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/126063
Not so fortunate was Patrick Pons. The French rider was struck by another rider on the start line of the 350c': race, and his leg. still pinned after his crash in the Venezuelean F750 round earlier in the yera, was broken again , He was flown to Paris directly from Silverstone, for treatment. American Gary Nixon dropped out of Saturday's first leg w ith a broken crankshaft. With no chance of picking - up . ~ith~r poin~s or a top finishing posrnon s financial reward Nixon and his mechanic Erv Kanemo'to spectated at Sunday's race. Despite his not scoring at Silverstone, Nixon remains on top of the F750 ponint standings, seven points. ahead of injured Michel Rougerie and sixteen points ahead of Palomo and Newbold. . Bak er led the Saturday race from start to finish . But Grant stuck grimly to his Slip stream fo r a couple of lap s, and when the Kawasaki's rear chain snapped after picking up a p eddle , he ' was 24 seconds clear of Sh eene in third sp o t . Sheene had been under pre ssu re from Haslam and Pons until this time, the 16th l a p , but while Gran t toured silently into t he pits Haslam'sengine cut out, too, and he p ulled on to the grass. Ear ly pace maker Tom Herron was o ut of the ru nni ng, too, when a con-rod sna pped on his St eve Ellis entered 75 0 Yamaha , an d Paul Sm art h ad b een forced to stop with mechanical t ro ubl es o n his Yamaha. Sheene was ove r h alf a min ute behind Baker with Grant and Haslam o ut of the running, and when the 500cc world champion pulled in for fuel Pons and Finn Teuvo Lansivuori, his near est rivals, went ahead. . Barry had to be content with fourth spot for six laps, till Patrick and Teuvo stopped for their extra fuel, and from then on the result seemed inevitable. _ Baker was a lonely leader, and Sheene a comfortable second, while Pons, in tum, found things much q uieter when Lansivuori struck trouble and start ed to drop back. Up into fourth position moved Phil Read, but the former World Champion was lapped by the all conquering Baker in the closing stages. While Palomo after a slow start came through to fifth place . S unday was another fine warm day, and 40,000 were now lining the former airfield circuit to see the action . Overnight troubles had again made the radio and television highsp o ts, though, as trouble makers burned down several things, including a marquee and a police van. Baker's ankle injury did not lo o k as tho ugh it was troubling him. as he rushed off in the second leg, but it was Sh eene who wheclied into the lead chased by Baker and Grant. Steve took comman'd on the second lap , but a lap later at Stowe comer, half way round the circuit, Grant squeezed ahead to take the lead as the American suddenly slowed. !Iis front tire had started to creep , WIthout any security screws, and .\yas . .. ~ . slowly losing pressure. Steve toured into th e pits and . his mechanics swiftly pumped air into the tube , but though he went out again , he was forced to stop once again to change the wheel. The stop-start progress did not please his highly tuned two stroke engine, though; and once more the American was forced to pull out, this time with motor trouble. Grant made the most of his good fortune to escape . He and Baker had jointly set a record lap in the first leg at 1m 32.6s, 1.6 seconds quicker than the old record held by Barry Ditchburn. But there was no need thistime for Grant to hurry. His main worry was that lack of long race practice would lead to him being mentally tired before the end of the race but his fears proved groundless. With Grant . out on his own the question was who would be second? For a long while it looked as though Sheene would. grab runnerup berth, and take overall VICtOry in th e.J ohn Player G P for the third successive year, . But after 20 lap s the Suzuki motor struck trouble, when the crankshaft s~arte.d to tighten up , and a disa~polnted Sheene was forced to stop . Phd 'R ead and Teuvo Lansivuori had been early retirements. Ron Haslam had crashed h eavily , th ough without injury, so who could take advantage of the confused situation? The answer was Victor Palomo: He'd been battling with Grant's teammate Barry Ditchbum for third spot till the Kawasaki had been forced to ~top for more fuel. But when Victor himself came in for fuel, he drop ped ' from s~cond spot ~o. fifth behind Jack Findlay , the relgmng F750 champion and his greatest threat for overall victory, Dave Potter and Roger Nicholls. With Ditchbum now on his tail, Palomo started to climb back up through the field. Ditchbum 'was still closing on him, but Findlay was now seventh after his pit st op. Palomo, keeping a careful eye on ' th e te mperatur gauge that was reading 90 degrees, ' rather t oo ho t ' fo r comfort h~ld on to second spot ' to the flag, t~ clinch . ",!,nerup ~p ot, overall victory an d JO Int t hir d p l a c e in the champ ionship table. . Ironically, just o ne year b efore Vic tor had t o arg-ue lo ng an d hard to get a start at the big Sil vers tone m eet ing . Gra nt only just made it, though . On the slo wing d own la p, as he waved to th e fan,S, his rear tire wen t flat, and he was flicked over the handlebars at St o we comer taking sk in off his hands . . an d backs ide, Extremely embarrased, Mick returned by car to the start, but after the garlanding ceremony, a lap of honour radi~ interviews, an d hurried taping up . of hl~ lea~ers he was out on his spare machine In the 1000cc race coming fro m the back to beat Barry Sheene's 500 Suzuki 4 I Third home in the second leg of the Grand Prix was Ditchburn, b ut he was just two fifths of a second ahead of Jack Findlay, while Dave Potter was only 2.6 seconds behind Jack after 102 miles ' of racing. Potter, moving up to sixth in the F750 Championship table, wasn't too happy when he returned to his vehicle after the race. Someone had been into his c~avan and stolen his briefcase. T hieves , too, had stolen a briefcase from New Zealander 'St u Avant including travelers checks and cash worth $2,800! To add to his unhappy weekend, Stu, being looked after by his pal, former .wo rld champion Phil Read, crashed h eavily , but without injury in Saturday's supporting 500cc race. • Results Oyeral1 : 1 . Victor Palomo (Ya m 5 ~2 ; 2. Jack Findlay (Yam) 6 -4 j 3 . D av e Po tter (Va m) New bold" (S uz ) ' 10 ·8 ' 5 K Ballington (Yam) 12 -9: 6 . c nas Mortimer (Yam) 11·11: 7. "'r. Katayama (Vam) 7 ·19 ·8 Cliff Carr (Yam) 15> ·13: 9. E. ~errelra (Ya'm) 13·16: 10 ..C , Ofter (Yam) 16·15. dO:l-1: w ay In straight -up running _S-26 puts a narrow but effective tread pattern for light handling and min imum drag. Ord in ary t ires use the full tread -te contact w ith maximum drag and heavy steering_ - .r:» In turns or berms S-26 puts more rubber to the ground for maxi m um bite and traction . S-28 Ordinary t ires run ou t of tread wheA you need it the most. 425x18 475 x18 -9~ongratulations THE FINEST COMPLETE LINE OF OFF-ROAD RACING MACHINERY EVER OFFERED . 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