Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Peter Hansson. 1985 ISDE gold medalist. is second in GP po ints. Jacky Vimond won round two of the 250cc World Championship MX Series in Austria. via a 1-1 tally. He now has an 18-point series lead . 250cc Motocross World Championship: Round 2 Vimond wins in , Austria By Alex Hodgkinson SCH UANENSTADT, AUSTRIA, AP R. 13 J acky Vimond survived p rotests from David Watson and Gert-Jan Van Doorn (see separa te story) to score an overwhelming double win and extend h is 250cc Motocross WorId Championship lead to 18poin ts in a snowy Austri an G P . That the Frenchman. who last year showed his ability in. 20 th e mud, was th e outstanding rid er, was never in doubt. In th e first rnoto he lapped a ll excep t Van Doorn and Michele R in aldi on his wa y 10 a three-and -a-half minute win, and on ly five gritty rivals avoided seeing h im surge past th em at som e time during the second moto, in which he beat Peter Hansso n by 32 seconds. Full of co n fidence before racing, Watson battled gamely to si xth and eig h th p laces after a series of on-track esca p ades to move into fift h in th e table, albeit 34 p o ints adrift of Vimond. Already in timed tra in ing Vimond had co n firmed hi s mud-mastery and his per form ance in th e first race was devastating. Cresting th e main hill - reinstated for the stan because th e FIM-ordered a lte rn a tive was rea lly dangerous - just ahead of Rinaldi , the Frenchman sp rinted away to build a lead o f over 30 seco nds within two laps. Van Doorn was soon past th e Italian but showed no sig ns of scoring a thi rd successive Au strian GP win, even though he was a safe second until th e closing minutes. " I just concentrated on riding m y own rac e. I fell twice but n ever lost m y pl ace , " he said during the in terva l. . Watson , meanwhile , followed Hansson past Kun Ljungqvist who had decided that the recipe for success was a less hectic approach than in Venray. The 21-year-old Hansson emulated his Venray showing and lost almost a la p with a heavy cra sh , but Watson was a lso having to fight back from a fall on lap four. By halfway Watson wa s back on R in a ldi 's heels with Leif Nikla sson a nd Arno Dresch sel in pursuit. With four lap s remaining, Wa tson swep t as ide th e Italian but had to make way himself for th e KT M man as Niklasso n cra sh ed o n a downhill and joined th e la pped riders. With Vimondbearingdown on th e third place batt le, Drechsel slewed across th e track as th ey took th e two- la p board, co ll id ing with Wat son. Wats on went down an d badl y bruised h is left forearm: Rinaldi nipped by th e pa ir o f th em with Drechsel having a lo w-gea r g rind up th e hill. Van Doorn had beenrapidl y fallin g into th ei r clutch es a nd o n ly just held off Rinaldi , while th e regular Ljungqvist a lso passed the lu ck less Watson, wh o had gone down. Vimond added a final d ramatic in cid ent as h e threw his Yamaha away a few ya rds a fter taking the flag. "T ha t was the only trouble I had all race, apart from . burning my hands a littl e through using woolen gloves," he declared afterwards. Banks wa s taken d own by jo Martens on th e exit from turn one and a fter being rammed again later Protest in Austria struggled to 22nd - a disappointm ent aft er his seventh-fa stest trainin g tim e. After th c drama before th e sta n, Vimond took o n ly a few co rne rs to get p a st Nikla sson in race two, a nd with the Swede ra p id ly dr oppingto fifth beh ind Van Doorn, Hansson and Rin ald i. Wa tson had adva nced to six th af ter a lap-and -a -ha lf before bein g taken o u t by Aloi s N iederma yer. The sh unt took pl a ce on th e co rner a t .h e bot tom o f th e most troublesome hill a nd Watson was down to 20th a fter st ru ggling 10 th e top. Hi s goggles gone, h e al so suffered vision problems late in th e ra ce a nd sevent h was a brave effo rt. In 15th o n lap one, Banks was goin g