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/126263
Roger DeCoster, a waving Heikki Mikkola and a bearded Brad Lackey are joined by a crew of Camel and Champion lovelies. Pierre Karsmakers at work at home. 500cc World Championship MX Series -" Round two Mikkola dominates Dutch GP~ vaults into championship point lead , Mikkola 's w ife, Kai ja , he lps him su it up f or t he first 4O-minute plus moto. By David Maltais/Asahi Pentax NO RG,HOLLAND ,MAY8 Heikki Mikkola and his 384cc factory Yamaha stood head and" shoulders ahove the rest of the field, sweepIng the entire Dutch' 500cc MX GP from setting the fastest official qualifying time to starting-ga te-to-flag victo ries in both 40 -minut e-p lus ·two-lap motos. 14 Roger DeC oster and Brad Lackey tied fo r second overall with Roger scori ng a pa ir of third places on his Suzuki for 20 World Championship points a nd Brad on his factory Honda taking a second in the first race and a fourth in the second, also totalling 20 points. Defl oster's faster time broke the tie . Fourth man for the day was Suzuki's Gerrit Wolsink with a 5·2 score. The superiority that Mikkola exhibited was amazing. He qualified fastest with a best lap of 3.09 .4, with La ckey, Karsmakers and He rlings all with 3.11s. Sigmans and ' Aberg had 2 .13s , Hakan Andersson 3.14 . DeCoster was six seconds off Heikki's time in 3.15 .1 The Ci rcuit van Norg is over three kilometers long wit h 90 % of it in th e wood s a nd d ang er ously na rrow beca use of a ll t he big trees t ha t line the track . The starting gate 10 the first turn is pure speedway with the fast riders pitching their bikes into the tight left hander, driving out of th e corner to the first man made jump, and then diving in to the sand a nd woods wit h a fast right hander. The track was more like a road race than motocr oss because the sandy soil was hard and compact. Only the second race really got rough . deep and choppy. Heikki chose the inside pole position and Brad moved in the next slot when the riders were called out for the' first race . Toon Ka rsm akers and Frank, Svendson misjudged the start and both crashed over t heir T -shaped gates. (Eac h rider has a "T " in fro nt of him ., and alt hou gh each one is separa terj they a re all supposed to dro p when th e, electric switch is hit .) T he race was delayed whi le they got back into position and their metal bars had to b. straightened. J When the gate dropped, it was, Heikki and Brad who rocketed into lead with Brad drifting a little to the, outside and Heikki tucking under him to exit the first turn first. They dived into the woods with Heikki in the lead followed by Brad and Bengt Aberg o.t;t the four-stroke Yamaha. ~ l As they came around to complete, lap one , it was Mikkola , ~ackeY 5' Aberg, then Andersson , Sigmans•• Noyce. DeCoster. Karsmakers, Wei1 and Schmitz in the top ten. Aberg dropped out after the third lap when he lost his chain . Hakan Ander':' sson had a hard time holding on to hi Monr esa beca use of rho sma ll finge r on his right hand . painful after being broken from Austria . He dropped down to sixth by lap four and on la p nine crashed and retired . Maico's Graham Noyce moved right up from sixth to third by lap four b ut RD passed him on lap six, and then Roger! started after Br ad . Heikki ha d stret ched 'his lead to pu ll away from the rest of the field. When Roger made contact with Bra d with five laps 10 go , everyone' waited fo r Roger to come around ahead of Brad and his Honda . It neverhappened . Brad kept racing as ha rd a he could. clipping the bushes with his shoulders and narrowly missing th e big the.