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/125878
- rn =-= 5lGI ... 5lGI g Falta sure was screwed ;... g -::t' - I' Q) -::t' C\I ... u ..c E u ....., 0. u r CF:J On the track. Falta put in the rides of a champion - never yielding. but never cheating. either. By John Huetter If "war IS far too important a matter to be left to the gen er als" as an American statesman said, then the 1974 Grand Prix season clearly showed that, in kind, the World Motocross Championship is far too important a matter to be left to the international juries that 36 arbitrate , confirm, and eventually make official the happenings and resul ts of each World Championship event. Young Czech, Jaroslav Falla, was boldly cheated of his first 250cc World Championship a few weeks ago in one of the most dramatic examples of the political manipulation that is almost as important in det ermining final standings at a Grand Prix as the individual performances of the riders. It usually boils down to which country has the most clout or the jury representatives with the most seniority in the F.I.M. (which 'sanctio ns an d controls all motorcycling World Championships). The pattern is well-established an d last year it cost the two Americans, J im Pomeroy and Brad Lackey, valuable top 10 positions and the consequent GP points . Their official training ti mes for start position arc lost or somehow o nly th e sl owest times get re corded o r, in some cases, Jim was no t told about qualifying or. a change in the rules at all. Apparently, the sam e kind of political prej udice can be must ered against the Czechs who, though long-time F.I.M. members, fall under the sha dow of the U.S.S.R. and other po werful F.I.M. members, such as Belgium, who don't wish to incur any enemies. But what happened to Falta in the last 250 Grand Prix in Switzerland which in turn determined thi s year's World Champion was. intolerable. To sum marize briefly the facts, as rep or ted in Cycle News: In th e first moto as Fal ta : was lapping the Russian Moisseiev, his main contender for the championship, the Soviet KTM rider pulled o ut and knocked the Czech down. Falta remounted and still managed to finish third in the moto, behind Harry Everts and 1973 champ lIakan Andersson, badly plagued with injuries all season. Moisseiev retired in that moto gaining no points. Falta could still win the World Championship if he won the second moto and he set out to do just that. By lap eight, Falta was already lapping the back of the pack. One of those backmarkers was the young Russian , Viktor Popenko, Now .Po pen ko is on e of the Russians who truly des erves his berserko crash-and-burn reputation. He has also acted as to rp ed o fo r his Soviet tea mma te s on previous occasions. He is also officially a 50 0cc class ride r an d had no reason to be ridi ng a 25 0 CZ in th is Gran d Prix for poin ts (whic h he co uldn't cam) or national p restige (the Swiss arc stud iously neutral if pro-Western) except to act as a h it man for Moisseiev. This h e di d on lap eight , -nai ling Fal ta in to the course-marking ropes and opening up a bloody gash in Jaroslav's back with his footpeg. But Falta ' again remounted and, riding as only he can, came back to win the moto with a five second lead at the finish over Harry Everts. Champagne started to flow in the CZ pits within a few minutes of the end. Before the mota was over, Moisseiev had retired again .fo llowed shortly by Popenko who unconvincingly complained of engine trouble. Neither Russian was in a scoring positi o n in either rnoto, But at t he jury meeting, the KTM contingent acting thro ugh the Austrian jury mem ber rather than the Russian in a tech nique rem iniscen t of United Nations Assemb ly p ow er plays , protested that :J aroslav Fal ta had jumped th e ga te in t he second moto . There was , how ever, no official flagm an at th e gate to cal l a restart of the moto as is req ui red by F.I.M. rules or to give official co nfirmation of th e fact that Falta jum pe d th e ga te . No w a few months ear lier, in the West German 500 GP , the exact same thi ng had happen ed. Adolf Weil jumped th e gate in "th e seco nd moto, Rog er DeCoster prot ested th e ga te jump to the F.I.M. jury b ut, since the Germans had also not stationed a flagman to call a restar t according to F.I.M. regul at ion s, the j ury did nothing, using the lack o f a flagman as the excuse to give Adolf the overall win ahead of Gerrit Wolsink. The fact that there was an Austrian rep o n the jury in itself looks very Moisseiev and his Russian cohorts gave pol it ics a higher impo rta nce than the racing itself. Jaroslav Falta is always quick to flash his boy ish grin off the track. contrived sin ce this GP was one of the very few, possibly the only Grand Prix, which had Austrian riders co mpeting o utside of Austria in the 25 0 clas s. Only by having nationa l r ide rs in competition. however, is a country entitled to have a rep resenta tive on the official F.I. M. j u ry . K TM is manufactured in Austria an d it appears that the Russians and the KTM factory were trying to stack the jury to have as man y favorab le vo tes o n thei r side if this kind of even t ca me about. Their plan worked. Despi te the fac t that th e situation exa ctl y par alleled th e one in Germ any in wh ich no pe nalty had been levied on Ad ol f Weil for j umpi ng th e gate, and despite th e fac t that th er e were no spe cific p enal ties no ted in the F.I .M. r u l e s o r t he Sw iss federat ion's supple me ntary regul ati ons for this GP, J ar oslav Falta was voted a fiO-sec ond pen alt y for jumping the gat e. Th is dropped him to eighth in the second moto a nd lost him the World Champion sh ip. It is incongruo us even th a t a fiO-second penalty was voted. If Falta was to be penali zed at all, he should have been penalized one lap, as is standard practice. The fiO'second penalty sounds like a co mpromise that both the Russians and the Austrian KT M factory could agree to . knowing that it meant Moisseiev had the World Championship through this move. It would be very interesting to know how each jury member voted on this matt er but unless one who served on the jury will tell, whi ch is unlikely, the general public never will know. What is clear is the U.S.S. R. carries a lot of clout in F.I.I\1. proceedings. The pattern of conspiracy which emerges as a design to el imi nate Jaroslav Fal t a and CZ from the World Championship makes an ugly picture of pre-planned mayhem and political finagling. A kno wn torpedo, Popen ko, switches from his listed 500cc class to ride this one 250 GP. then retires after doing a job o n the young Czech . Moisseiev, who did n ' t need any mo re points 10 win the Wo rld Ch ampion ship if Falla didn't win a rnoto, retires in bo th mo tos after a desultory d isplay of riding. The Aust rian KTM fac tory en ters some of thei r fac tory riders in a non-Aus trian 250 G P fo r the firs t t ime all year so they'll have a jury member who is. in all likelihood, also an employee of the KTM factory. (This is no t so unusual . Roland Arrehn, Swedish re p in 5 00cc m o tocross j uries, is also co mpetition director for Husq varna. It's