Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

[1 tJ ~ (A bove) Sweden 's Leif Pers so n is chased by Belgian 's J ack y Martens. (Bel ow ) American Ron Lechien rod e a 125 Honda to a 12-5-4 fi ni sh. Holland 's Kees van de r Ven rode a 500cc KTM t o victory in the second moto. The Holland team f inished second overall. the picture on lap six. "I trashed togeth er with a lapped rider." said Kinigadner after ret iring for th e aft ernoon. " No th ing is broken , bUI both of my elbo ws gal bruised badly, as well as my hands. 1 reall y wasn 't comfortable on th e bike - it was th e same on e Dann ... Chandler raced. We didn't hav e en ough lime 10 gel th e bike set up th e wa y I wanted , a nd I fell loa cramped on it. " Lech ien had made a much bett er start th is lim e OUI , " a bo u t Zthh. bUI I gal roosted by Thorpe again. I cou ld see Srrijbos and Vehkon en .ahead of me. bUI 'it was still pret ty laugh 10 close in on th em. I didn 't wa n t to tak e a ny cha n ces. " T horpe and van der Ven pulled clear of Ba iley a n d fourth -p lace Ward ' by la p I I , whil e Lechi en was all th e way up 10 fifth, ahead o f Strijbos a nd Margerouo, On la p 13, Dutchman van der Ven made his break. " Kees had a better lin e than I did on th e jump o p posi te th e finish line," said Thorpe. " a nd he made it work this lime. If it had been a 40·minule race I co u ld 've gal him back , no. prob lem ." AI the finish it was van der Ven, Thorpe, Ward , Bail ey, Lechien, Strijbas, Margerouo a n d van Doorn, and the Ameri cans st ill held the ov erall lead by five po ints over H o ll a nd . I I 10 16. Aft er some qu ick ca lc u la tin g , U.S. lea rn manager Ro ger DeCoster det ermined th at a Iirst and a th ird by the learn (in any IwO classes) would assure them vic tory regard less o f what the Dutch team did. The drizzl e came 10 a hall just before the fi na l malo was started, and off the line va n der Ven, Thorpe, Ma rg erouo and Ward look up the firs t fou r SPOIS ov er Diepo ld, Denmar k's Soren Mortensen, Lechi en , Persso n and Bail ey. Thorpe p ush ed past van d er Ven before th e co m p letio n o f th e Iirst lap and ro osted a wa y. " I was mosl con cerned wi th m aking Ihe br eak ea r ly on," sa id T ho rpe. " I wanled 10 gel awa y. And il wasn'l really weI out there - il was jusl slippery, lik e Carlsbad wilhoul Ihe hea l (Iem pe ra lu res were in Ihe m id - 60s ). I must ad m i t, this is nOI m y favorit e tvpe of goi ng." By rh e six th lap things at the front of t he pack were pretty mu ch so rted OUI; Thorpe was five seconds clear of van d er Ven , with Ward a nother 12 seconds back in third ov er MargerOliO, Lechi en and Bailev, Lechien clipped pas t Margerotto on la p 10 to net : fourth behind teammat e Wa rd , a nd a t th e finish it was Thorpe the winn er by six seco nds over van d er Ven , with Ward a dista nt third a head o f Le chi en , Margerouo , Bai ley, Vehkon en, It a l ia n Corrado Maddii , Strijbos and Di epold . As it tu rn ed out, the Am ericans won wi th points 10 spare ov er H o lla nd , seven 10 12, with Wesl G ermany ea rn in g th ird via their 22-poillllall y (eve n a fter th e loss o f 500cc r id er Mi chael H eutz in th e openi ng m oro ), Th e Ita li an learn co ris ist in g of Marger ono , Maddii a n d Ri na ld i to ok fourth ov er Great Britain, but the Br i tish team was onl y a tw o-rider effort. KTM ' s Ku rt Ni coll su stained a broken right leg in th e second pracli ce session on Sa turdav, whi ch left only Thorp e and Ka~v a sa k i 125mo unted Rob Andrews o n th e roster. " If Kurt had been well , th e Yanks wouldn 't have won ," sa id Thorpe. " T he re wou ld have been no problem ." "It feel s real good 10 be on th e win ning learn," sa id Ward, a member o f th e U. S. rea ms th at won both th e Motocr oss d es Nati o ns and T ro p hee des N a rion s in 1983 