Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• • • World Championship Finnish Grand Prix: . - No rwegian Kje ll So lbe rg (Ya m) wh o proved t hat his previous flashes of talen t were no t flukes. Behind him came another name to remember Tapio Virtanen, Dodds improved on his own lap re cord during thi s battle, but both Kneubuhler and Braun went quicker still with the German setting a new be st ever c irc u it record at two m - utes 23.i seco nds, just tw o lap s fro m t.. e finish as he battled through to t hird spot. T here is a chance Pons co uld still win the 35 0 c ro w n but injured Ago stini "ill be pl eased to he ar th at the French yo u ngs ter collec te d o n ly o ne point for his tenth pl ace a t lrnatra , I Read and MV keep 500 world title By Chris Carter L\IATRA, FINLAND, JULY 27 Phil Read retained his 500cc road racing world title in convincing style today, leading from start to finish and followed home by MV Agusta tcammatc Gianfranco Bone ra. Gearbox tro ub le slowed the British star over the last fcw laps, but even thoug h second place Teuvo Lansivouri (Yam), wa s able to narrow the gap to just under two seco nd s , the resul t was never in serious doubt. Lansivo uri needed to win both this round , and the Cze ch Grand Prix in Bm o at the end of August to ta ke the crown awa y from Ph il, but a fall o n the first lap of the 350 race (whe n hi s front tire punctured) left him battered an d bruised. At first it was thought he ""\Yould not be able t o start in the big race, but Teuvo is a hard m an . a nd when the flag feU he was there pushing the. Yamaha four into life. Read made a perfect getaway with Lansivouri on his tail , but as Phil pulled away. Lansivouri was overhauled by Bonera . The battle between the Yamaha rider and t he Italian newcomer was really cut throat. As the pair passed and re -passed there were several heart-stopping moments. Bonera, once ahead pulled way to join Ph il, who eased off the pace to avoid fall ing off or b lowing up the e ngine . Lansivouri got the bit between his teeth over the las t four laps of the 20 lap battle. and rapidly whittled dow n the MV t ea msta r 's lead to almost nothing. On the last but one lap the Finn shattered t he circuit lap r eco rd at two minutes I 7.3 seco nds after both Read and Bonera had improved on Giacomo Ago stini's old record of two minu tes 20.9 seconds . There was a moment of panic for Read at t he last corner when the four stroke coasted a round in neutral. a nd Phil had to kick hard on the gear lever to find a gear, any gea r, to take the flag . The fears that the meeting migh t hit -.. r. ~~ .-. evening's . dr y untimed practi ce , a nd Saturda y's t imed an d showe ry t raining found the co m ers still s lip pery. Fren chman Olivier Chevallier had a luc ky escape whe n he cr ashed hi s water co o led 250 Yam aha o n Friday evening a t o ver 14 5 miles an hour a f te r braki ng too hard. lIi s bi ke landed in the bran ches of a tree - ap ar t from a cr ac ked bone in his arm he was unh UTt. It put him out of t he meetin!;: though. like G iacomo Agostini (Ya m ) a nd Barry Sheene (Suz), bo th at home mendin g after their accident at A ndersto rp. Swed en last week. Agostini's absence gave t he 350 class a wide open loo k. and practice tim es showed no rea l clearcut leade r. 350 Race : Dodds wins by 25 seconds, Lansivouri and Pons crash, and Ago mends at home With Lansivouri landi ng o n h is ea r at the first co rn e r o f the 350 ra ce . it left French star Patric k Po ns ( Ya m) o u t o n his o wn at th e en d o f the lap. St ill lacking vital experie nce, Pons crashed at the Rail way crossing bend o n th e fo ur t h lap after exte nding h is lead over Aust rali an J ohn Dodds (Yam) to five secon ds . While . Pons remounted a t th e very re ar o f the p ac k Dodds to ok co m m a nd . Behind him a four way battle between Finn T apio Virtanen ( Yam) , Swi ss rider Werner Gieger (Ya m) . Norwegi an Kjell Solberg (Ya m) and Frenchrna n Mich el Rougerie " (H-D) kept the c ro wd entert ained, Australia's John Dodds was the fastest 350 r ider. Lansivuori and Pons both crashed . more troub le from militant rider s demanding safe courses evaporated when ea rly arrivals at th e meeting took a loo k at th e course alterations. Efforts had been made to make it sa fe r , including a resurfacing of nearly one