Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

\ Brad Lackey continued to dazzle the Grand Prix world with a third and a second place in Finland. Lackey third in Finland; Mikkola leads in 'point s SOOcc World Championship MX'Series-Rou d four By David Maltais/Asahi Pentax HELSINKI , FINLAND , MAY 22 By scoring his fifth win in eight starts, two-time World Champion Heikki Mikkola has taken a finn grip on this season's 500cc World title and has moved further ahead of main threat Roger DeCoster who could only manage 'a 4-5 score after two 26 disasterous starts. The Tikkurilan Motorklub were the organizers of th e event, and the race was held on the Ruskeasanta 'C ircuit , which means brown sand , and is just a few mi nutes from the Hel sinki a irport. The track was very dry and dusty on Sa turday but Sunday the condit ions were perfect as the club had spent Saturday evening and Sunday mor n ing watering the track properly. Somehow , the organizers messe d up th e t ime tra ining for offic ial qualification . This is what they ca me up with : Bengt Aberg 2.02 .6 , AkeJonsson 2 .02 .7 , Will i Bauer 2 .03. 5 , Heikki Mikkola ' 2 .04.5 , Frank Sven d son 2 .04.7, Pierre Karsmakers 2.05 .1 , Brad Lackey 2 .05 .8 , Roger DeCoster 2.08.3 . Adolf W eil 2.0 8 .5 , Gerrit Wolsink 2.08.8 . Those who were taking times for the fastest four riders every weekend had Heikki first , Roger second and Brad in third . Aft er speaking with three or four reliable people whose results were the same, it was realized that the timekeepers of the club had made some kind of error. Bengt Aberg had problems with his four-stroke Yamaha when the ignition lost spark in practice Su nd ay morning. He had to push it back to the pits from the farthest part of the course so that mechanic Julie Haglund could track down the problem and solve it , The rumor that Suzuki would finally come out with a quicker engine for Roger and Gerrit (who realized that Heikki's Yamaha and Brad's Honda had a more usable power) finally became reality in Finland when R&D engineers from Japan flew in to Hels inki with im proved parts for more horsepower for the ' engi nes . Both Gerrit and Roger wer e happy with the improved engines. Mr. Tamaki, one of the four engineers from ' Suzuki who are responsible for the racing im provements on the road race and motocross machines , explained in Finland that Suzuki already had the new parts designed and tested and that they were just wai ting until they felt that the opposition had more horsepo wer and then they would bring th e n.ew parts for Crl=rrit and Roger to use . The basic engine design is the same as it has been since 1973 and they hav e been able to make th e ne cessary im provements to keep it as fast or faster than the competition in Grand Prix racing. 10,000 spectat ors li n ed th e perimeter of the large sa nd pit whe re the track was laid out , basking in th e warm sun when the riders m arch ed out for th e presentation and introduction . A half hour later the ga te d rop ped for th e first ra ce and Heikk i Mikkola wasted no tim e rocketin g his factory 400 YZM Yamaha int o th e lead with Brad La cke y, Willi Bauer , Jaak van Velthovan , Adol f Wei! , GerritWolsink and Graham Noyce forming the first wa ve of the 3 1 rid ers tha r sta rted . - All exited the first left hand sharp tum after the two hundred and fift y meter drag race from th e start without crashi ng , but 15 seco nds after the last rider was gone, along came Pierre Karsmakers all alone . Something must have happened at the start. It looked like he was the last one to get away . As everyone waited for Heikki to appear, DeCoster appeared at the first comer more than half a lap down on Mikkola and the other leaders. Four riders had been involved in a jam at the start. When the gate had started to go down Roger dropped the clutch too soon and hit the gate while it was still at a 45 degree angle . The front end of the Suzuki shot up in the air like a rearing horse, almost flipping completelyover. When his front wheel was straight up in the air the bike started falling to the left in front of Pierre - Karsmakers who had timed the gate perfectly. Pierre was thrown off onto Roger's bik e and his own b ike pinned t o Roger's Su zuki with Pierre 's backside resting and burning on t he exhaust. Bengt Aberg had also timed th e gate wrong and th e four -stroke shot up into the a ir . When th e 5QO Yamaha got traction it shot away from Bengt's grip and flipped over breaking the sub frame under the rear fender and destroying th e re ar fender also . Ake Jonsson, who was all the way to the left of the gate hit the gate when it was still up and his Maico's front wheel got stuck and the rear wheel dug a trench deep in the sand . Serge Bacou ram med his Bultaco into the back of Ake's bike and Ake retired when he got untangled . It took Roger a long time to get away as he had to straighten the front fender , brake lever, throttle cable and handlebars . To further slow him down it took him a long time to get started when the sta lled Suzuki refused to fire . Meanwhile , up ahead of all the traffi~ Heikki was effortlessly stretching his lead on the first lap with Brad in second, Bauer and Weil close together in third and fourth , Gerrit fifth , No yce sixth, Andersson seventh. Schmin eighth, John Banks ninth and van Velthoven in l Oth . Gerrie Wolsink moved up to fourth passing Wei! on lap two and got by Bauer on the next lap . He moved slowly closer to Brad and on the fifth lap he made contact on the straight after the left hand tum, opened the Suzuki all the way and squeezed past Brad to take second place. He cou ld n 't pull away from Brad who stayed on his rear wheel the whole race. Brad co uld pull right up to him on the tighter sections where Gerrit said, " I co uldn't get a good rythmn on the back p art of the course where it was tight and I cou ld feel Brad right on me every second ." They ended their very exciting duel at the checkered flag less than a second apart -with Gerrit taking second and Brad in third. The late starters had moved through the pack like sharks through a sch ool of minnows wit h Pierre in 11th on lap 11 a nd Roger in 12th . Roge r held his throttle wide ope n and started scratching at every turn . It paid off as he mov ed to ninth on la p 14 passing Weil th en ste adi ly upward to pass Andersson on lap 16, va n Velthoven on 18 and then he finally took Bauer's fourth place on th e next to last lap . Graham Noyce had moved up to fifth place on lap 13 when he got pa st Wei! after a long battle , but the 20· yea r -old Maico factory rid er dropped off the pa ce and suddenly began slipping back places when his Koni l rear shocks faded away completely He ended in 12th place out of th e points . Jaak van Velthoven wa i ho lding fifth spot until three laps fro rd th e, finish when he crashe d going over on e of th e big man-made jumps and fell way down to 15th a t the finish .l John Banks picked up th e onl y po ints for th e British team with his 10 th place on e po int. Big Joh n struggled through th e last few la ps with a gra bbi ng fro n t brake that was caused by a kinked front brake cable that had som ehow managed to get caught in his front tire. Every time he entered a fast sha rp tum th e front end would compress and the bike would grab and let go throwing him off balance . After his L-ig crash in Sweden last week in the firs t ra ce due to a stuck carburetor slide, John replaced the Amal with a 34mm Mikuni and had no problems in Finland. Only 19 of th e 31 riders fin ished. Heikki crossed the finish unchallenged in 45 .12 .8 for 21 laps with only the top 12 riders on his lap. Before the start of the second race Heikki's Yamaha was fitted with a new carburetor and air filter . A new type air filter had been tried bu t it was too thin and the carb was sucking in too much air and not holding the oil. Ed Scheidler gave Pierre's Yam aha a _ one size larger main jet for safety and Steve Whitelock went d own one size on Bra d 's Hond a to give the red-engined rocket a little more crispness for the second race. Mikkola again got the holeshot on his home circuit with Karsmakers lIet-

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