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Wo__ld Championship motocross round-up atanabe, • esseev, Mikkola an dAmerica's best showin"g yet uocc W orl d Champion-_ .hlp MX Serle. X978:The year the red hot Russians didn't get it all their way By Jack Burnicle The 1978 250cc World' Championsh ip MX Series turned out to be far from the foregon e conclu sion many people had anticip a t e d followi ng th e co nvi nci ng dom in a tio n of the 1977 series by the KT M -m ount ed Russian d uo Ge nnady Moiseev and Vladimir Kavin ov, The reigning champion's results were uncharacteristia lly erratic d ue to a mixture of mechanical problems and crashes , while his gutsy teammate struggled throughout the season to red isco ve r his previously effective form . Bot h men ac h ieved just one m axim um score apiece a ll year - Moiseev in Sco tl and and Kavin ov in Fran ce, o n two very sim ilar ru gged , rocky tra cks. These signs of cracks in th e Iron Curtain armor co inc ided with something of a revelation in the co llec tive determination of the leadi ng Western Europeans T or lief H ansen , H ans Maisch, Britian's Neil Hu dson , and ex -champion Harry Everts . Consequentl y, a superb battle for the first six pl ac es raged throughout the yea r , and Mo iseev was unable to tea l his title until the first ra ce of the final round . wh ich place , fo rt uito usly, in his native USSR . It could be that we have seen the el imination of Russian supremacy through t h a t sheer muscular endeavour , wh ich has so far overc o me a relative -igno ra nce of suspens ion an d damping problems. . Second spot in the table eventually went narrowly to Hansen. We knew all about the b ig blond Swede. H e had been a rguably th e fastest 250 cc moto crosse r around for several seasons (remember his devastating vict o ry at Po rtsmouth in 1974?) and at the ag e of 29 his leg endary swiftness remained un d im in ished. He was th reatening to make 1978 h is la st year' in in terna tiona l cornperi tion and this, it seemed , added spi ce to his efforts , despite a demoral izing spate of heavy m id -season crashes, which d ro p ped him down to sixt h . place in the table before he st aged a scintillating twilight recovery in Fi nland and Ru ssia . Torleif d oes not d isguise his d islike of what he sees as an increasing tendency in world moto cross towards rough , d us ty, and potentiall y d angerous race tracks . T he Kaw asaki ace has ne ver been a n outstandi ng gater. co ming constantly a nd thrillingl y from mi d -fiel d in the ea rly stages of a race - such outright a tt a ck obvio usly r e d u c es safety m argins to a bare m in imum as. by his ow n admission , he ca nnot sit back and await developm ents, but must "go for the front." Bu t such inspired rides as he pr o duced in W est Germany, comi ng from nowhere in th e pack o n a searingly fast slip pery track in both m ot os, will be sadly mi ssed in 1979 if he stic ks by his decision to pa ck in . One point behind Hansen came Maico's home-grown Hans Maisch , lean , languid son of the fac tory boss , wh o scored persistently throughout th e year and was especia lly impressive in . front of his rapturous home cro wd . H e in turn was a single point clear of th e · indefatigab le Ka vinov. Und ou b ted ly an unexpected arri val in the leading half-dozen was English m an Neil Hudson. .His .proven co n -, , sistency and perenn iall y slick RatinR were suddenly augmented by hitherto undisclosed res erves of b ite and a ~ession, wh ich vita lly tra nsfo rmed his abilit y to hold pace with those in front into that of forcing a wa y past even h is fastest ri va ls. Eventually, after mounting the rostrum twi ce as th ird place man in Britain and France . " Nellie" took overa ll victory in Sweden ahead of Mai sch and Moiseev, but lu ck deserted him during the fin al two rounds of the series and his chance of ta king the second place slipped away,. Throughout hi s campaign , th e W est Countryman was ably su ppo rted by h is phlegmatic m echan ic and right -h and m an Paul Branson , to whom must go the cred it for the impeccable prepa ra tion and rel iability of Hudson 's Ma ico ma chinery . Should this effective partnership rema in intact next year. th er e must be a very real pos sibi lity of them taking the titl e. T hree po ints aste rn , in sixt h spot, ca me the likea ble Bu ltaco -rno unred Belgian Harry Everts , who had the m isfortune to break a wr ist a nd m iss t he American and Swedish rounds. Co m bi ned with a .p air of ducks in France , wh ere he punctured an d crashed , and engi ne ,b rea ker ages whilst within sight of vic tory in Czechoslovaki a and R ussia , this effec tively ended a challenge which had pushed th e little ' 1975 champ into a very strong second place after the mid -season British G rand Prix. Behind Everts, the continuing em erge nce of Sweden's quiet m an , H akan . Carlqvist , took him to seventh spo t in the table , his in creasing speed and co nfidence convincingly demonstrated wh en he won the second moto of Sep tember's Trophee des Nations in Belgium. Should Carlqvist remain with Husqvarna next year , he will help form a factory line-up of considera ble poten· tial. The spirited Chinese-American Chuck Sun , who came over from the States for the last four rounds on the 1978 series and impressed everybody with .t h~ fleetness and fluency of his riding. is undertaking a fully works- supported assault on the 500cc class next year. • SOOCC WOrld Champion- . h l p MX Series X978:The year.of the Flying Finn anda runner-up perfor- . manceby America's Bad Brad 'Lac k e y By Ch ris Myers No one was surprised when Heikki Mikkola clinched this year's 500cc World Motocross Championship . .. . Ieast of a ll the Flying Fin n him self. Back in Fe bru a ry this year Mikko la co n fidently pred icted that he'd win . H e wasn 't bei ng a rroga nt - he wa s j us t fa cing fact s. H e kn ew he had th e best bike , he kn ew he was super-fi r, and although he d idn 't say as much , he kn ew he wa s th e best rid er in th e . wo rld . T he results show that .Mikkola racked up a record 299 po ints total this year and ac tually clinch ed his third 500cc World title with three races in hand . He won 14 out of the 24 GP races and led the cham p io nsh ip points table from beginning to the end of the series . The o nly man wh o p ro ved capable 21