-a-wheelie-brrup-minibikes, It had " T e am Husqvarna" and "Scott Goggles" stickies all over it in an attempt to disguise its Oriental origin. The Belgians didn' t kn ow what XR-7 5 meant - but they loved it. . Th e biggest bumm er of the day was that Brad's shock broke aga in in the 250 m ota, dropping him from seventh to ninth bu t w orse, not a llo wing him to mo ve up. He was ab o u t 15 t h at the start and se ven th by lap two o n a new course n e ar Betekom tha t he termed " t o o easy . But it had about three dozen jumps in it. Gas it - se t up for the co mer - gas it - jump. And repeat for 40 mi nutes p lus two laps with Ake Jonsson breathing down your neck. Guess who got the hole shot in the 250 m ota o n Monday . Right. The gray-haired Mai co meister himself was in front. Beh ind Adolf were Harry Everts (Puc) and the World 5 00 Champion. Roger allowed as how he 'd laid off th e antibi otics, had the pustule lanced and general ly fel t better t han on Sunday. He demonstrated his true fee ling. b y p assing Ev erts aft e r two laps and moving steadily away after Wei!. That wa s it as far as the winners went. Adolf and Roger stre tch ed out a gigan tic lead, with Roger actually getting a Suzuki front wheel under the Maico works suspension once or twice . But at th e finish Adol f still led by a bike l ength (ab ou t 5~ ft.] , 11 was reminiscent o f the two e xcellent p ilo ts ' last tw o duels o f th e 19 7 3 Trans Am seri es a t Carnegie and Saddleback. Roger was fighting p ain and Adolf fighting Roger's home crowd. But b ack to th e start. Adolf Weil go t th e h ole shot be cause Willi Bauer didn 't. Willi had th e lead co m ing in to th e fir st tum but had forg otten th e track would dry o u t since p ra cti ce, ca ugh t his rear wheel in a now-hard rut and highsided in f ro n t of th e pac k. He lost it in a big way - taking Heikki Mik k ola and a cou p le of others with him. A D utch rider crashe d in the second t um taking Gaston Rahier with him. Sylvain Geboers again retired after running a few laps after the crash and was r eportedly taken to the hospit al. Mikkola restarted in las t pl ace, lo o k ing very d isgusted. . Torlief Han sen a nd Brad Lackey went at it t oge ther (both su rvived the fir st tum ) fo r quite a while. Then, aft er the sh ock broke , Torlief go t back b y Brad (L ackey h ad passed him) and k ept passing everybody e lse in the last 20 m inutes un til he fm ally got V an Vel thoven on the very last lap and finished third . .. behind Weil and DeCoster . Tarao Suzu k i (Yam) ran in fourth for m os t of the m o ta and ended up d icin g with H arry Everts. Then Mi kkola, coming from dead last, went past them both just p lain o ld going faster and h e finished fifth. Suzuki's Yamaha broke on the last lap. Ake and Bra d raced with each other for maybe 20 minutes. Ake ended u p in front at the finish and Brad had an offici al eighth in the Betekorn 250 mota - with a broken shock. Adol f Weil and Roger DeCoster were d efinitely the class rid ers in a very tal ented 250 class. T orl ief Hansen re all y was tired of Adolf getting the h o le sh o t , so in th e 5 0 0 m ota, h e grabbed it. Torlief had the gr ee n Kaw fl y ing in fr ont fo r the firs t ten minutes. Bu t Mikkola didn't cras h at th e sta rt this time, dialed the Magura thr ottl e on th e 3 60 CR Husqvama all the way open an d p ass ed Torlief w ith abo ut 12 m inu t es go ne in the f inal m o t a of the two-day confrontatio n. H ei k ki the n proceede d to str e tch o ut a lead th a t va rie d between 15 and 22 seco nds . Behind h im we re Tarao Suzu ki, Willi Bauer, A dolf We il , Harry Everts, Ake J onsso n , Jaak Van Velthoven , DeC o ste r and m oving up from h is trad it io n ally •fI.I IDa ;II: IDa ..:::I g ;. g -e- r0'1 ...... o:tt ...... >:;l - ~ . U os. With one lap t o go, Br ad was closing fast on Belgian Raymond Heeren. get the hole shot Sunday after Sunday!" So is nearly everybody else - except Ad o lf. In se cond, infected hand, bruised an d bloody back and all , aboard the 370 Su z u ki was Roger DeC o st er . He h ad won the Easte r Troph y ove ral l for the past t hree years straight an d felt an o bli ga t io n to pu t in at lea st a cre di ta b le performan ce . Aft er three laps, RORer wa s cl os ing o n Adolf, the n p u lled off, hurting a lo t. There w as sti ll to m o rrow to b e run at Betekorn, only four kil om eters from Roger's h om e. Brad Lackey st ar ted second -from-las t in one of the worst recorded starts for a top t e n finisher in international motocross - to be surpassed only by Heikk i Mikkola. T he order of the 500 mota settled out wi th Adolf in front, Torlief gassing it hard in second (after Ro ger went out) on a 400 Kaw asa ki th a t he d idn ' t like b ut I w as d ro oling over ("Too m uch flyveel" he said.), a nd in third, Willi Bauer. Adolf built up a big lead through the single-track , tree-lined se ctions as Torlief started to fa de a b it . Mikkola had starte d workin g up f ro m abou t fifth, so on was second ahead o f Baue r , a nd p u shi n g Adolf. Adolf succumbed to t he r ocks, ru ts and Finnish pressure, finally dropping it an d le tting Hei kk i int o first. He was u p agai n imm ediat e ly in fi ft h p os ition and that's wh er e A dol f stayed to the end. Mean whil e, t he c ro wd 's a tte n tion was foc used on two th in gs: the Van Ve lthove n-j cnsson nose- to-tail duel for third and Brad Lackey 's advance fr om about 25th at the start . Ake cam e through the pack, pacing himself perfectly, ca ugh t the lanky Belgian and the two 390cc Yamahas raced within three feet of each other for 30 minutes. Brad just ke p t co ming with rare skill 3J)d de term inatio n. " 1 like tr acks that aren 't too easy. If th ey're eas y , everybody can go fast." He ke pt p as sing a n d passing, setting up and pi cking off one o r two ri d e rs per lap . T he course w as so te chnically demandin g and so much o f it single file tha t it w as incredible tha t Brad could p ass - b ut he d id . The 45 minut es ran o u t wi th Brad in se venth, no dispute thi s ti m e . H e h ad za p ped all the Be lg ians, Raymo nd Bov en (Ma n) , Raymond Heere n (Mai), an d Willy Van Lo o n (Ya m) in the last ten m inutes an d it was obvio us to everybody he w asn't going to get bum pe d back down. It was supposed to be early to bed b ut we tal ked t il' m id n igh t at Brad's house in Spa, both unwinding and anticipating. Tomorrow, Betekom. Monday at Betekom "Look! Did you see the m ono sh o ck Husky ? " exclai med Brad as we bounced .. 29 ... .

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