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/126069
en ...... I- ClJ .c o ..... u o (Above and below) Nixon on the EurlH:irc uit with various illustrious company. He's e~er one point up or two points down on the World F750 Championship; the Venezuela question ................................." ". . ............... •..•...............................................•..•...• ~ A. , .•••..••....•...........•••....•••.•....•••.....••••••••...•.•••.....•....•.. F-750 "It' s not over y~t ... " G'ary Nixon HOCKENHEIM, WEST GERMANY, " SEPT. 26 "It's not over yet," said a less than happy Gary Nixon, "I'll keep my champagne on ice un til they sort aut the Venezuelan roun d at the O ct~ber FIM meeting. Un til then it's still anybody's crown." The fin al round of th e FIl\I Formula 750 championships had produced no clea r cu t cha m p io n since the outcome of an appeal of th e to p fi n i shin g p os ition s in t h e March V en e zuel an r ou n d is pe n di ng. Confusion . fo r th at is exactl y wh at it is. su rr oun ds th e c o u t co rn e , I f t he ch am pion sh ip is resolved on the b asis o f haIf a rider's top scores pl u s o ne th en Victor Pal omo, the West German v ictor , ta llies tw o points m ore than Ga ry Nixon (6 1·59) . Ho wever. should the F II\! rule th at Nix o n wa s th e v icto r o f the Ven ezuelan round t he n h e wo u l d t ak e th e cham p io nsh ip (62·6 I) by the slim margin of on e point! No matt er how th e sit uat io n is res o lved it will lea ve a bitter taste. Britisher John Ncwhold entered into th e pi cture when the cir cuit moved to Hockenheim , fo r the 2 3 ye ar old Su zuki GB teamster had a mathematical chance to u nseat both Nixon and Palomo . He failed in h is h id, but wa s far fro m disgraced. John won the first 100 mi le leg from Swiss . Phillipe Coulon, fellow Britisher Mick Grant an d Sp ani ard Victor Pa lo mo in a blanket finish t hat saw th e quartet separated b y just six -tenths of a second after a n hour o f m cing. Newbold was leading th e second leg by a good margin after the fuel stops. but was brought down by bad luck when a rider on a slower ma chine cr as hed in front o'f him leaving John no escape. He was quickly up and unhurt, but his S u z u k i n eeded a tten tio n in clu ding th e repair of a st uc k t hrottle. The ti me sp ent in t he pits co upled wi th t he fact that his fin al lap s wer e done at a slow pace d ropped J o hn t o a seve n th pl ace finish in th e se(~nd leg a nd fourth overall. Ni xo n , t a k in g a d va ntage o f New bold's disaster to o k victory in th e second leg, b ut was fo llo wed ho me by Palomo who. with h is fourt h p lacing in th e first leg, grabbe d the o vera ll vic tory (hi s t h ir d in t he final t h ree rounds) and wi th it the title . Ma ybe. Nixon was se vent h in the superb firs t leg afte r losing val uable time try ing to sh u t his petrol ca p afte r h is fuel stop. He m ight w ell have been pushed to third overall in th is m eeting if Swi ss ace Brun o Kneubuhler had reali zed the situation. Thanks to his third place in the second leg Bruno ti ed on points with the Kawasaki-mounted Nixon . but in the first race Bruno had finished more than 22 seco nds clear of the visitor a nd with eight lap s to go in the second 100 mil e event h e was o n ly ten sec o nds behind. He ea se d off. however , to co ax an a ilin g engine to the finish an d Nixon took second o vera ll b y just three se conds on aggregate t im e ! Newbold's superb ridin g. particularly in th e first leg. ea rn ed him fourth overall . third pla ce in th e final F·750 "