Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

I I 00 C') CToptGeorgeaJobe....... worb Suzuld to the ovwaII1·1 win at G"arete. '-Iy. (Above IeftI Mik. Guerra ran out of luck when MIchaIa Margarotto hIghaldaclanci took the Husky rider out with hlm.IAbov. right) It8IIan rIeIer DoIca and Jobe diva down one of the baaudfuI Oa' ate hi...... World Ch.m~..shlp250cc MX Serl••: Roullfl4 lobe unbeatable in Italy By Jaek Burniele GALLARATE, ITALY, MAY 17 The battle for the 250cc World MX Championship continued to sway in the direction of present incumbent Georges lobe (Suzuki) when he sped to a glittering pair of race wins at Gallarate in No~ltaly: chances of his strongest rivals, the elegant young Belgian controlled both races on a very fast. stoney track in unruffled style. Neil Hudson rode strongly into the runner-up slot in the second moto, but his first race opportunity evaporated when he hit the stalled Yamaha of Norwegian Jan Kristoffersen on the opening lap. Restarting well downfield Neil was wiped out by an ebullient Italian three tours later and retired. Hudson nonetheless moved past Kees van der Veri (KTM) into second place in the title table. The amicable Dutchman suffered a disastrous day. Involved in a first race, first tum crash with compatriot Henk van Mierlo (Suzuki) and Raymond Boven (Husqvama), he could get no higher than 20th after 15 minutes before being eliminated by two more spills. His second outing was even briefer, squeezed into the ropes and crashing heavily through a rapid downhill chicane during the torrid first lap. Kees was left stiff, shaken and intless at the end of the day. Surprise leader of the pack as they hurtled up the hill off the start was Henk van Mierlo, but his Suzuki's petrol tap had not been switched on and he was hit by van der Yen, and angry Raymond Boven (Husqvarna) and a heanbroken Maurizio Dolce (Maico) as the pack engulfed him in the sweeping first bend. Matti Tarkonnen (Yamaha) fleetingly hit the front ahead of Jobe, Jean-Paul Mingels (Yamaha) and Amo Drechsel (Kawasaki), but Jobe flew high into a second lap lead as Dreschel spilled down to 14th. Undismayed, the tall Germandomiciled Italian student fought back to ninth at the flag, just failing to catch Dimitar Rangelov (Husqvarna) who had come off worst in an occasionally violent struggle with ~ren Mo~n (KTM) and Hcim Kinigadner (Puch). Mortensen, injected to kill the pain in his injured left wrist, rode heroically, shutting out the demonic Austrian right to the end, though they couldn't catch Sirno Taimi, the young Husqvama mounted Finn. Tarkonnen lay second until. on the penultimate lap, he was caught by Rolf Diffenbach (Honda) who hurtled by on some fiercesome downhill swoops after raging through from a tenth place start. Besides Hudson, van der Yen and Fritz Kobele (Honda), other early casualties included Magnus Nyberg (KTM) .who, unsighted in the dust, clipped a stack of trackside tires in a narrow uphill chicane on the first lap and split his petrol tank in the resulting endo. Michele Margarotto, phsyically sick through nerves before the race, crashed off the factory Gilera at the same spot one round later and brought down Mike Guerra (Husqvarna). '.'1 didn't want to get involved with anyone in the dust," commented Guerra later as he relaxed between motos with an ice pack on his left arm, "so I let Margarotto through and he immediately goes and and highsides it off right in front of me!" The luckless American was hit as he remounted and had to pull out, while at one-third distance Zdnek Velky, lying seventh, snapped his CZ in two on one of the downhill plunges and took AlbertO Dotti's Puch with him. ~ far, the packed 50,000 strong arena had been strangely quiet, but as Dolce stormed up the hill into a second race lead the lid lifted off and the terraces erupted! The fiery little Italian was displaced on lap two by Rangelov, and these two, with Jobe, broke loose and staged a blistering battle, accompanied throughout by thunderous waves of Latin encouragement. On lap nine Jobe ousted Rangelov from pole and began to pull away to a beautifully contrived ten second victory. One lap later, Dolce outbraked the big Bulgarian to deafening roars of applause, then Rangelov stalled and Hudson and Kobele were through. Hudson set about wearing down Dolce. This he did to such good effect that the explosive Italian eventually broadsided through the tapes on the second to last lap and the Yamaha forc~ past. Drechsel had stormed impressively through to fourth place, aided by Kobele crashing out with four laps reo maining. Rangelov narrowly held fifth ahead of Holland's Peter Groeneveld, benefitting from a newly kitted out Mugen Honda, and Hans Maisch (Maico). Kinigadner nailed Jean· Claude Laquaye (SWM) on the final lap but Dave Watson (Yamaha) throwing everything he knew into the attempt, just couldn't find a way round the tiring Belgian. Margarotto and Benny Wilken (Maico) were next, followed by Husky twins Boven and Guerra: hopelessly handicapped in the swirling dust by appalling starts. Tarkonnen had crashed on the third lap and Dieffen· bach on lap ten when, hard after Kinigadner, he struck one of the huge stones which littered the track and was thrown heavily over the front of the Honda. Mortensen, Taimi, Nyberg and Mingels were other victims of terrible starts, the latter's compounded by his handlebars breaking on the first big downhill. . The blinding dust, frightening on such a high speed track, had been Jobe's greatest ally, but the 20-year-old Belgian hardly needs such elemental favours on this kind of form. • Results 1.. MOTO: 1.'-; 2. Dielt._. 3. Tark_; 4. Ming*; 5. Taimi; 8. Molle_'. 7. Kinigedner; 8. RIngelov; 9. Drec:hoeI; 10. ~d. 2nd MOTO: 1. Jobe; 2. HudIon; 3. Dolce; 4. Drec:hoeI: 5. RanaeIov; 8. G r _ ; 7. _ ; 8. ~;9.~;,.0.W_. INOAlD CHAMPIONSHIP 250cc POINT STANDINGS: 1. Jobe 11011; 2. H . - 1511; 3. _ der V.. 1441; 4. Kinigedner 1331; 5. _ _ 1291; 8. T _ 1241; 7. ~ C221; II. Dolce C221; 9. Mcw _ _ • 1191; 10. MInD*C181; 11. W_I131.

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