Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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, ~. . .~ Andre Malherbewent 1-1 in Italy, moving to second in points. (File photo) World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 6 Malherbe perfect in Ita y By Neil Webster MACERATA, ITALY, J UNE 6 Belgian World Champion Andre Malherbe proved he is still capable of taking his third 500cc title in as many years with a double win in Italy, His victory was tinged with an element of luck as the runawa y leader of race two; Suzuki's Brad Lackey, fell four laps from the end to let him th ro ugh. Bu t the Belgian 's ret urn to form in race one was empha tic. Second into the first turn behind loca l favori te Fra nco Picco (Yam), Malherbe took hi s Honda to the front on the second circuit and stayed there H e now goes to second in th e series, trailing Lackey by 10 points, but he feels it is a strong position to hold at this stage of the season. "T he bik e has now been set up correctly so I ca n get good sta rts. Wh en you mak e good starts it is easi er to win ," said Malherbe. " I thi nk I can now ride just as well for th e rest of th e year a nd I ca n tak e th e ti tle. I have turn ed th e corner. " Race one got off to a terrible start {or the' British- wi th -Dave Thorpe, - . -. "•• ·t~·~ I -' • •••• Graham Noyce and Neil Hudson gating poorly and being left together in the middle of the pack. Thorpe and Noyce battled with each other to climb through the field , Noyce dived for the same inside line as Thorpe and both went down. "After the bad start I was just getting going when I went into a bend behind Thorpe and accelerated faster than him. The bikes tangled and we both fell ," said No yce. Thorpe remounted first , but dropped out of the race two' laps later when erratic Ma ico-mounted Italian Pietro Michele put an end to the teenag er' s dash through the field by forcing him wide and almost into the crowd on another bend. " After that I just decided I had no ch ance of getting back into the points and thought I should save myself for race two ," said Thorpe. He rode strongly in the second moto to salvage fifth and six points from the race and edge one place up the championship ladder to sixth. Noyce stru~gled hard to make up ground lost In the fall and clawed through from 23rd to ninth for his only points of the day . His second outing lasted less than a lap when he dropped his Honda again after another bad start. "Then I couldn't kick the bike back to life and by the time it was going I was dead last and there was no chance left," he said. Hudson turned in a solid ride in th e opener to edge his way into fifth behind Hakan Carlqvist, but as he changed his line through a bend in an attempt to get by, hard charging Lackey went through on the normal line. pushing Hudson down to the sixth he held at the close. Lackey had also recovered from an awful start which left him down in 17th on lap one, and he had to ride with his rear tire almost torn to shreds by the stony tra ck. Lack of rear-end grip led to Lackey falling from fifth to seventh as his Suzuki slipped away on a sweeping bend and put him on the ground at three-quarters distance. H e managed to retake Hudson, however, for a couple of vital extra points which leaves his series lead unchanged at 10 points. A fall also lost Lackey valuable points in race two. After leading from the start of the race Lackey built up a massive lead ahead of Malherbe until gremlins struck with only a few laps left. "I don 't know what caused it . but the front brake jammed on as I came down a hill and it just pitched me over the top," he said. The fall let Malherbe through but it would have been worse for Lackey had not third place Andre Vromans dropped his own Suzuki on the same hip. Lackey mounted a fierce charge to get his lead back, bu t time was not on h is side and Malherbe took the flag with just over a second to spare. Vromans ' fall allowed Hudson to scrape in for his third. but Belgian Vromans had already tak en second in race one, and he took second to Malherbe overall. The Suzuki rider also kept his place as the potential dark horse of the season. to hold third spot in the series, only six adrift of Malherbe. Carlqvist con tin ued to scrape together a few points with a first race third, but still has to nurse an injured wrist, broken at Easter. Thejoint was not strong enough to see him through race two. With onl y two laps gone the Swede could not hold his Yam aha as it bu cked down one of th e steep Italian drops, a nd he wa s thrown off and out of the race as he fell heavily. "My wrist is still too weak to race preperly,!··hesaid.,·q{ was not strong enough to'h~ld on so I fell. It wa~ itot my day ." Riding a 1981 works Honda for the first time. American Gary Sernics was a man with a mission-to prove he was good enough for full works backing. In race one he went hard from the off and held third until three laps from the close when Carlqvist picked h im off , pushing him to a still creditable fourth, the only non-full works rider to get in th e first six. Riding just as strongly in the second race , Semics moved into fifth after holding Thorpe at bay for a long time, but then hit a bump while going too quickl y down a drop and collected a sprained hand as he hit th e deck . He got back on to take a courageous seventh but had to wrap his hand in ice packs as soon as the race finished. "It could have been a lot better. but I am quite happy with two pretty good rides ," he said. . Home hero Franco Picco meant to produce the goods for his fans, and he collected his first points since the season opener in France in the process. Leading from the start of race one, to the joy of the fanatical Italian crowd, Picco couldn't stay with the pace but held on for a good seventh, behind Hudson. He also led into bend one in the second race but a fall saw him complete the lap in 23rd. With the cheers of the crowd worth an extra two seconds a lap, however, Picco made a brilliant recovery, scything through the pack to come home in eighth. Fellow Italian Pietro Michele gave the fans something extra to shout about by chalking up two surprise scoring rides . in ninth and 10th. Young Finn jukka Sintonen continued to look good, but was still too prone to cra shing. H is first race came to end in the earl y stages. Again in race two Sintonen got a flying start and after holding second for the first two laps settled for fourth with Neil Hudson right behind him. Hudson managed to get through after a long battle, but then the Finn fell again and lost another place to Semi cs. Thorpe finally pushed Sintonen into sixth as he charged through for his fifth spot. • Results 1. Andre Molherbo (Belgium · Han); 2. Andre Vromanl (Belgium - Suz~ 3. Bred Uckey (USA • Suz); 4. Neil Hudson (GB • Yam); 5. Gery Soma (USA · Han); 6. Hoken Cerlqvist (Sweden · Yamt. 7. Franco Picco (Italy - Yam); 8. DlMI Thorpe (GB Kaw); 9.Jukka Sintonen (Finland - Yam~ 10. Petrick Fura(France · HUI); 11. Pietro Michele (Itely- Mail; 12. Graham Noyce (G8 • Han); 13 . 80 Edberg (Swede n- HuI ). 151MOTO: 1. Ma lhorbo; 2. Vromans; 3. CerIqviIC 4. Samics ; 5. lackey; 6. Hudson; 7. Picco; 8. Fura; 9. Noyce; 10. Michele. 2nd MOTO: t . Melharbo; 2. Leckey; 3. Hudson; 4. Vromans: 5. Thorpe; 6. Sintonen; 7. Somic:s; 8. Picco; 9. Michele; 10. Edberg. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTSTANDINGS: 1. t.ee:key(I04I; 2. Malherbo(94): 3. Vromans(BB);4. Hudson (87t. 5. Noyce (78); 6. Thorpe (66); 7. Bruno (5 1t B. Semics (401; 9. Simonen 134~ 10. Cerlqvilt (33). World Cha mpionship 2SOcc MX Series: Round 6 LaPorte lands first GP win in France By Neil Webster . CORSEUL, FRANCE, JUNE 6 Danny LaPorte took the overall victory at the French 250cc MX GP, thanks to a first race win. . . . -_. . . .