British motocross veteran Vic Eastwood test rode Heikki Mikkola's SOOcc World Championship w inning Yamaha .
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Riding World Champion Beik~l
Mikkola's works Yamaha OW38 ~il
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By Chris Myers
Yamaha's works 500cc class motocrosser exploded onto the World Championship scene
last year. In the hands of former W orId
Champion Finn Heikki Mikkola the OW38
was a poten t wea po n . Togethe r
they blew a ll the opposi tion into
t he weeds and with two Grand
Prix in hand it was all over .
Heikki Mikkola and Yama ha were
World Champion s.
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The reco rd books show a fin a l ta lly
of II ou t r ig ht wins with not o ne
mech anica l breakdown to m a r th e
c1ea n sweep .
Clea rly the partner sh ip was a winnin g one. Wi th two world titles under
his belt everyo ne knew and respected
Mikkola's abili ties . But the Ya maha
was to tally a nd co m p letel y new a t the
beginning of th e season - just how
good was it ?
To find ou t we decide d to try a nd
set- up a n unbi ased test of t he new
bike . At first it appeared impossibl e ·
no factory is keen for ou tside rs to ride
th eir works machines and t his bik e
rea lly was some thing speci a l.
Mikkola rides for Yam aha Moto r
NV - the J apa nese facto ry's Europea n
headquarters in Am sterd am , Holl and ,
so th e firs t stage was to contact
Europea n P . R, Man a ger Ro dn ey
Go u ld . W e n eedn 't h a ve wo r ried
a bo ut bein g tu rned down flat · Gou ld
was very receptive a nd wit hi n a co up le
of weeks gave t he go-a head .
Next step was to find som eone to
ride t he bike fo r us. Go uld had on ly
one stipu lation · our test rider must n't
a lready be co nt racted to a b ig factory.
Vetera n Vic Eastwood fitt ed th e bill
- he's ridde n m uch of the top works
machinery during his 22 years ca ree r
and has held works co ntracts wit h the
BSA a nd Ma tchl ess factories, to name '
j ust two, And hi; cu rre nt mounti.is a
Yam ah a · four stro ke naturall y . in a
u n iq ue mon ocoque Hagon frame.
Vic was keen to ride the bike so after
we'd fixed up a time a nd a p lace we
drove ou t to keep a d a te wit h Heikki
Mikk ol a an d his world cha mpio ns
winni ng m achine in Belgiu m . ' h r
Gou ld met us at our hot el nea r
Zolde r a nd too k us ove r to Bor gloon .
where they held th e 250cc G P last
year. Mikkola was t he re with his Fi nn ish mech a n ic , H e ikk i Pc nrt ila .
testing th e la test works bike, but th e
m achine we were interested in was the
Yamaha t ha t won last yea r's world
cha m pionship - it was in th e back of
Mikk ola 's Me rcedes van a nd hadn't