third o f the 3.7 5 mile track. The money fo r this, about one million Finn m ar ks (that's abo ut $50,000) came from the Imatra townspeople 's taxes ! IIow is that fo r enthusiasm in t he 35,000 populace ? But thoug h the track was better. there were still too many trees for comfort and competitors in both Friday Four Finns fight for finish positions, 250 round; Jussi Rantanen, Tapio Virtanen, Matti Salonen, and Eero Hyvarinen. Almost as soon as ~o~g.erie lost second place when an igmuon wire broke, Bruno Kneubuhle r ( Ya m ), who had to brake hard to avoid hitting the fallen Lansivouri on the opening la p , battled through from 16th p lace in to the first six group. Rougerie spotted the fault on the works Harley-Davidson a nd rest a rt ed down II th place, losing almost two minu tes in th e process. Shaking h is fis t in a nger he sped in pursui t of championship points. but though he was ab le to p ull hack to eighth place it was scant rewards for his earli er im p ressive effort. Kneubuhler finally took second place, a lmost 25 sec o n ds behind Dodds, and five seconds ahead o f West German Dieter Braun (Ya m ) whose progress through the pa ck was , to say the least, ele ctrifying. Fourth was alm ost unknown 250 Race: Harley sweeps and Pons falls off again Un fo r t una relv, Pons d id not seem to learn his less on "from t he Finnish track, be cause in th e 2 50 " race following Imo st immediately he fell o ff at exactly the same sp o t! This time he was in second place be hind Italian Walter Villa (H-D). but this time Pons was not a ble to re -start. Villa. for o nce. made a good start, but was soon caught by Harley teammate, Mic he l Rougerie and his biggest threat to ' the world title. and Y am aha m an K at ayama . But Katayam a 's hope slumped after he took a trip up a slip road . That did not make th e coas t clear fo r Villa. Rougerie, who claims that he always has an inferior ma chine to Vill a, had no in tentions o f riding to any sort of team ord ers. a nd the batt Ie be t we e n the pair saw no quarter asked . o r given. First place went to Villa. just barely. He c ross ed th e lin e on ly three-fifths of a second a head o f Rouger ie to give the Har le y-D avidson factory a moral e bo ost in g 1-2. Ka tayama 's unsch edu led excursion seemed t o unnerve him a lit tle and h e dr opped t o fifth place af te r Diet~! Braun ( Ya m) a nd Kent Andersson (Ya m) both pas sed him. • ..... '" ::: 00 ::: < .. Resu lts 500 cc : 1. Ph i l Read (MV -Agu). , . 2 G ianf r anco Bonera (MV -Agu). 3 . Teuvo Lansivouri (Yam) . 4. Jack Findlay (SUZ) . 5 . Perrtt! Korhonen (Yam) . 6. John Wilhams (Yam). 7. Christian Leon (Kaw). 8 . Werner Gieger (Yam) . 9 . Phili p pe Coulon (Yam) . 10 . Karl A uer (Yam). 1 1. Tom Herron (Kaw) . 1 2. Bo Granath (HuS) . 13. Jonny Be nqtsso n (Kaw) . 14. Neil Tu xwortn (Kaw). 15 . Pen tt i Lehteta (Kaw). 350cc : 1. J o h n Dodds (Yam) . 2 . Bruno Kneubuhler (Yam ) . 3. Dieter Braun (Yam) . 4 . Kiell SOhlberg (Yam). 5 . Tapio Virtanen (Yam) . 6 . Werner Gieger (Yam) . 7. Karl Auer (Yam). 8. M ichel Rouge rle "( H ·D ) . 9 . Jo hn Williams (Yam) . 10. Pat r i ck Pons (Yam) . II. Kur t Ivan C ar lsso n ( Y a m ). 12 . ~ene G u i l i (Yam) . 13 . Ulr i c h G ra f ( Y a m ) . 14 . In gem a r Larsson ( Ya m ) . 15 . Bill H en d erso n (Yam) . 2 5 0cc : 1. Walter Vi lla (H-D) . 2 . Miche l Ro ugerie (H-D) . 3. Dieter B raun (Vam). 4. Kent Andersso n (Yam) . 5. Tak azumi Katayama (Yam) . 6 . Jo hn Dodd s (Yam) . 1 . M att i Sa lonen (Yam) . 8 . Bru n o Kneubuh ler (Y am) . 9 . 'ra oto Virtanen (Yam) . 10. Leif G ust afss o n (Yam) . 11. Cha rlie Williams (Y am) . 12 . Mick Grant (Yam) . 1 3 . Eero H y va r l ne n (Yam). 14 . Kjell SOhlberg (Yam) . 15. H ar a ld Bartol (Yam) . ' 50cc: 1. Julien Van Zeebroeck (Kre) . 2 . Rudolf Kunz (K re) . 3. U lrich Graf (Kre).4 . Gerhard Thurow (Kre) . 5 . Stefan Dorfllnger (Kre) . 6. Theo Timmer (Jam) . 7 . Jan Huber t s (Kre) . 8 . Haral d Bartol (Kre) . 9 . Robert Laver (Kre) . 10. Leif Rosell (Jam) . 11. Pentt i Salonen (T- Puc) . 1 2 . Jan-Inge Pers son (Kre). 13 . Pierre Metzger ( D er ) . 14. Kenneth actesson (Kre) . 15 . .Jaakko Koskinen (T-Puc) . _With Agostin i inj u red in Sweden , Phi l Read had no problem wi nning in Finland to become the 500 World Champion aga in . ..... 27

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