and '84, " b u l l liked it bett er wh en everva ne was on th e sam e si z« bik e. Th is way, it's hard to sa y who ' s best: o u r team was defi nitely th e best , but I would've liked a cha nce to cha se Thorpe down o n a 500cc bike inst ead o f my 250 . If th ey keep th e format this way, th ey sh ou ld lise a staggered sta rt (by cl ass )." Bail ev, who wa s a lso o n th e victorious l\-lolO c ross and T ro p hee d es Nat ion s teams in 1982, '83 a nd '8·1, h ad hi s sh a re o f problems en ro llte 10 Ihe victory cere mon y. "Som e fat gu y o n a Cagiva ran m e a ll th e way illl o Ih e woods o n Ih e back senio n o f th e Irack in th e seco nd m a lO, 1 weill o ver Ih e wood pol es h old in g up t h e banner s, a n d ga l bann er s ca ugh t in . rnv rear wheel. It wa sn 't two co rne rs laier th at 1 cra she d after p assin g th e g uy back , th en I h ad 10 pass h im again . " In th e last heal, rnv arms and sho u lde rs wer e starting I ~ g o - 1 was gl ad 10 see th e wh il e fla g. " T h is pla ce was a lso th e locat ion for th e '82 Mot ocr oss des Nations, wh er e 1 was ca lled in to repl ace Donni e H ansen, An d thi s tim e I was ca ll ed in to replace Bror : I rode well eno ug h both tim es to bring th e team to a vict ory, It 's a go od feelin g." lr oni call y.rhe Belgi an team , whi ch ha s g iven th e U .S. t he m ost co rnpe riI io n i n th e tea m eve n ts. sta rte d th e race at reduced str ength. H onda 's Erik Ceboer s reinjured h is recent lybroken righ t leg in practi ce o n Sa tu rday a n d withdrew , leavi ng J ack y Mart ens and C uv va n Gij segem to 'fen d for th em selv es, with th e res u lt of eighth o vera l l. Andre Malh erbe refu sed to accept a spo t o n th e team du e to n o t recei ving sta rt m on ey for la sl y<'a r 's Motocr oss a nd Trop hee d es Nati ons , whil e Georges J obe is still recupe ratin g from in juries s ustain ed o n .lhe 500cc GP ci rc uit. • Resu lts OV ERA LL 1 USA; David Bail ey (Hon 5 00); J eff Ward (k a w 250); 3. Ron Lech ien IHan 12 5). 2 HOLLAN D: Kees van der Ven IKTM 500); Gert· J an van Doorn (Hon 2 50); Davey Sr ijbo s (Hon 12 5). 3 W EST GERM ANY; M ichael Heutz (Yam 500); Rola n d Oiepold (Kaw 2501; Diet mar Lacher (KTM 125). 4 ITA LY: Michele MargerOllo (Kaw 500); Michele Rin ald i (Suz 250); Co rrad o M addii (Cag 125). 5 GREA T BRITA IN; David Tho rpe (Hon 500); 2. Kurt Nicoll (KTM 2501: Rob A n drews (Kaw 1251. 6 CZECHOSLOVAKIA; Fran tisek Soldal l Kaw 500); Zdenek Spacek fKa w 250); Petr Kovar IKaw 125). 7 FIN LAN D: Jukka Si n ton en (Hus 500); Kurt Ljungqvist (Yam 25 0 ); Pekka Vehkonen (Cag 125). B BELG IU M ; Er ic Geboe rs (Hon 500); 2. Jacky M art en s (KT M 2501: Guy Van Gilsegem (Hon 12 5). 9 FRANC E: J acky Vimond (Yam 500); Oliv ier Per· rin (Kaw 250); Christi an Vimond (Ho n 125 ). . 10 CANADA: Allan Oycil (Yam 500); 2 . Mi chael Harnden (Ha n 250); Dou g Hoover (Yam 1251. t st M OTO: 'l . Thorpe; 2 . Bailey; 3 . vander Ven ; 4 . Kinigadner; 5. Wa rd; 6 . Ma rtens; 7. Vimond; 8 . Vehkonen ; 9 . Diepold; 10. Strijbos; 11. Rinaldi; 12. Lechi en , 13 . Scldat : 14 . Er iksson: 15 . va n Doorn ; 16 . Sintonen; 17. Williams; 18 . Kovar; 19 . M or tensen; 20 . Lac he r. 2nd MOTO : t . van de r Ven ; 2 . Th orpe; 3 . Ward; 4 . Bail ey; 5.lechien: 6 . Strijbos; 7. Margerono; 8 . van Doorn ; 9 . Vimond; 10 . Oiepold; 11. Ma rtens; 12 . Mortensen; t 3 . Kovar; 14 . Lach er ; 15. M addii; 16 . Sutzer; 17. Perss on ; 18 . Harnden ; 19 . Sin ton en ; 20. Thevenaz. 3rd MOTO : , . Thorpe; 2 . van der Ven ; 3 . Ward; 4 . Lechien; 5 . Margerono; 6 . Ba iley; 7 . Veh kon en; 8 . Maddi i; 9 . StriJb os; 10_D,epold; " . l jungqvist; 12 . Mortensen; 13 . Martens; 14 . La ch er ; 15 . Vimond; 16 . Spa cek ; 17 . Andrews: 18 . Su lzer ; 19 . van Gij . segem; 20. Perrin . 21

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