Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Cycle News 1976 08 24

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/126061

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 13 of 55

International dateline 500cc World Champ-ionship- MX •• Round eleven Roger and Gerrit duel; Lackey jumps to fifth (Top left ) "Bad Dad Brad" Lac:key hotd OlJlllld to a 3-4 day while Gerri t Wolsink (top right) wate:hed the sec:ond moto fro m the sidelines. (Bottom left) lac:key. Roger DeCoster and Jaak Van Veith oven share the laurels. (Bottom right) R.D. gets it on ! By David and Margery Maltai s NAMUR, BEL GIUM, AUGUST 1 In the past four years, every 500cc World Championship title . h as been a cliff hanger for a mas ter who has had to beat back to opposition right down to the last race. In 1973, it was Willi Bauer down to the last race in Holland; in '74, Roger DeCoster lost it to 14 th e Flyi ng finn, Heikki Mikkola. Last year's battle was also wi th Mikkola , bu t this time Roger edged out his best opponent in recen t years . , This season Mikkola chose to ride the 250cc class, and now Suzuki's number two is pushing Number One for number one. Gerrit Wolsink m ade in cry stal clear at the beginning of the season that he was "going for it" this year and with the crown' in sight , the results have backed up his quest. The 29 year-old doctor of den tistry and resident of Lockem, Ho llan d has come so close to being Ch ampion of the World that the feeling was sligh tly tense in Belgium . . After a short rider presentation in the warm i ng sun, the thirty-two riders started their bikes in the p arc fer me an d ro de t o the start line according to qualifying positions. It was a good clean start with Roger getting his RN370 Suzuki's front wheel a little ways up in the air before pushing the front end back down while ho lding it wide open for the right-hand long sweeper. Rog er was in the lead as they bailed into th e woods. As they came around for the first lap Roger was out in front and pouring it on with Gerrit trying to catch him. Noyce lost all chances of scoring points when his chain came off twice and he was forced to retire. Weil was all alone in second with Lackey and Bengt Aberg in fourth and fifth places. Bengt closed in on Brad , and Brad upped his blistering pace a notch to keep ahead of the for mer Worl d Champion. A terrific scrap for sixth was going on between Vic Eastwood on the Stadiu m sponsored CCM and Jaak Van Velthoven on his Robert Gielis-tuned KTM. Action got real hot at the en d of the long straigh t after the start sweeper as both Vic an d Jaak would co me bombing down wide open eac h p laying who's-got-the-hair-to-hold - it-open. Vic close d the door on J aak and never gave an inc h as he held the fou r-banger wide open and drifted it through the loam with Jaak backing off the throttle every time. The rac e hadn't gotten warmed-up when the DeCoster-Wolsink duel ended in the fifth lap . Gerrit's RN hit a sharp rock and the rear tire went flat. Roger got the sign that Gerrit was out but never slacked off even though Weil was over thirty seconds behind. Bengt was still pushing Brad but bad luck also struck him out when th e ch ain broke o n his Bultaco. Brad was now free to set this sights on Adolf and he gunned the Husqvama after the Maico in hot p ursui t. Weil was credited with the fastest lap with a 3.21.6, Roger followed with a 3.21.8, and Gerrit's best effort in his short appearance was timed at 322.5 . A sharp rock had broken a hole in Brad's clutch side cover. That was the only item JulIe had to tend to besides cleaning off the mud and giving the H usqvarna a thorough once over. Once the cover was replaced Brad asked Julie to check the fron t end. T hat downh ill with the asphaltat the bo ttom was really hard on th e bikes. 'T he fo rks co mpressed all th e way and then yo u'd hit the asp hal t an d I tho ugh t they we re going to snap off!" Brad exclaimed. When the gate dr op ped for the second race at five minu tes before five Roger took the holesh ot again and gu nned h is Suz uki into th e lea d. Whe n th ey ca me bl asting aro u nd the long sweeper, RD had th e ped al to the me tal , hi s bi ke laid and completely sideways as his rear ti re showered the spectators wi th gravel; he never b acked it off until the sh arp right hander with the deep ruts. Wolsink again foll owed him in second with J aak ge tting a good start and lyi ng in th ird as they came aro und for the first lap. Graham became a non-sco rer for the day when he crashed his Maico on an easy right h ander in the woods an d tore the th r o t tle cable out on the first lap . The battle he tween Roger an d Gerri t kept up its fast pace, an d at about the 30-minute mark Gerrit started knocking off a couple seconds a lap to move up on Roger. It was five laps from the finish .w hen they were way ahead of everyone else, Roger lost it. He was approaching a righ t hand turn that had built up a good berm using the line that had his Suzuki banking off the dirt to keep h is speed up. As he approached it this time he rea lized that someone ha d cras hed through the berm and it was no longer there for him to use at this speed. He knocked it off and in doing so the engine started to load up. He qui ckly pulled in the cl utch enough to rev the engi ne to clear it, but the cras hed rider h ad du g a h ole spinning his ti re to get goi ng again, an d as Roger slid wider through the corner he h it the h ole sideways with his rear wheel an d he feU over. The engine stalled and it took him about twenty seconds to get it started. In the mean time Gerrit shot p ast and when Roger finally got it going he m an aged to ni p back in ahead of J aak. Roger really hauled in those last few laps and managed to almost catch Gerrit as they crossed the finish line only nine seconds apart for first and second places. Bengt crashed into one of the metal fences, and while he was down S ch mi tz acci dently ra mmed him in the back with the Puch's footpeg. Bengt retired. Herbert got up and finished twelfth behind Vic Allan and Adolf Wei! who finished tenth. Vic Eastwood collected points again with his ninth p lace finish. In the fifteen lap race, the organizers screwed up and they had the riders doing one more lap. Roger was credited with fastest lap with a 3.17 flat and Gerr it was second with a 3 .17.1 On the victory rostrum it was Roger in first p lace with his 1-2 finish as Brad gladly stood in the second pl ace spot with his 3-4 res u lts. Third place m an was j aak Van Velthoven with a 6-3. Th is 'w as Roger 's seventh Belgian GP victory since 1969 and it has only been in terup ted o nce when Willi Bauer won bo th mo tos in 1973 aboard Maico. • Results Mot o O n e: 1 . Roge r DeCost er ; 2 . Ado lf Well : 3. B rad Lackey ; 4. Her bert Sc hm i t z : 5 . V ic E a st w ood ; 6. J aak V an ve tt noven r 7 . Raym ond Heeren ; 8 . Will i Ba uer ; 9. A r n ie LOd a l : 1 0 . J .e. Laq uave, Moto Two : 1. Gerrlt W olsink; 2. R oge r De C os t e r ; 3 . Jaak Van Velth ovan ; 4. B rad Lac key ; 5. J.e. La w ua ye : 6 . Raymond Heeren; 7. Arne Lodal ; 8. V ladim i r Khu dlakov i 9 . Vic Eastwood: 10. Adol f Well.

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's - Cycle News 1976 08 24