Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

, International dateline Ago, Ceco 10 dowD 10 he wire -D iDlaDd Hard-luck Phillipe Cou lon - but he does have style. Ago airebome at 150 mph on his 350. Now you know why the monoshock helps. By Chris Carter IMATRA, FINLAND,J ULY 27 Giacom o Agostini took a big step towards regaining the 500cc world title fr om Phil Read, but lost more ground in his bid to retain the 350cc championship. Agostini won the 21 lap 500cc race when Phil Read b ro ke down, Gianfranco Bonera crashe d an d Barry Sheene stop pe d with car bure tion problems, to m ake up for h is own disappointment at th e Swe dish GP seven days earlier whe n a front tire puncture put him out of the race. Even if Ph il Read wins th e re mai ning roun d at the Czech Grand Prix at Bmo at th e end of August, Ago needs onl y to futish in th e first five to take th e ti tle. Johnny Ce c o t t o, the br illiant 19-year-old Venuzuelan stormed to a superb victory in th e 3 50cc race, beating Agos tini by a comfortable 10 seconds margin, after e asin g off the pace on the final two laps. Ago must win the remaining two rounds, and Cecotto must not finish in the first three in any of them for Ago to salvage this title. But Cecotto tasted defeat at Imatra, too. Frenchman Michel Rougerie won the 250cc race by five seconds, catch ing and passing Johnny after a poor start. Fourth winner of the record br eaking, action packed day was Spaniard Angel Nieto who made a poor start in the 50cc race, but caught race leader Eugenio Lazzarini, an d p assed h im on th e last lap with a sensational lap rec ord 14 sec on ds ,better than th e old one! The 20 lap 350cc race was a Johnny Ceco t to be nefit. The tee nager took the lead fro m th e start of th e race, and never looked like losin g it. Agostini tried hard to catch th e y oungster, b ut in vain , an d th e Italian had a fight on his hands even to fi ish runner up . n fren chman Patric k Pons ease d his way th ro ugh to sec on d pl ace two th ir ds through th e race, bu t Ago came bac k strongly to be at off thi s chal lenge . Th e heat of th e day, and th e racin g m ade for many retirements, Chas Mortim er and two young Finns Pek ka Nurmi and Ec:ro Hyvarinen wen I ou t with clu tch trouble, but the biggest blow for the home fans was the fact th at Tapio Virtanen dropped out with br ak e troubles, and Penti Korhonen stop ped with a broken cy lin der he ad gaske t. The 350cc ra ce had been a littl e processional, but the 250cc battle th at followed mad e up for th at . There was no suggestion that Rougerie an d Villa were not serious now. But unlucky Walter crashed heavily on the opening lap while battling for the lead and was ta ken to the hospital. Th at left Roug eri e with th e task o f ca tch ing and beating Cc:cotto, an d th e Frenchman accepted th e j ob. He caught Cecotto, passed him, and th en opened a five sec on ds lead that he m aintaine d till th e flag. It was th e first tim e since J ean Aureal wo n the 125cc race a t the 1969 French GP, th ai a French rider has won a world champ ions hip r ace. But sad to say th ere was no repeat of the Andersto rp form for Finn Ta pio Virtanen and th e MZ. The co mbination hel d third place fo r a wh ile after rocketing th ro ug h the pack, bu t the n an ign ition faul t set in, and the Finn was forced finally to pull out. The battle fo r th e lead between Rou geri e and Cc:cott o was go od, but the real intere st as far as dici ng went was th e scrap for seventh, eighth, n in th and tenth places. The group was m ade up 0 f Swede Leif Gustafsson, Englishman J ohn Williams , Scotsm an Alex Ge orge an d Aus trian Har old Bartol, Dodds caught an d passed th em all, th en Gu st afsson suffered a simi la r Iate to Coulo n in the previous race. IIis gear lever bro ke o ff. Bartol, William s and George all scr apped it ou t 10 fini sh cl ose to gether in th at orde r. Still, the re al interest o f the day was th e 500cc battle. Th e MV p air o f Fran co Bonera and Phil Read had been quickes t in practice. It was Read wh o led the p ack hal fway round th e fir st lap, with p rivateer J ohn Williams in sec ond pl ace , Ago th ird and Bonera fourth. Read staye d in Iron t till mi d-way through the 21-lap race. Th en th e usu ally reliable MV "simply stopped" wi th magneto trouble and that reduced th e battle from a three man scrap to two. Now Bonera an d Ago stini were to fight it out. But not fo r lon g. Franco cr ashe d trying to stay ah ead and Ago was safe in front m ore th an 4 5 secon ds ahead of Lansivuori. Barry Sheen e was ou t, too. His Suzu ki was wrongly carbureted , and h e kept oilin g spark pl ugs. Lans ivuori fin ishe d alm ost a m inu te be hin d Ago, with J ack Fin dlay ni pping past Phillipe Cou lon on th e run-in from the last comer. Bu t th at was no t th e on ly bad news for Coulon. He was told by o th er competito rs that they th ough t he was on his 350, instead of a 351 or 352, and if he did n ot wi th draw fro m th e race, they wo uld p rotest. Coulon with dre w his entry, letting Chas Mortimer, who had bee n raci ng with crac ked ribs, a legacy o f his Swedish IT p ractice crash, in to fourth . Steve Ellis, wh o had co me very close to crashing on an oil slic k earlier in th e race, to o k fifth. • Results SOOcc : 1. G iaco m o A go stin i (Yam ). 2 . T eu vo Lan sivuor i (Su z). 3. Jack Fin d lay (Vam ). 4. cnas Mort imer (Ya m). 5. Stev e E ll is (Yam ). 6 . Horst Lah1eld (Kon). 7 . Thierry Van D er Ve ke n (Yam). 8. Johnny Bengts son (Yam I . 9. Seppo Kangasnleml (Vam) . 350cc: 1. Johnny Cecotto (Vam). 2. G i acomo Agostin i (Vam). 3. Patrick Pons (Vam) . 4. Br u n o K neubuhle r (Vam) . 5. D ieter Bruan ( V am ). 6. Karl Auer ( Yamj . 7. Vi ctor Palomo (Yam ). 8. B oe t Van Culmen (Vam) . 9 . Alex . George (Vam). 10. John Dodds (Vam ). 25 0 ce : 1. Mich e l R ouge r ie (H·D). 2. J o h n n y Cecotto ( Va m ). 3 . Othe ll o Busche r ln i (Va m ). 4 . Pat r ick Po n s (Yam). 5 . J ohn D odds ( V am). 6 . Harald Ba rtol (Yam) . 7 . John W il liams (Yam). 8 . A lex. G eo r ge (Yam) . 9. Tom He rron (Vam). 1 0. Rol f Minho ff (Vam) . SOcc : 1. Angel N ieto (Kre). 2 . Eugen io Lazzar in i (Pia). 3. Rudolf Kunz ( Kre). 4. N ice Palane (Kre) . 5. Hans Hummel (Kre). 6 . Henk Van Kessei (Kre). 11

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