Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Although piecing aixth In RnIlInd. a.ry Sheene 111II1 managed to clinch hie HCOnd &OOc:c: World Championship. By Chris Carter IMATRA, FINLAND., JULY ~o·~n . Johnny Cecotto showed the form that made him a sensation in 1975 by winning the 500cc Finnish GP, but it was Barry Sheene. :limping into sixth place with an overheating engine, who reaped ' the glory. The Placing was. enough to give the .. . . . 32 British S.uzuki works rider his sec~:md co~cuuv~ 500cc World Champion. . ship Yam~ha works , rider Steve Baker, Sheene s c~osest nv~1 for the crown, and Suzuki w~r~ rider Pat H.enn~, who s.tands ~Ird In the champlOn~hlp standings, failed to score any . po.ll~ts . Baker .was troubled by igmuon probl~ . and c~ld manage only a 12th placing while Hennen dropped on lap 18. of the .22 lap. affair with gearbox failure while runmng fourth . Joh~n~ Cecotto must be upset that Barry s bike was off song. It wou ld be a brave man to sa y who would have triumphed in t~e cla~h on equal terms. The Venezuelian rider was superb, and hacked close to 15 seconds off John N~bold's lap record. But Joh?-. ny. wasn t the only man who sh?ne In this GP . . Takazurni Katayama won the ~ 50cc race, and the world crown in th e process. Riding the three cylinder Yamaha , Takazumi · came from th e back in th e field in the ra in to win with Christian Sarron, John Ekerold and Tom Herro.n close , but not close enough, behind! Katayama had bad luck in th e 250cc ra ce though when a loose right hand clip-on forced him to finally stop altogether. Before he went out" though , he was with the leaders and might well have turned what was .a superb two man grandstand finish into a three way scrap. . The men who starred were Mick Grant; on the factory . Kawasaki . and Wal.ter Villa on the. works Harley Da,?dson. The Yorkshlreman.and the Italian broke clear of the snarhng pack of two-strokes behind, ' but though Grant was the pacemaker for the last seven laps, Villa passed him at the flat · out-in -top gear jump on the back straight to snatch the lead on the last lap. and held it to the flag . In the 125cc race Morbidelli works rider Pierpaolo Bianchi. who had clin ched the crown the previous weekend in the Swedish TT won again. But this time he really had to work for his victory . Fellow countryman Eugenio La zzarini might have headed him home, if his Morbidelli not lost powe r in th e dosing laps. If Lazzarini had won he would hav e clinched the runner.~p spo t in the fina l World Championship pla cings because Angel Ni eto was for ced to stop ' on his factory Bultaco because of a faulty throttle cable. There 's now still an outsi de chance the Spaniard can pip th e Italian for second place, overa ll. The circuit alterations had shown in practice that records woul d tumble a nd first of th e .fou r race p rogram was the 350cc event. In training. t he first 23 men hadallbroken john Dod . ds' record lap , and wKh a d ry tr ack it 'seem ed certain times would be even better. Tom Herron had a flyer off the grid. with Mario Lega on the works Morbidelli, and Johnny Cecouo with him. But it was South African Jon Ekerold who was with Tom at the end of the first lap, and these two battled it out for five laps, till Cecotto quickened his pace to catch them. But hardly had Cecorto joined the trio when his engine seized and he was out. Meantime Takazumi Katayama was closing rapidly and to make matters worse it was starting to rain. Though everyone slowed. Katayama didn't and within a couple of laps he had caught the leaders slick tire or no slick tire . Ekerold tried hard to stay with the Japanese star, but he couldn't. Takazumi disappeared into the distance and John settled for second. French youngster Christian Sarron had other ideas. though . The rain spots were bigger " nd more frequent a and Sarron tried his best . He caught Jon two laps from home and the South African decided that third place, and th ose 10 po ints were enough reward . It moves him into runner up place behind Katayama in the world ·ra nkings. Tom Herron was fourth and that did his championship position some good , too . H al f th e qualifiers d idn't m ake ii to th e ch eckered flag includ ing Mario Lega and John Dodds who crashed, and others like Patrick Fernandez, Vic Soussan , Pekka Nunni and Giacomo Agostini who, were forced out with engi ne tro uble , It had stop ped raining for th e 125cc race . which was perhaps a pity. It need ed som ethi ng to liven it up after Angel Nieto and his team mate on the Bultaco squad . Ricardo T ormo, had bee n forced out. Nieto ' had throttle cable trouble. an d T orrn o's bike stopped with piston failu re. lea ving Lazzarini and Bianchi a clea r field , . Lazzarini's bike sprung an oil leak in the transmission , but it wasn't that that slowed him. His piston started to fail and Bianchi was able to pull back the margin and go on to win, Lazzarini was second. with Jean Louis Guignabodet third. Swiss ace Hans Muller was fifth, but it wasn't until the battle for sixth, seventh and eighth places between Swedes Bam Carlson. Benga johan-. 