Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

E • ~ E ~ -' o :I: U Z Ii ai > '" '" ~ it (Above and insetl Gennady Moisseev has domineted the 250cc Motocross Grands Prix this year. He will probably be the next World Champion. lAbove, rightl Vladimir Kavinov, Moisseev's KTM teammate and fellow Russian, will most Iikely.be runner-up in pointS at the end of the season. Russians lead 'chase for 250cc "'otocross World ClIampionship sole factory Husqvarna ride r . Swed e Hakan Carlqvist . , By Chris Myers This year's world 250cc. motocross series is shaping up to be a Red Revolution, with Russians Gennady Moisseev and Vladimir Kavinov poised for a world one-two. Both men currently hold the top two places in the championship table; Moisseev with 16:5 points and Kavinov with 14:5. BetWeen them they have won 11 out of the 18 championship races so far on their Austrian KTM machines and with just three rounds remaining the bdds are all in'rheir favor. For Moisseev it will be his second title : he won in 1974 after a controversial FIM jury decision from runner-up Czech jaroslav Falta. And in 1976 Moisseev was beaten into second place by Finn Heikki Mikkola (Husqvarna) who won by a single net point. Moisseev's victory will be a victory for blood and guts and courage: every time he's finished a race he's scored. He quits a race only when his mount breaks down. Moisseev, a soldier in Russia's red army, came to the opening round of the series at Sabadell near Barcelona, Spain on April 3 a determined man. Through his interpreter before the race he explained that this second place in 1976 just wasn't good enough and this year he was going all out to win. True to his word, he blasted straight OI;'t_~~o_t'!e lead from the start ahead , o f teammate and fellow Russian Anatole O vchinnikov. But soon tall Belgian Raymond Boven on the Spanish factory Montesa was up behind Moisseev and he stalked t he Russian for seven laps . Then , righ t in front of the grandstand a nd many of the 35 ,000 excited spectators, Boven dove inside on a steep left-bander and took the lead . • Boven 's joy was short lived , for on e lap later the Russian was ahead again and Boven again was the .challenger. But Boven certainly wasn 't beaten after three' more laps he swooped and passed Moisseev to cla im the lead. The two men diced nose -to -tail. side-byside until Boven pulled away to win while Moisseev slowed with a leaking exhaust. Kavinov took third spot early on but had to fight very hard to keep it. He lost his place several times to West German giant Hans Maisch on the German Maico and only regained third spot as the German collided with Boven and ret ired with a badly bent gear lever . 1975 champion Belgian Harry Everts made his grand prix debut on the latest Spanish Bultaco and managed a -useful fifth place behind I American newcomer Marty Moates made a terrific and promising debut for the Spanish Ossa factory . fighting up to fourth place in the first race on an outclassed machine, before an oil seal blew on the motor's drive side and he was Forced' to retire. On the strength of his performance in Spain the factory offered Moates a contract for two years and the 20-year-old rider jumped at it. The second race at Sabadell lacked the sparkle of the first and was marred by a huge first -bend pile up that sidelined Kavinov. Man of the rac e was without a doubt Maisch , who took th e lead from the second rrioto start and held on to it to th e checkered flag ah ead of a racelong. three-way russel between Everts. Boven and Cz~ch jaroslav Falla (Cl). Falra eventually came through to take runner-u p spot ,,:hile 500c c grand p rix contender , (a nd 1973 World Champion on a Yamaha) Swede Hakan Andersson. making his debut for Montesa , claimed th ird pla ce ahead of Everts. What of Moisseev? T he Russian was one of the last to get awa y after that first crash and found that his fro nt brake refused to work prope rly. H e soldiered on to fin ish 10th. Fifth was Belgian Andre Malherbe on the incredibly noisy KTM - he ended that day with 12 po ints. bu t was going to prove· later on in the series that he really was a force to be reckoned with . Giving the Spanish round a miss was sole Japanese campaigner Tarao Suzuki (Suzuki). Exactly two weeks later the championsh ip contenders met in Payerne in Switzerland and Moisseev used the occasion to settle down at the top of the table . .. and he's never been toppled from it to date. Third and second places in both ra ces were worth_a_n!'t_h~! ~~ points to the Russian , who ended the day with 36 grand prix po ints - two more than Everts. who beat Moisseev in the first race. True to his gritty form . Moisseev made a meteoric recovery from a terrible start in the first race to fight up from 17th place and .chase winner Everts and runner -up- Jean Paul Mingels (Belgiu m . Montesa) over the lin e. As th e flag dropped for the start of th e fi rst race 25 ,000 spectators watched West German Fritz Schneider (KT M) make a lightning getaway and power into the lead by the first bend. He was soon overhauled by Swede Torli ef Hansen on the works Kawasaki . Hansen - who 'd missed th e first round of th e series as a result of various sprains sustained in a crash at an int e rn at ional ra ce in France in March - was under pressure from Mingels and W est German Hans Maisch (Maico) and when he crashed after 25 m inutes it was the German who took the lead. But then he too went out after tangling with a back marker and the Belgian duo of Everts . (who was coming up from behind) and Mingels reaped the benefit with Moisseev close behind. That's the way they ended up. Kavinov failed to score after colliding with Jaroslav Falta (Cl) . on the first lap. Next time out the Belgian supremacy was obliterated with Kavinov in complete command from start to finish and Moisseev shadowing him from the first corn er to the last. Third for several laps, Everts crashed and recovered to finish eighth Mingels had replaced him in third for a - while , but succumbed to the pressure. Overpowered by Hansen and Maisch , followed by Swedish ex -icehock ey star Hakan Carlqvist on the sole works Husqvarna , (who . had stopped with gear bo x trouble in the first ra ce), Mingels made sixth spot. While young Briton Neil Hudson . (Ma ico) fa iled to fin ish after his seventh place in the first race , Cal ifornian- Marty Moates (O ssa) clinched his first score of the series with seventh despite a m inor spill soon after the start. The t hi rd round at Borgloon, Belgium on April 24 was a miserable affa ir. Almost taking second billing to a round of th e Belgian solo championships and held in the middle of an apple orchard. the grand prix was made worse by the torrential rain . It made the mud very. very st icky and the young Belgians were finding it difficult to get up one of the hills in practice. Another problem was the course, which wound back on itself like some great worm . It had never been the venue for a grand prix before and safety precautions were poor very little space between the tapes. the ro~ and th != apple tr~. ,

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