Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

highly-polished track packed with fast , spectacular jumps. Dethroned title leader Gerard Rond finished a challenging third in the second moto, but had to retire from the initial encounter with a broken steering head on his Yamaha . Into runner-up slot in the table has come the determined Ak ira Watanabe. He twice chased Rahier . home . Watanabe was 10 seconds down in the first moto after overcoming a resilient Sigi Lerner when the: la.!ter lost his chain on the lastlap. In the final moto both he and Rond pressured the unflappable Rahier. A first race , second corner pile-up effectively destroyed the challenges of Gote Liljegren , Matti Autio and Yuri Kh u d ia ko v, as Rond stuck pur p osefully with R a h ie r; until his steering let go on lap seven. This left Lerner second and a revita lised Iva n Alborghetti briefly third ahead of the chargin~Watanabe. Be h in d them , Andre Massant , without a front brake from the second lap, struggled unsuccessfully to kee p out Corrado Maddii before coming u nd er pressure from Britons Ro ger Harvey and Geoff Mayes. Then, three laps from home, Massant was gone, his front wheel demolished by the unyielding nee-concrete surface . On their final circuit, with four hundred yards remaining and sixth and seventh spots wrapped up, disaster struck the two Englishmen. As Harvey came up to lap Freyman approaching a fast jump in the main arena, the Belgian suddenly switched lines, squeezing the flying Roger on to the bales. His Suzuki bounced end over end along the track , fetching down the airborne Mayes in a calamatous accident which Pauli Pippola , Miroslav 'Jirka and Michele Minaldi were only just able to scrape through. The bruised Englishmen restarted to a huge cheer from the crowd . Harvey had to virtually rebuild an extensively damaged machine before riding hard through to 14th place from an a bysmal start in the second moto. Mayes pulled out due to injuries sustai ned in the crash. Lerner momentarily hea d ed the second moto until Ra hier turned under h im at the first corner. The Austria n. however . remained in high . speed contact until lap five , when his chain flipped once more and relegated him to sixth place behind Alborghetti and Maddii . Massant was tiring in m idfield. and could never qu ite get away from an in credible battle variou sly headed by Bernd Betzelbacher. Liljegren and a dogged Jiri Churavy. The Czech even tually broke clear in the closing stages and out braked Massant going into the last lap to take a hard -won eighth place on his return to Grand Prix racing. Meantime. Gaston was once more assuming his customa ry place as world title leader. and on th is sort of going will prove diffi cult to topple . as Gerard Rond read ily admits. Also. the im mense ly popular Wan tanabe is matching his proven speed with increased consistency and this makes him a re al thre at to last year's dominant pair. • Results LACKEY WORLD CHAMP? Come cheer him on June 4 . World Championship standings after Switzerland. Austria. France. Denmark. and Finland . 1. Heikki Mikkola (Yamahal Rnland 2. BRAD LACKEY (Honda) U.S.A. 3. Roger DeCoster (Suzuki) Belgium 4. Andre Malherbe (KTM) Belgium 5. Gerrit Wo lsink (Suz uki) Holland 6. Herbert Schmitz (Maicol Germany 7. Jaak Van Velthoven (KTMI Belgium 8. Graham Noyce (Hondal England 9. Andre Vromans (Suzuki) Belgium 10. Hakan Andersson (Husqvarna) Sweden ROll"Harvey ISuzl. First MOIO: t . Rahier; 2. Watanabe; 3. Lerner; 4. Maddii; 5. Albofgheni; 6. Pippola ; 7. Jirka; 8. Rinaldi; 9. Mayes; 10. Harvey . Second Moto: 1. Rahier; 2. Watanabe; 3. Rond ; 4. Lerner; 5. A1borghetli; 6. Madelii; 7. P;ppola; 8. Chufavv 9. Massant; 10. FISCher. ; Championship Standings: 1. Rahier n 211: 2. Watanabe 11131; 3 Rond 1 1061 4. Let"'" 1481; 5. ; Massan. . Madelii lJ7l; 7. AIborgheni 1281; 8. Go'e Liljegren. (21); 9. Man Autio. Jiri Churavy. Yuri Khuer.. kov 1161. 67 66 46 44 40 36 30 24 And they will be here J UNE 4 Plus the best Americans!! Advance tickets available at all Tlcketron outlets. Motocross South LMI1 June 3 & 4 po~ce Points Race j,GION~ ... $3,000 Purse .( Central Regional Professional Motocross Q.

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