Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Lackey and 'Bepe' Cavallero and Brad La ckey split international moto wins 00 ,......, Kring tie for first By Lori Hagman By Lori Hagman MAGGIORA,ITALY, MAY 23 FRANGHY, FRANCE,l\IA Y 19 After driving through the Ital ian mountains for nearly five hours, we were finally pointed in the right direction - towards Maggiora. Since it wasn't on the map, and every town sounds the same, we were having a few difficulties finding the village and the track itself. Brad Lackey won his first moto in international motocross this year and was hoping for his first Overall win. But, he settled for second beh ind Husky teammate Arne Kring after Arne beat Brad in th e third moto. Franghy seemed to be one of T he town itself was n o t very big, but t he race t rack was. It wa s d efinitely one of the tough courses tha t we've seen with many steep up hills and downhills. And a wi de o pe n s ixth gea r straightaway , with dust you wouldn't believe. The way the pits were situated, they got the worst of the du st. It was much easier to breathe' while watching the race not sitting in the,pits. Th e local Italian ace, Alberto Angiolini, had fast time on the course the morning of the race . Later we heard that he always seems to be the fastest, then manages to crash during the race and break something. "Bepe" Cavallero and Brad Lackey were next fastest, with Brad a fraction of a second ahead, but practice doesn't count. Only the race itsel f. Russian V iktor Popenko (CZ) and Italian Giuseppe Cavallero (Ma il had to fin ish in this orde r fo r Brad t o w in ·O ve rall. Cavallero got pa st , Popenko crashed, and Brad t o o k second Overall. Moto 1 Cavallero , who seem ed to be one of the favorites 'at Maggiora as former Italian 500 Champ, grabbed the lead after th e gate dropped and he Id it from hole shot to finish. He was never pressured much. Paolo Piron, Team Husqvam a's Italian rider, gave him a little trouble toward the end, but nothing too threatening. Brad Lackey had a fair start back, in ninth place . Jean.Paul Mingels (Bul) was in third behind Piron at the start but his brake pedal broke off halfway through the race and he had to p ull in. Brad was having a few difficulties trying to work his way up b ut, after crashing three times and getting a Russian (Popenko) rock up his nose (losing a great deal of blood), he finished third after the 45 minutes were up. Viktor Popenko finished behind him in fourth place. ' Mot o 1 Brad lea di ng t he second m o t o of an Itali a n in t ernatio nal. Cava lle ro was the fav orite to w in sinc e he is former Italia n 500 Cha m p a nd the race was in Ital y. He d id n ' t disa ppoint. Moto 2 After the st ar t in g gate dropped for the second moto, it was Viktor Popenko (CZ) who made the first turn first. Alberto Angiolini (CZ) was in second with Brad Lackey getting a better than usual start: th ird. Afte r one lap , Brad passed Angiolini to take over se cond, only to be passed back by the I talian on the next lap . Brad remembered wh at he had heard about this rider, so he took i t easy and waited for him to crash - which occurred the following lap . Now Brad was in second wi th Popenko not too far in the lead. Cavallero got a so-so start but had worked his way up to sixth position . Once again, Brad was hoping for an Overall win, if he only beat Cavallero by one .p ositi on, Brad passed Popenko and was pulling a good lead. It looked like he could do it this time if only Popenko could hold second place and not let Cavallero by. But Popenko crashed halfway through the race and cracked his chin a good one so he pulled out. Brad won the second heat with Cavallero, second and Paolo Piron, third. The rain seemed to be waiting for the race to finish before it spilled down . The sky wasn't looking too promising as we rushed back to the hotel for a hot shower before going to be d. We had a long drive ahead of us the next morning, and were looking forwad to getting clean fr om th e d us t from the d ay . the nicer