Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

DeCoster~ remembers: 500cc GP of Austria at Sittendorf 16 April 1967 "T he 1967 season saw me swit ch over to th e 500cc ra nks . It also was a turn ing point in m y life because it came a fter t hat kidney injury whic h barely fail ed to pu t a n end to m y ca reer in spo rts. So . given th e lon g period of hospitali zat ion to whi ch I was never co mpletely reconciled , Sit ren dorf ca me up.a as a big question mark. W ou ld I st ill be physica lly ca pa b le of doing busi ness in W orld Championship mot ocross? "T he lin gering doub ts were n't all erased in Au st ria but I co nsidered th e results of t hat Gran d Prix to be good enough to p urs ue m }' re turn to GP racing with m or e confiden ce . Bu t that boo st in confiden ce was n't a transla tion from any tangible , results. On t he ext re m ely narrow st art gate at this circu it , I had to settle for a place in th e third row . Buried back at th e ta il of th e pack , in a cloud of blinding dust , I was also th e unhappy recipi ent of a flat tire wh ich elim inated m e from t he co mpeti tio n before I was ready to stop raci ng ." 250cc G P of Belgium at B ech tel 23 Apr il 1967 " In th e shi fting sa nds of t he dunes a round He chtel , I came to realize that it was still possibl e for me to get d own to th e serio us work required of a 'p ilote' riding Gr ands Prix . Even though I never had been a specia list in th is type of course (sa nd) , I came out of it rea son abl y well. Helping j oel , on 'one hand , and gaining a fifth pl ace overa ll for m yself, on the other. I felt a specia l sat isfac tio n with th at day's accomplishm ents. The sam e feeling , p rob ably, th at ca me to joel Robert , who won and wh o was a ble to burn one on J ef Teuwissen , j ef hadn 't given up on h is own cha nces to beat one Joel Robert a nd was leading th e race wh en that great sa nd co u rse spec ialist, doubtless 0e most brilliant of his gen er ati on , crashed in a co rner th at he was taking.too slowly. T ha t put him back to seco nd place~" 500cc GP of Italy at Esanatoglia 7 Ma y 1967 " I was bla ck a nd blu e from head to foo t when I go t back to th e hotel to sink int o a very th erapeutic hot bath. I h ad been beaten hal f to death by the rocks coverin g th e circuit , tr a nsfo rm ed int o sharp-edged proje ct iles by th e spi n ning rear kn obbies of th e b ikes d uri ng th e ra ce . The bruises felt as bad as one of m y teeth did . All week, th e sligh test bump register ed as a sharp , heavy pa in . My m artyrd om on the t rac k afforded me precious little satisfac tio n. I ended up 10t h overall. " 500cc GP of Sweden at Hedemora 15 Ma y 1967 "All of th e CZ riders had prob lems with the gas provided b y th e race organizers. I didn 't esca pe fro m the ge nera l p ro blem . To th e co nt rary: during pra ct ice I had t roubl e trying to m ake three laps. Even that was. at severe ly reduced speed . Long ' before the actua l co m pe ti tio n bega n , I was ba ck in th e pits , wh ipped and d iscou raged. The co mpeti tion 's ac tua l racing fea ts didn't. m atter to me at that point. T he Czech mech anics got ca lled down by the ma nager and chewed out. I brooded in a corner. It was only an hour after th e finis h of the Grand Prix that I lea rned that Da ve Bickers ha d won ." 500cc GP of East German y at Merkers 11 June 1967 " It rained a ll d ay Saturday and Sunday without let -up, The course was a giant mud-puddle in which, at certain pla ces on the form er track , ou r bik~ sunk in up over the wheel hubs . Then th ere was th is stic ky mud. acting like molasses , in which ou r ti res co uld n't get a ny grip . Where usu all y I managed to co nd uc t m yself prett y well o n th at type of a course , I felt absolut ely helpless. Aft er 100 ya rds of racing , we were cover ed with glop so th ick tha t bik e 'a nd rid er wer e unrecognizable. v'The only gu y wh o co u ld stay on th e track and ge t around it for better rather than wor se was Paul Fri edrich s ... the Ea st German CZ ' pilore.' His ride to the overa ll win wasn 't cha lle nged by a nybody. But aside from th a t. who ha d en de d up second a nd third overa ll? Nobody was su re in mud th at ob lite ra ted number plates, a nd th e claims lasted a ll th e way to th e F. I.M . co ngress which m et in Vienna that fall. It was finally decided to rem ove that Grand Prix fro m th e rounds awarding points toward th e World Champion ship. . "S ince Paul Fr iedrichs h ad completely d om inated th e entire season in 500 cc raci ng , his victory a t Merk ers wh en rem oved fro m th e sco ri ng lists didn't change th e resul ts lea ding to t he wor ld t itl e . He did n't even need th e G P points fro m th a t win in or de r to gra b his seco nd 500cc motocross world crown ." 500cc GP of Czechoslova k ia a t Sedlcany 18 June 1967 " After th e G ra nd P ri x, there was a wide -open party that lasted well into Mond a y. I'd never seen anyth ing like it. Anyhow , along wit h Fried richs and Ben gt Aberg,,1 was pan of the reason for celebr a tion. Besides, I was especia lly happy with m y riding t hat weekend . The spectators , it seemed like the wh ole town . tried to show t heir suppon for me by ma king m e feel that they favoredm e as the real hero of that Grand Prix. The specta cle that I had provided to bring a bou t this wa ve of good fee ling ca me in bo th mot os. In the first , it was a close duel wit h j eff Sm ith , with second p lace as m y rewa rd ; in the second, a n exceptional come-fro m- beh ind rid e t hat brought me .a th ird overa ll. T he only sour no te in the co ncert of praise a nd co ngrat ulations was t he a tt itu de of the CZ officia ls who considered m y rid in g tha t day of no panic~larly wonhy co mment. " 500cc'GP of Russia at Kishinev 25 June 1967 "T h a t tri p to Kish in ev, a to wn nea r Odessa in t he sout h of