Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

E • ~ = g Britis h SOOcc MX GP ~ ·D ddy DeCoster does it at Dodingto a ~ The opening mom charges past the gate with Jot,,:, Banks getting .a good start aboard the four-stroke CCM. Banks put in i hard ride for fourth place, but the mota belonged to (right) fellow Britisher Graham Noyce, the fastast rising star in GP competition this year. By David Maltais - DODINGTON PARK, BRISTOL, ENGLAND,JULY 4 Back In Europe after disasterous results In North America, Roger DeCoster rode his heart out in the dangerous heat to win the British Grand Prix for the first time and, on the points from his third and second place finishes, took a step closer to his fifth 500cc Motocross World Championship crown. ' I n a season that got off to a hum iliating start back in April at Payerne, Switzerland when he scored no points in the opening round of this year's series, Roger has had to fight. all the way to hold on to his title. He has now inched closer to his goal but has the pressure taken its toll on the reigning World Champ. He has had to race under on circuits that he and all the riders have called the worst in years as far as organization of the meeting and preparation of the track are concerned. Roger and Laurie's first child was due the first week in June and Laurie had been in the United States since the first week in May getting ready for the birth. Roger raced in West Germany and still the baby hadn't been born, and he was telephoning California every day anxiously awaiting the news of their first child. On the weekend of the US GP the child still hadn't arrived and Ageless Adolf Weil won the second mota and mede it a sweep for Maico riden. Weil continues to maintain his third place point standing. 12 Roger's coneen tration definitely was not at Carlsbad that weekend when Gerrit ran away with both races . It wasn't until the following Saturday that Laurie and Roger became the parents of a Son that they named Nigel. Gerrit was "th e first to suffer the conseq uences when he slipped the clutch a little too early and rammed the gate with the Suzuki's front wheel. jumping up and getting caught in the between the braces. Gerrit pulled the bike back as the gate dropped. When he got two meters from the gate, and all of the riders were gone, he had -to wait to clear the engine before it piped back to life. Roger didn't fair so well either as a rider swerved in front of him and chopped him off. Dutchman Pierre Karsmakers bolted his fire engine red works Honda into the lead with British home fans' hottest young star Graham Noyce in second. Adolf Weil was in third as they came around the first time with the other top riders not faring so well. Ivan Miller's Bultaco was fourth followed by Raymond Herren's Maico, Herbert Schmitz, Bengt Aberg, Jaak van Velthovan, Vladimir Khudiakov and John Banks with Brad Lackey down in fourteenth and Roger and Gerrit in next to and dead last places. By lap three the picture changed drastically. Pierre was leading when the righ t rear Koni snapped off clean close to where the - eye is bolted to the swingarln . Out. Adolf Weil lost when the rear sprocket completely sheared off the hub. All the bolts were broken clean off. In the back of the pack Roger and Gerrit poured it on hard and sliced up through the choppy course to move up into eleventh and fifteenth positions. Graham Noyce now had the lead with a good twenty seconds on second man Schmitz. Roger and Gerrit kept on the gas to bring them up to fifth and seventh while Brad had steadly made his way up to nineth, It took Roger until lap eight to get into second place and Gerrit moved righ t along with him all the way as he pushed up into third. Roger was knocking off the seconds that separated he and Graham, but it looked like he was running out of time as he ran the Suzuki to the ~tops the whole way Roger DeCoster took the OI'erall honors for the day with a 3-2 placing. DeCostIIr will have to wait until August for his next try to clinch the 500cc crciwn.

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