better but he fell victim to th e hill on lap two before battling back 10 14th a nd fin all y ca lling it a da y a fter going do wn three times in one lap. R inal d i wa s in trouble ea rly on with a sticking needl e in th e car b and he went down to 11th wh en he stop ped for adjustments, before co m ing back stro ng ly to dem ote a tired Van Doorn on the penultima te lap , th e Dutch man having lost seco nd to Hansson much ea rl ier in th e race. T he Swede showed su perb form and ac tua lly reduced Vim ond's lead from 40 to 25 seco nds a t one point. Peter johansson, a firs t race vict im o f a seizure , dealt effectively with a tiring Nikla sson as three Swed es finished in th e top six, despite th e total failure of th eir big two . Anders Eriksso n hat ed th e co n di tio ns from th e word go o u t o f a n xie ty for hi s longtime knee inj ury, while jorgen Nil sso n holed hi s radiator in ra ce one, seizing th e motor, and failed to stan race two. Drech sel co u ld n' t repeat his first ra ce form aft er two big get-offs in the ea r ly laps, but Ljungqvi st rode through powerfully aft er going down at the sta n. By Monday morning the sun was sh in ing gloriously again ! the a utumn congress of th e FIM it was decided that in the fut ure mass protests were no longer a llowed . Co nBy Alex Hodqkinson sequentl y the protests were inva lid The let ter of the la w and the and not offi cia lly di scussed ," turni ng of a bli nd eye were ' Before h earing co n firma tion of his taken LO a ludi cro u s extreme win, Vimond had signa lled his intention a p pea ling 10 the FIM Conon Sunday as protests by Da vid gress ofthe Honda protest was upheld. if Watson and Gen-jan Van Doorn He was basing hi s a p pea l on th e were rejected without discussion by grounds that there was not th e sta tuth e FlM international jury at the tary 90 minutes between th e two Austrian 250cc GP. motos because o f th e leng th of race The drama began wh en race winner one (48 minutes - with th e seco nd j acky Vimond and seven others failed rnoto starting at 4:02, th e break was to get their bikes in th e pre-pare the in fact 89 minutes). But now th e Britrequired 10 minutes before the sche- ish and Dutch Honda teams must be duled 4:00 p .m . stan of race two. considering a similar a p pea l 10 the British juryman Dcnis Slaughter FlM. instructed th e marshals to prevent The facts are thai: I) Vimond not th e eight from entering the pre-pare only arrived 100 lat e, but never en tered and rushed off to co nsu lt jury presi- the pre-pare: 2) both protestcrs had dent Ken Lywood. included all late riders in order n0110 Bu t with the start time approach- be accused of singling out Vimond; ing and th e riders that were already in 3) neither protester was advised of the the pre-pare allowed 10 set off for the technical irregularity of their prostan line, Vimond and the ot hers .tests, bu t both 50 Swiss Franc fees sto rm ed around the pare and joined wer e confiscated: 4) the cha nge in the line-up a t the gate. rules on protests is nOI inel uded in Du tch Venko Honda . team-boss the 1986 FIM Annuaire. G crrit Wol sink irnrnediatel advised Lywood suggested af terwards tha t officials of Van Doorn's intention to th e rule cha nge was intended to preprotest, but no actio n was tak en to vent mass protests for the basic fee: if prevent Vimond from starting, and they had known , both parties wo uld winn ing by the proverbia l mile. ha ve been willing to put up a tota I of Van Doo rn and Wat son entered 400 Swiss Fr ncs. a protests immediat ly a fter th e ra ce . The situa tio n is co m para ble La the aga in st the lat e arrivals , but th ese disqualification o f Davey Strijbos for were rej ected by th e jury without technical infringem ent of th e rul es at di scu ssion . la st yea r's G erm an 125 cc GP . Presid ent Ken Lyw ood said, "At Virnond's 20 poin ts a re not yet safe.

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