the U. S. S. R. was m ade with Dave Bickers an d pro ved a n advent urous ex pedition in itself. W e rumbled a long over roads la id down in Rom an tim es th at h adn't been improved since th e Middle Ages. O ur pace was inc redi bly slow . Crossing th e border in to Ru ssia meant mor e lon g hours of wa iting as the gu a rds com bine d mi lit ary. bell igerence with bureaucr at ic speed " When we fin all y go t to Kish inev, th e heat was suffocating . j eff Smith , who won overa ll. had to be revived in a n oxygen tent. Personally, I was waved off th e co u rse by a n officia l one lap too soon ~ n the first rnoto. Conspi racy? In com petence? I don 't d oubt ei th er on e but I motored ba ck in to th e pits at t he time . A fe w minut es lat er , I heard it a nnou nce d in a ver y ordinary way that I was not to be cla ssified as a finisher. I tri ed to exp la in to th e offi cia ls responsible for the GP that I'd tri ed to finish , 'tha t any fault was with the ac tua l stan , that is, be cause there were six fals e sta rts in a ll - until WeiI was in the position t he organizer s wan ted to see h im in . That position was, of cou rse , ou t in front of the pack. The Maico 'pilore' didn't ho ld i~ very long, however. He went out of the moto with mechanical trouble. The seem ingly end less comedyof having repeated starts until Adolf got th e holeshot d iscouraged most of the entries. The officials had literally killed that combative attitude in herent in Grand Prix ra cers . As a result, th e Grand Pr ix was as go od as dead," 500cc GP of Great Britain at Farleigh Castle 30 Jul1967 "T he ending of th e second moto contested at Farleigh Castle should be written down in the records of off-road racing, A large segment of the spectating public there was literally dumbfounded by what is already considered one of the most incred ib le scandals in the history of motocross. Pa ul Friedrichs was the one primarily responsible. And he could never understand why it had caused such a flap . . " "He 'was leading the second moto and would , had he kept on riding normally, have crossed the finish line 100 yards a head of anybody else. But he sto pped to wait for his fellow CZ team mate. Dave Bickers . to come by and then got goi ng again to finish right on his rear wheel. That little maneuver cost jeff Sm ith (riding a Bri tish BSA ) second place overall - to th e benefit of Bickers who collected it beh ind Friedrichs. That made it a 1·2 finish for CZ and Friedrichs, a stalwart company m an , probably considered it quite natural. I assisted in the 'scandal' to the ex tent that a broken frame had put me out of t he moto long. before a ny final reso lution of pl acings. I really co uldn't condemn Friedrichs for trying to ensure as impressive a finis h as possible for the CZ marque b ut , no doubt . he did it a little too bla tantly before the English p ublic. sin ce it was the ever-popular Jeff Smith who was th e victim of the sche me. Bickers was delighted . He ex pressed his tha nks to Friedrichs for the race track gift in an origi nal way . His son , bo rn two d a ys befo re the Grand Prix .iwas ba p tized Paul." . 500cc GP of Belgium at Namur 6 August 1967 "j ef Teuwissen provided t he surprises in the first moto at Narnur. After a back and forth contention for the lead, he got awa y from Pa ul Friedrichs , who was already co n firmed as World champion , In th e second rnoto , I got down to business a little better and . despite a poor start ; despite a crash tha t slowed m y forward progress a little , I ended up fourth , Just as had been the case 12 mont hs before, I had to settle for seco nd place overall. But given the circumstances of th e second moto, I was reasonably sat isfied by that performance . At least I remained in control of m y own situ at ion , be twee n on e thing a nd a nother. contrary to what had happened the preced ing yea r - when the sta rte r made more of a d iffer en ce in overall results th a n my rid ing ." 500cc GP of Luxembourg at Ettelbruck 13 August 1967 " It was another race distinguished mainl y by false starts. In the first moto , the third ga te .drop was th e real on e , At least for th e officia ls. As far as I was concerned , it was a dis aster. In th e first two sta rt s, I was abl e to get away cleanly with the frontru nners, The th ird time , I was trapped ba ck in heavy traffic. I was able to move up a few pos itions, but that was it. Lady Lu ck smiled on me in th e second heat. After a co up le of laps , I fell in right on Friedrichs' rear whe el. But he evidently wasn't going to give me a gi ft' comparable to th e on e he 'd offered.to Bickers in England. That d idn't keep m e fro m fin ishing second in the moto or finding myself listed fourth in th e overa ll results ," 500cc GP of Switzerland at W ohlen 0 August 1967 "A rea l deluge . Ra in ha d tra nsformed the circuit in to a giant quagmire. After the intia l shuffling and bumping for position , I was out front with Fried richs, I never lost sigh t of him u nti l 10 minutes from the end of th e moto , when th e rear tire on . the CZ starred to go flat. I kept h aving m ore and more trou ble every lap negotia tin g the trickier sections of the co u rse but sti ll m anaged to hang on to second pla ce . A thoughtless spectator on th e trac~ brought about a second m oto crash , If I'd been a ble to get m y ha nds on h im righ t then . , . Boyl he would ha ve h ad a m iser a ble 15 minutes . But a t th e time of the incident , ' 1 sti ll had a good cha nce for th e overall win . My anger increased my na tu ra l desi re to m ake up that lost ground, I managed to save a second overa ll out of that GP . In th e fin a l W orld Championship cla ssification , I was listed in fift h , It was a reasonably encouraging res ult for m y first season of campaigning in the 500cc class ." . • 31

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