Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126331
Bob Hannah holeshots the second moto with Gerard Rond (26). Jean-Jacques Bruno 1211. Heikki Mikkola 1171. Graham Noyce 1131. Andre Malherbe 131 and Fritz Kobele .(56) following. • Motocross des Nations Russians win, U.S. to By Charles Morey GAILDORF, W . GERMANY . SEPT. 3 Finland's 500cc World Champion Heikki Mikkola won both 40-minute-plus-two-lap motos before a crowd of 20,000 at the 1978 Motocross des Nations, and the United States team claimed second in both races. But when the team points were . . tallied, Team RUSSIa came out on top. 16 In a game where consistency is everything. the four-man KTM squad earned their victory - and the name plate on the Peter Chamberlain Trophy - with moto finishes of 4-9 10-12 -14 -22 for their 71-point winning score. . Using the Olympic points system one point for first, two for second, etc . - the best six finishes of the eight completed by the four-man team are totalled for the final scores . Team Germany earned second with a 4-5-9-15-26 accumulation for their 75-point score. Third were the Belgians with the~r 3-6-11 -18 -29-22 mote tally for 80 pomts. The U.S. riders tied point -wise with England, but were awarded fourth when the tie was broken by the FIM tie-breaking system. The US. team lost a man early when Yamaha 's new AMA /Mr. PiBB 500cc National MX Champion Rick Burgett fell. X -rays revealed a broken ' colla rbo ne , and " Lu m be rj a ck" returned home to the U.S. for final treatment. Since only the top' six finishes are counted, Burgett's absence d id not remove the U .S . team from contention. But it left no room for error. Fourteen teams with four riders on each brought the starting line -up to a crowded 56 -man total. The FlM Jury considered splitting the field and running four motos altogether, but instead op ted - by a 9-5 vote - to run them all at once. One rider from each team was selected by the team manager to start on the second row, lowering the front row total to 42. A short extension to th e 40 -man gate solved the problem. Surprisingly, since t he "Hurricane" is not known for quick starts. Bob Hannah led the over-sized pack through tum one on his Keith McCarty-tuned works Yamaha . . Another factory Yamaha, Heikki Mikkola's Heikki Penrtila -tuned World Championship-winning bike. had Hannah in its sights, however. Mikkola took the lead after harassing the "Hurricane" for 10 minutes. and he would hold that lead until the moto's end. " I d idn't know it was him!" Hannah said after the rac e of their in tense duel. '.'1 thought it was just some joker on a Yamaha!" Chuck Sun, riding a modified version of Husqvarna's 1979 39OCR. set up by Pelle Persson , got started in seventh place behind Hannah; Mikkola , France's Jean-Jacques Bruno . Russia 's Gennady Mo iseev , France's Daniel Pean and France's Jean-Claude Gomez. Tommy Croft, the U.S. rider elected to start in the second row , was lost in th e pack . "Everyone hit the gate in fronr .of me ," he shook his head . "1 was in 45tli placer' Meanwhile. Hannah . held a solid second as Sun started his move for thed front . Sun passed Gomez on the""} second lap , then continued up to third place within the next two trips around the Gaildorf circuit. lJ England's Neil Hudson, 15th at the start, had his Maico bouncing off tree trunks and sliding the sweepers. As Sun moved to third, Hudson slipped past Gomez into fifth place behind Bruno. Hannah , st ill second, dialed hIS speed up one notch to close on Mikkola, but then crashed. Entering a fast downhill lef t -bander . Hannah