Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Gerrit Wolsink leeds &eng! Aberg 116}and Roger DeCoster down the tricky startlfinish straight. DeCoster finished third while Wolsink was sixth in the overall standings. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 7 Bruno wins, Lackey, breaks, Noyce extends lead By Jack Burnicle BAUERN, WEST GERMANY, JUNE 24 . Jean Jacques Bruno, riding a works KTM, became the first Frenchman to score an overall win in a World Championship 16 MX GP when he put together a moto win and a fifth place finish in the West German GP. Close on his hffl~ was BeIKian Andre Malherbe on th.. works Honda who was seventh in the opening moto and then came back to win the second. It was a disastrous day for Ame,rican Brad Lackey as he seized the motor in his Uni·Trak Kawasaki in the first moto while running sixth and then struggled to a ninth place finish in the final motl?, reaping a grand total of two GP points. Meanwhile, British champion Graham Noyc.. maintained his narrow lead at the tOP of the championship points table over Dutchman Gerrit Wolsink. The pair put in determined rides that found them just one point apart at the end of the day· Noyce on top. Heikki Mikkola chose not to ride af· ter struggling to time 21 st fastest. Mikkola was apparently still suffering from a rib injury sustained in his crash in the Canadian GP. Local ace Herbert Schmitz hurled his Maico into a brief first malO lead ahead of Bnmo, Maico riders Fritz Kobele, Bengt Aberg and Ivan van den Broeck and Malherbe. Bruno outbraked the' German halfway round the first lap and proceeded to motor away in fine style, obviously relishing the slick, baked surface so reminiscent of his native France and pulled 10 seconds clear of Schmitz and an unexpectedly swift Aberg. Kobele, meantime, crashed and retired, while Malherbe survived two spills as his throttle jammed wide open and dropped to 17th position before staging a brave recovery. Noyce had gated 12th, but spun off on lap twO and lost four places prior to commencing the long haul back into the fray. By lap five Bruno, Schmitz and Aberg were clear of a titanic bat· tle involving van den Broek, Wolsink, Lackey and sizzling Roger DeCoster. followed distantly by Hakan Andersson and Noyce, Two circuits later DeCoster pitchedhimself almost simultaneously past Lackey and Wolsink and took off after Aberg and Schmitz. This pair swap· ped places on lap 10 as Lackey slowed and retired the Kawasaki, and van den Broeck slid off the Maico damaging his front brake lever and putting him· self back into the clutches of Gerard Rond. Less fortunately, Andersson, under severe pressure from Noyce, had piled his Husqvarna into a tree alongside Beuern's infamous triple ju,?p and crop) Brad Lackey leeds DeCoster in the first motu, before Brad's bite seized. !Above) PoInts Ieeder Grahem Noyce zeroes in on event winner Jeen.J1ICqI188 Bruno. Bruno finished 1-6 to become the first-ever French winner. was removed to hospital with leg and stomach injuries. For several hectic laps, Schmitz shut out every move by the forceful DeCoster, finally succumbing as the wily ex-champ cut iRside to loud and prolonged applause from the bubbling crowd and neatly stitched up the Ger· man counter· offensive. By this stage, Malherbe was breathing hard on Rond and van den Broeck. On the penultimate lap' he ripped past the latter, then dug a way through the stocky Dutchman's con· siderable defenses midway round the final tour to take a heroically earned seven.th spot. Bruno ran out a stylish victor, followed by a powerful stream of pur· suers; Aberg leading DeCoster, Sch· mitz, Wolsink and Noyce, who had hammered away relentlessly at the Dutchman's advantage without ultimately reaping any reward. Despite the possibility of broken bones in his foot after jammping it in the closing minutes of moto one, Bruno came out for the second race, apparently without any adverse effect on his sparkling form as he chased Fritz Kobele off the line in front of Malher· be and Noyce. The Honda duo quickly established themselves at the front, as Kobel.. unwittingly obstructed a buzzing train of prospective challengers comprising Wolsink, Aberg, DeCoster and Rand. Lackey was downfield and showing no ambition to be anywhere else. Van den Broeck crashed in a fast, slippery right hand bend and retired. Kobele was duly demoted to eighth place by lap eight as Canada's Stan Currington added to the triple jump's victims by dropping his Suzuki and restarting at the back of the field. Wolsink and DeCoster gradually wore down Bruno, eventually slipping past the gallant Frenchman on the half hour, Roger D. was especially im· pressive, consistently bounding up the triple steps in two gigantic leaps, to the appreciative cheers of his enthusiastic audience. Four laps from home, Noyce's long, hard pursuit of Malherbe was tern· porarily halted when he dropped the Honda in a loose hairpin bend,. but remounted without endangering his second place. The first four men were well spread out at the finish, but Bruno had come under increasingly uncomfortable scrutiny from Aberg until the grizzled Swedish veteran began to tire and fade out in the dying minutes. Behind them, Rond fell heavily at the same point as van den Broeck, damaging his already suspect right shoulder and pulling out in some discomfort. His misfortune enabled Lodal. riding his first Grand Prix of the year, to sneak into the points after losing out in a race· long duel with Lackey. . A conspicuous absentee from the points scorers was Belgian Andre Vromans, who lost ground sharply in the championship standings after en· doing over the lethal triple steps in the first moto and suffering gearbox problems in the second, • Results 1II Mote: 1. J_ Jocq_ lIfuno IKTMI; 2. Bengt Ab«g lM.il; 3. Roger DeC. . . lSuzl; 4. Herbert Schmitz 1M.i1; 5. Gerri' Wo_ lSuzl; 6. Grllhlm Noyc:a lHonl; 7. Andre MII_IHonI; 6. Gor..d Rood lSuzl; 9. IVln vln den B ~ II

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