Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'World Championship road race.GP Round nine Nieto, Bianchi clinch titles in Sweden; Sheene moves closer By Chris Carter AN DE RSTO RP . SWEDEN . . J ULY 23·24 Barry Sheene , showing his own brand of magic, moved one step closer to clinching his second 500cc World Championship crown with a win in the Swedish GP at Anderstorp. Johnny Ce cotto returned to GP action at the event and brillian tly led th e ra ce for most of th e 28 lap even t on the demanding Ander st? rp ci rcu it before Sheene took th e win . Americans Steve Baker . an d Pat Hennen each added points to their second and third pla ce cha m p ionsh ip point sta nd ings. Baker ran a solid third in t he race , but Hennen. plagued b y a slow sta rt. cou ld only manage a 10th place finish wo rt h a . single GP point . . Englishman Miek Grant scor ed his seco nd GP win of the season for Kawasaki gi ving the. Kwacker rider two wins ou t of h is last three outi ngs . Both 500cc and 250cc cro wns a re still up for ' gr a bs. a nd desp ite a th rill ing 350cc race on Saturday a ft ernoon whe n T akazumi Kat a yam a scored a des pera te win fro m Sou th Afr ica n Kork Ball ington t hat title too . is not yet clinc.hed . Championships in th e 50 and 125cc classes were settled on the ra in y Scan danavian ci rc ui t with An gel Nieto taking his sixt h title in th e past nine years an d Pierpaolo Bianchi making it two for two in 125 cc action . . Niet o cou ld on ly manage a runner up spot to his Bultaco teammate Ricardo T ormo in th e 50cc event . but it was enough to give him the cro wn . T he win for T ormo , however . was not enough to lift him to secon d place in the sta nd ings . Eugenio Lazz ir ini , on the Van Veen Kr eidler. placed th ird to sna tc h the prize awa y from Tormo . Nieto won a ra th er boring 125cc race . but Pierpaol o Bianchi in second pla ce sco red eno ugh po ints to retain his 125cc crown , wh o will be in the runner up spot is anyones guess . Eugenio Lazzarini . on the private Morbid elli , who chased Bianchi over the line . is just a single po in t in front of N ieto , with two rounds to go . In a bid to bring th e fans along for both days of the weekend enterta in ment th e orga nizers decided to ru n th e 350 cc race on Saturday afternoon and it was a good j ob they d id . The su n shi ne and dry track of the day was in sharp contras t to the rain. clouds and damp patches of Sunday. It was a race to remember in many ways, but most .of all for the finish . Takazumi Katayama al most threw away victory in sight of t he flag , and qu ic k -a s -a -f'l a sh Kork Ba ll in g t o n nipped through to take th e lea d , but in a lmost Kamikaze style. Takazumi h urled his machine ba ck in front to win by on e fifth of a second. Katayama ha d been well down at the end of the first of the 28 laps. Tom Herron , who had been first off the grid led Johnny Cecotto, Jon Eke rold , Patrick Fernandez , Penti Korhon en and Katayama over th e lin e . ~ a: a: w e w a: o :> ..J w >., ~ itL ...,. -'-_ --'=- ~ ..J Takazurnl Katayama has zoomed his way int o the 350cc World Championship. At Sweden on July 24. Katayama won the 350cc race with t his three- cylinder Yamaha. and was fourth in the 250cc race w ith a TZ250. Tom began to slip back leaving Katayama . Fernandez and BaBington to d ispute th e lead while Herron found a real scrap on his hands for fou rth spot with Ekerold. Fernandez co uldn't match the pace of Takazumi ·an d Kirk. and h e too began to lose ground . But the spec· raters had their eyes fixed firml y on the th rilling dice for the lead. . Ballington's machine was as q u ick as Katayama's own twin . and Kork even had the nerve to nip ahead of th e Japanese ace a few laps from the flag to show that he could pass him on th e final corner. As events turned out , Ko rk in fa ct did snatch the lead at th e last bend when Kat ayama eased off to pass two lappe es. But Kork' s hopes were short lived, and "Zooming Taxi" hurled his machine back in front at the exit to the be nd to win by a whisker. " I was happy to finish second to T a kazu m i," sa id Ba llington . "But then I saw his mistake and decided to have a go , but I'm glad I went wid e . After th e race Takazumi to ld me that if 1 hadn't drifted wide we would probably have both been off. He was going too fast to bra ke if I had been o n . his line." Fernandez was a good t hi rd wh ile Jon Ekerold , having a he ro 's ride with a broken bone in his clutch hand , took fourth . Vic Soussan a figh ting fifth a nd Tom Herron sixth. Alan North. th e other South African with hopes of taking th e 350 cc crown was an early retirement wh en his cha in broke on the opening lap . Saturday had been a great way to start th e m eeting, but Sunday was a very different kettle of fish . On Saturday night the rain began to fall and it ca rried on almost non·stop til l about 10 ;30 on Sunday morning. Wisely th e start was put back ha lf an hour and t he track was drying ou t when the 50cc event lined u p for the start of their 16 la p affair. How ever t he l a B of the flag was