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/126000
Laurentide 125cc Championnat Du Monde One of the many down hill areas in the St. Gabriel course that requ ired a techn ique all its own to traverse . Baborovsky &CZ hammer their way to victory ~ By Gary Van Voorhis ST. GABRIEL d e BRANDON. CANADA, JULY 13 Mother Nature and Lady Luck combined atthe Laurentide 125cc Championnat Du Monde MX GP to give the riders a bitch of a time. Wh en t he l it er all y 8 dus t h ad settled it was Ant onin . Bab orovsky, G ilbert D e R o o ver a n d Yosh itumi Sugi o o f R u ss ia , Belgium and Japan respectively ,who mounted the vict o rs podium. Canada's first sm all bore GP was a true global affair di minis h ed in stature only by the AMA's sch eduling of a 125 cc National in direct conflict that drew the en t ire Ame rica n co n ti ngen t of riders capable o f ch allenging and of beatin g, ' as did Marty Sm ith in last weeks American GP, th e best in the world. It was Baborovsky aboard th e cobby looking w orks CZ who took the overall h onors (based o n hi s total of 24 c h a mp io nsh ip p oints) and ga ve th e Cze choslovak ian Jawa-CZ factory t hei r first GP victory in their first year o f co mpe tition . The quiet Russian put toget her a pai r of solid second pl ace rides looking reasonably fast and ta king ad vantag e o f th e fortunes of war for his top p lacin g. In seco nd p lace , on a t rack w here hi s long legs wo rk ed o verti me as an ex tra pair o f shock absorbers , was the tall Belgian Zundapp wo rks rider Gilb ert De R oo ve r , Th e rn e re st ating of De Ro over's third an d first pla ce finish es does n o t tell the full story of th e lanky Belgia n's fine pair of rides. F orthesecond ~imein as~an~ w ee~s Yamah a works nder Yosh iturni Sugio turned in an outstanding per formance. His banzai ride fo r th e win in t he first moto was b acked up b y a h ard charging fift h in the second go aro un d to sco re 2 I ch am p io nsh ip points and give Sugio a go od jump upward in th e standings. 0 ther riders o f note wer e newl y c r o w n e d World Champion Gaston -Rah ie r doing double duty in third pl ace fo r both motos and American expatriate ride rs Buck Murphy an d J eff Wecker ( r i d i ng fo r Can -Am C an ada and Kawasaki Ca nada respectively) scoring GP points. The St. Gab riel track was a roller coaste r of hills -mostly st raigh t up and down an d, in one case , so d own that mo st rid ers slid sideways rather th an tackle it straight ahead -and o f turns-on camb er , off camber and a few th at were whicheve r yo u wanted. It was to ugh . It was fast. And it required a go od deal of co ncen t ratio n . But, unfortunat ely, this was all marred b y a cloud th at hung o ver the track. Th at cloud was dust, an d th ere was n o ef fec t ive way to co mb at th e situation . There had b een no rain fo r almost a mo n th in St. Gabriel and th e farme r's pas t ure in whi ch the t rack nes tles was parch me nt dry . Local riders had ridden the track enough re cen tly to ru in the sod cover and t his situation along with th e fact that n o chemical precautions could be taken to p repare t he track (cows would again b e gr azing there in a few days) co mb ined to cau se a lo t of headaches. At a meeting after Saturday's practi ce ses sion a list o f six demands on track prepar ation and co urse im p ro vemen t was presented by the riders . After a co urse in spection Sunday the riders were still less than fully satisfied, but th ey realized th at all t ha t co uld be don e was . Stran gely , De Roever's team manager did not like the co urse cha nges say ing that they made the track like an Ameri can co urse ." A bi-Iingual announcer (sin ce French is the official language of the province o f Quebec in which St. Gabriel is located) kept the riders and sp ect at o rs infor me d of what was happening although, as the day p rogr essed , it U ' tended to be come more Fre nc h than English that p l a y ed f ro m the lo ud sp ea kers. One lo cal residen t stated, "We speak English one d ay a year. . .wh en th e mo tocross co mes to St. Gab riel." The flowery mix o f lan gu ages loses its myster in col d, impersonnal t ype. Antonin Baborovsky, b y virtue of p o st ing th e fastest ti me in official qualificat ion carefully picked out his pl ace a t the starting gate as th e sli m fie ld of 27 ride rs se t the msel ves for the first internatio nal mo to . The Russia n's choice paid off as h e led the field down the ultra short st arting straight then b rake d and almo st simultaneously grabbed a h an d ful of throttle as the pack m ad e a fish hook 180 degree U tum to star t the fi rst lap. A greasy switchback (fro m too much watering) greeted Baborovsky , Rahier an d Sugio as the tri o were the first riders to charge through and drop down the first hill, acr oss a w ooden bridge and th en up a steep incline to disappear, with th e rest o f th e field, in' a .c1o ud o f dust. Rahier gained and then lost the lead so that the leading trio remain ed the sa me as they ended the first lap . Meanwhile, De Roover was slicing through slower riders on his way from last place to tent h in three laps after a first tum crash. Gaston Rahier (2) and Antonin Baborovsky (25) lead the field as the first mota gets under way. Note the dust already beginn ing to rise.