places to be in E urope, o nly 30 min ut es drive from Lake 'Gen eva , Switzerla nd. Everyone en joyed the sunshine and the setting wh ile preparing for the nex t day's race. The track was way out in the middle o f farm country. The smell of fresh man ure seemed to be everywhere. There were no signs telling you how to get to the track and we were wondering how people even knew there was a race way back in those hills. We were later informed that this race was run only once a year and that people everywhere knew about it. By noon on Sunday we were believers. The crowd was huge and enthusiastic! When it cam e time for the first moto to start, you had to be quick because starting posi tions were "first come, first served." Whenever a rider heard a bike starting up to go to the line, the y would hurry and gas it over there only to find out that it was time for the Juniors to rac e, so it was back to the pits and wait! After three re starts - be cause the French b oys co ul d n ' t seem to get 0 11 the lin e, everything finall y got underway with Arne Lindfors getting the ho le shot. Brad was in second place behind Lindfors a nd passed him after about four laps. Arne Kring was in fou rth af te r the start be hind Ludwig Reinbold (Mai) from Germany, but it only' took "Cupie" one lap before he was past and into third position. The most spectacular spot on the whole co ur se was a fifth gear jump right before the straightaway where Brad said they were ea sily j um p ing 8 5 feet . Only Kring, Lindfors and Brad were jumping that far. Everyone else se em ed to be shutting off but the crow d was going c razy! It was imp o ssib le t o ge t anywhere near t he jump ; the people were p ack ed ar ound lik e sard in es. Nothing much chan ged throughout the 12-lap rnoto, Brad kept the lead for the remainder of th e race with Lindfors se c ond and Kring third. Ludwig Reinbol d finished fourt h . Moto 2 Brad Lack ey and Swedish mecha nic, Perra , mode l t he current vogue in Euro·MX headgea r. Lindfors once agai n got the hole shot with Kring p us h in g him hard from the rear. Brad was third and Rudi Hauff fourth . Kring passed Lindfors after fo ur laps over the jump and pulled a pretty fair lead. Arne Lindfors remained second and Brad third for most o f the race until Lindfors ' c ha in came off. Lindfors managed to replace the chain quick enough t o only lose o ne position to Brad Lackey a nd got ba ck to some serious riding. Kring easily won the second mot a with no pressure from anyone. Brad finished second and Lindfors, third. Rudi Hauff kept fourth place throughout the en tire race. Moto 3 Wouldn't yo u know it? The hot water had been , shut off that day. We couldn't get an exact answer why so we settled for co ld showers and hoped things would be better at the Italian G~d~~ • Results MOTO 1 : 1 . Gulseppe Cavallero. 2. Paolo Pir o n . 3 . Brad u ckey. 4. Viktor PopenkO. S. Gottardo Ferr al. 6 . Clau de Jabe . .7 . Vladim ir Khou diakov. 8 . Roberto Beano . 9 . A l b Mercandelli. 10. To ny Stifter . MOTO 2 : 1. Brad Lacxev. 2 . Guise p pe Cavallero. 3. Paolo Piron . 4. Vladimir Khoudiakov. S . Gottardo Ferrari. 6 . Anatoly Botchkov. 7. Pierre Franchin. 8 . Tony Stifter. 9 . Jean -Paul Mingels. 10. Mario Vigna-Suria . OVERALL : 1. Giuseppe Cavallero (Mal) uar, 2 . Brad Lackey ( Hus) USA . 3 . Paolo Piron (Hus) ttat . 4 . Gottardo Ferrari (CZ) Ital. 5. Vladimir Khoudiakov (CZ) USSA . 6. Anatoly Botchkov (CZ) USSR. 7 . Tony Stifter (CZ) Swit, 8. A lb Merundelli (CZ ) Ital. 9. Pa o l o Q uaglian o. 1 0 . Sabat o O'Auria. Lindfors proved this day that Adolf Weil isn't the only Maico rider that gets hole shots every time. Once again, he was in fron t wi th Brad behind and "Cupie" in th ird . This rnoto was the determining one for Brad. All he, had to do was place in front of "Cupie " to win the race Overall. From the way the start looked, he was going to do it. But the pressure was o n. As he wen t over one of the jumps he got a little sideways,

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