550n and Frenchman Thierry Espie that there was what might be described as a real d ice! All was quickly forgotten when the 250cc race started.though, There were 10 or more men fighting it out for the . first couple of laps and though that group was slowly whittled -away. the race was gripping from start to finish . Mick Grant had made the front , passing Mario Lega's Morbidelli , after six laps . b'ut Walter Villa had joined him a lap la ter, pushing Marion down another place. Villa went ahead.but he had lost a silencer early on arid was worried the engine would seize. Mick decided the pace wasn 't-quick enough and he took his turn at race leader. With the Kawasaki in front , they pulled away from Kork Ballington who had made third spot his own, while Lega, Tom Herron. Paolo Pileri and the others howled in persuit. Franco Uncini was moving rapidly. too , and in turn Lega and Pileri began to slow. The last lap was a nailbiter. Villa knew where he could pass , and did it. Mick couldn't pass him and the Italian was first over the line. Ballington, looking good , was third andUncini finally came through to fourth position chased home by Tom Herron, and Patrick Fernandez. Mario Lega held off Barry Ditchburn's last lap efforts to hold seventh place, and those four championship points. could be vital since Katayama failed to score any points, The decision on the title will now almost certainly go down to the final event. The 500cc race was an anticlimax , but to fair it would have had to be an exceptional race to beat the 250cc and . ~5Occ events. Though the dicing wasn't good , Cecotto's display. made up for that. He took the lead from Marco Lucchinelli on the fourth lap and the others just didn't see which way he went, Within three laps he was eight seconds up on Lucchinelli with Sheene in third place and looking decidedly unhappy. Barry had seen the water ternpe rature was too high early on and he begged the engine to keep running. Steve Baker. the only man who could beat him for the title was in trouble too . He was 011 Cecotto's spare bike and the ignition was shorting out throughout the race, losing him valuable power. Baker limped home 12th, while ahead of him Sheene dropped back too , ' having Michel Rougerie, Franco Bonera and finall y his own team mate Steve Parrish through . Lucchinelli was a good third, but he lost a serious rival when Pat Hennen's gearbox bearing broke up. Third was Franco Bonera ,while Michel Rougerie was fourth , only to have his chain come off and his fue l run out after he crossed the line. Tepi Lansivuori, who had been with Parrish , was tou rin g at the end, his brake pads worn do wn to th e metal; at least he finished , For the Flying Finn and his fans. th at was something to celebra te. • • Results - 125cc : 1. Pierpaolo Bianchi IMer l; 2 . Eugenio Uz· zerini IMort 3. J-L GuigNibodet (MOl 4. Hans Muller t IMer); 5. St elan Dorflinger IMorl; 6. Per Carlson IMerl; 7. Thierry Espie IMotl; 8 . B-G. Johansson IMer); 9. Patrick Ptisson (Mar); 10. Enrico CeredalMor>. 25Occ: 1. Wa lter Villa IH·D1 2. Mick Grant IKaw); 3. ; Kork Ballington (Yam); 4. Franco Uncini (H-O); 5. Tom Herron (Yam); 6. Patrick Fernandez IYam); 7. Mario Lega IMor); B. Barry Ditsburn IKawl; 9 . Pao lo Pileri (Morl; 10. Olivier Chavallier IVaml. 35Occ: 1. Takazumi Katayama (Yaml; 2. Christian Sarron (Yem); 2. Jon Ekerold (Yaml; 4. Tom Herron !Yaml; 5. Patrick Pons !Yaml; 6. Olivier Chovallier !Yam); 1-1-0 7. :>epPO HOSSI \vam,; d. Wa lter Villa 1 1; 9. eero Hyvarinen !Yam); 10. Karl Auer !Yam). 500cc: 1. Johnny Cecotlo !Yam); 2. Marco tnechinem ISuzl; 3. Gianfr. Bonera IS uzJ; . 4. Michel Rougerie (SuzJ; 5. St ..... Parrish (SuzJ: 6. Barry S'-'e (SuzJ; 7. Teu-.io Lanoivuori (Suz!; 8. Armando T0f8CC8 ISuzJ; 9. .Jeao.P. Orban ISuzJ: 10. Kart _!Yam).

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