th e signal for it to rain again and con ditions cou ld ha rdl y have been more unpleasan t. Not that Ricardo Tormo , on th e Bultaco, appeared to noti ce . He ru sh ed off into th e distance leavin g La zza rini to ba ttle wit h N ieto . Ange l tried hard to pressu re Eu gen io into m ak in g a king-size mis ta ke . but when it became cle ar the Van Vee n Kreid le r rid er was not goi ng to , N iet o went ahead to ensure second place. and his world tit le. Torrno's lead was close on 40 secon ds at th e flag wh ile N ieto was well cle ar of Lazzarini . In the closing stages: when it began to ra in agai n a fter a 15 m inute let up . Stefan Dorflinger ousted Dutchman T hea Tim mer from fou rt h place . It wasn 't raining for th e start of t he 125cc eve nt as Pierpaolo Bianchi and Jean Louis Guignabodet batt led it out for the first lap or so . But Nieto meant business and he soon was in front and Bianchi hadn't an answer . Nieto d idn 't look like making a mistake. but Bianchi was almost ca ug ht napping by Eugenio Laz zarini's seco nd big sprint of the race for second spot. Bianchi hung on. b y just half a secondl Fourth was Gu igna bod et, his bike no match for th e factory bikes , wh ile Cladio Lusuardi was lu cky to be fifth . He was a bou t to be passed by Hans Muller when the Swiss rider crashed , _but he remounted to take eighth spot. Despite the clouds th at scurried across the track , things were drying .ou t for the 250cc race. Wet , d ry. it made no d ifference to Mick Grant . •or for that matter, Mario Legal . Both led for periods in the ra ce . with Grant at one stage cheekily waving a slow down signal to the Italian behind him to suggest there was no need for break n~ck speed. Mick suddenly sprinted into a 15 yard lead from the Morbid elli rival , and in the rem aining nine laps opened up a lead th at had stretched to five seconds at the flag , Grand was delighted at his win . bu t Lega had plen ty to sm ile abou t also . His nearest riva l in th eworld championship battle , Takazu mi Kata yama was down in fou rth p lace , una ble to catch Jon Ekero ld , and cha llenged throughout by Alan No rth. Lega's Championship lead is 13 points with three rounds to go . Up to third spot goes Tom Herron , despite being beaten into sixth place by Chas Mo rtimer who looked more like the man who was such a strong GP cont ender last season. Anderstorp has a habit of springing a few su rprises. a n d it was Pekka Nurmi who came close to springing it this time. The you ng Finn hurtled fro m 22nd place to sixth spot before unloading. But for tha t tumble he m ight well have been there with the lead ersl After the excitement of the 250cc and 350cc races . the 500cc event n eed ed to be somethi ng speci al. Sadly. apart fro m a few moments of action , it fa iled to co me up to scr a tch . Cecotto , back on the GP trail for the first time since [ he b ig crash at the Aust ria n GP in Ma y was the man who made Sh eene work for his poi nts . Both broke th e track record . with Sheene finall y setting a new record at one minute , 39.8 seconds, the first ever under on e minute . 40 seconds lap at Anderstorp for two wheelers . Sheene shadowed Johnny till he felt it was time to go , and when he went , Cec otto could n' t hold him . Third at the flag was Steve Baker wh o. made a poor sta rt on his four cylinder Yamaha and found Steve Parrish , on the other Texac o Heron Suzuki ma chine a to ug h nut to crac k for many laps. W i! Hartog , who had the Du tch fans cheering by doing h is party piece a nd setti ng a scorching 'pace at the sta rt. was fourth home , ahead of Italians Franco Bonera , Marco Lucchinelli and Armonda Toracca. with John Will iams looki ng good in eighth place . • Results 5Occ: 1. Ricardo T",mo (Bull; 2. Angel Nieto (Bull; 3. Eugenio Lazzarini (Krel; 4. Stefa n Oorllinger (Krel; 5. Thea Timmer (K,e); 6. Claudio Lusuardi {l ust ; 7. Julien Van Zeebroeck (Kra); 8. Jean Guignabodet (Morl; 9. Len na rt lundgren' IKre ); 10. Tuup Bosman (Kre). 125cc: I . Angel Nieto IBull; 2. PMlr-"> B;anchi (M o.'); 3. Eugen io Lazzarini (Mor'!; 4. Jean Guignabodet (M or'); 5. Claudio Lusuardi (Mor); 6. Gert Bender (Ben); 7. Stefan Dorlling.. IMarl ; 8. Hans Mull.. IM",I; 9. Thierry Nobl.... IM"'I; 10. P..·Edva rd Carlson 1M", ). 25Occ: 1. Mick Grant IKawl: 2. Mario Lega IMOf); 3. Jon Ekerold (Yam): 4. Takazumi Katayama (Yam); 5. Alan North (Yam); 6. Chas Mortimer (Yam): 7. Tom Herron (Yaml: 8. Olivier Chevallier (Yaml; 9. VietOf Sou ssari (Yam ); 10. Earo Hvva rinen (Yam). 35Occ: 1. Takazum i Katayama IVaml; 2. Kork Ballingt on (Yaml: 3. Patrick Fernan dez (Yaml; 4. Jon Ekero ld (Yam); 5. VietOf Soussan {Varni; 6 , Tom Herron (Yaml; 7. Penni Korhonen (Yam); 8. Pekka Nurmi (Y.am); 9. Patrick Pons (Yam) ; 10 . Chr ist ian Sarron (Yaml. 500cc: I . Barry Shoene ISuzl ; 2. Johnny Cecono (Yam); 3. Steve Baker (Yam); 4. St eve Parrish (S ull : S. wm Hartog IS uz); 6. Gianfranco Bon..a ISuz); 7. Ar mando Toracca - (S uz): 8. John Williams (s Ul); 9. Giacomo Agostini (Yaml; 10. Pa t Hennen (S uzl. 31

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