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/126459
o 00 0') 20 and really duaty, and Graham got two good staru and had 45-second leads in a few minutes. Graham did good all year. but he isn't that good. By being in pretty good shape I came back and paaaed the third place guy but he ran me off the track, and I blew it and got fOUM. The aecond moto, Graham had a big lead again but Wolaink passed him, and I made up 40 aeconds and got aecond. So I got a aecond and founh. and I was kind of deprelled. Germany was next. Sunday morning I was fastelt in practice, which I'd say I was in at least six GPa. We had a largu cylinder and my bike was running like a rocket. We had over three hours on it going wide open and then in the race it seized. No reason. Not a mechanical fault, not the mechanic's fault, not my fault. It must have been a pinhole air leak. We didn't have another big cylinder 10 we had to put on a amaIler size cylinder and piston. This left us with a different size motor for the second moto and DO time to jet it. So we guellCd _at the jetting, and it was off 10 bad it was ready to seize. I had to cruiIe around and finiIbed ninth.. Then you went to England where you had _ the GP the last two JaIl. I won the tint mota. Then I got knocked down in the stan of the aecond moto. A rider slid into me and caught me under his bike and a big post marker. I had to kick his bike off to get going and I was back in old 25th again. But I got going reaIIy good. I IiIr.ed the track. The fiot moto was the easiest I had ever won. So I got up to founh place, and I'm passing some lapped Italian guy when he pulb over in front of me and Ir.nocks me off on a big gnarly uphill. That was the second time I hit the deck, and it was near the end of the moto. I just lost my drive then because I had been catching up to the leaders. Graham won that moto and had two-one to win the overall. In Switzerland I again blew it. I had a decent stan. I came over a jump and I clipped one of the big wooden poles they use to mark the course. I hit it with my foot and brake pedal, and it threw my leg back off the peg and over the seat. I was doing a kind of a Hannah, running alongside the bike, ~ off the baclr.. And the throttle's OD. iO the bike's going a. hundred and dragging me. You have to pull youraelf up without turning the throttle, which is pretty difficult at that point. So I pulled myself up and I go: Damn. what a save, I'm such a star! And just about that time I give it the throttle and the bike stops because the brake pedal got bent back. The brake locked up IOIid and I just lRDt: Oh. you dumb ... So I coasted. threw the bike down and kicked the pedal around and then I can't start the bike. I kick and kick until I'm dead last. I pulled over and aslr.ed Steve what place I was in. Thirty-eighth. I just rode around and finished. In the second moto I got founh. ''All these young kz'ds don't realize what 10 years of racing does to you. It takes its toll. " Holland was more engine problems. We got another new cylinder like the one in England and it was workiDf ~ne and then it blew up. The same tbing, we had to change moton again and I got an eighth in the second moto. We went to Belgium, and by this time there were only two races left, and I was getting very deprelled. I knew I wasn't going to win the championship. And I kind of wanted to go home. I tried to ride, but I didn't do a very good job, a lOth and an eipth. Graham had already clinched It the week before we got to Luxembourg. At this point I just hated life and everything. Malherbe took the stan. I came from the back, passed everybody and won the fint moto. Then Malherbe took the start again alId I came from the back and just caught up to him. Another lap or two and I would have passed him, but I spun out in the grass. I was getting a little excited. I went back to about sixth place. And I had to pus Roger and Gerrit and Rond again and I ran out of time. So I finished second. So I got a one-two and Malherbe got a one-two and he won the overaIl, 10 I blew it by spinning it out. You WOD sis..- 0lU of 18 fiDUhes.