Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

500cc World Championship MX Series: Round J Malherbe wins SOOcc G P opener in Austria By Alex Hodgkinson ' SITrENDORF, AUSTRIA, APR. 20 H o n d a ' s -th ree-ti rne 500cc World Champ ion, Andre Malherbe from Belgium , opened up th e 1986.seaso n with the victory in Austria despite defending World Champion Bri tain 's Da ve Thorpe winning th e fir st moto. Thorpe's potential maximum start in th is year's World 500ccMotocrossChampionship did his h opes n o good by trying to antici p ate th e sta r t a nd nearly going o ver the bars, while o ther fanci ed men to start th e year with a n uphill ta sk were his Yamaha teamm a te went " u p in stea m " at Sittendorf Hakan Carlqvist, Georges Jobe and when his left knee forced off th e. Heinz Kin igadener. radiator cap aft er asparklingopening The three works H ondas - in th e moto win to let arch riv al Malherbe reverse order of Geboer s, Malherbe into a commanding ti tle lead as the and Thorpe - were chasing " mega holder of the number-one plate wa s Maga" with Andrews leading Nico ll . left stranded with a seized motor at Before the end of th e first lap, Malthe bottom of the track. herbe had taken the lead , but it was a The two deadly riva ls n ever rea lly sh o rt -lived affair, as h e lost it on a cam e into a head on co n fronta tion as 'l o n g winding downhill and dropped the Monaco .resid ent dropped his to 11th. works Honda ea rly i n the race, while That was th e signal for Thorpe to Thorpe's freak retirement ca me after take over, but unwilling to tak e risks just three laps of th e second race. until he felt his rhythm co min g , i t Bu t th ereigning ch ampion had a lwas a quarter of an hour before h e Dave Thorpe (abo ve) won moto one in Austria , but the radiator cap on his ready co me from a n a wfu l start to pulled away from Magarotto and th e Honda came off in the second. equaling a DNF. (Belo w ) Andre Malherbe. pass Malherbe before going out a n d Italian even got ba ck alo ngs ide o n was full of confidence for the year three occasions. ahead. " I would have won th at rac e Geboers was clearly not h appy, Even a fter gett ing back to midfield, easily, " said Thorpe, " Ifelt ver y tense just like 12 m onths earlier a t this th e Swede had a nyth i ng but an easy for most of th e first h eat , but I now venue, a nd he soon ca me under presride as h e had to co me up aga ins t know I am the fastest." sure from a rapid-moving Carla , Jared Smith. The incident with the radiator cap whose chase from a fir st- lap I I th had Spen ce showed no respect at all for angered him: " Ever since we got th e been eased by a fall fo r Andrew s, the famous: " H e finall y stuffed m e . bike I have noticed I a m always po lwhich dropped him to 10th and th e on th e penul timate lap to get away, ishing the tank n ext to the cap with retirement of Nicoll whose ignition but I'd had him ,five times like th at my jea n s, and I had suggest ed that shor ted a nd fouled th e plug. earlier," said Jared. Honda bui ld mea tank which shrouds One lap a fter Geboers, Maga also Aga inst all th e long-held beliefs, the cap. N ext week in Markelowe fell to the mighty Swede but by th en Magarotto aga i n used the unfavored will have that, so it won't h appen T horpe had a seven-second cush io n , right end of the start ga te to lead away aga in ." which he kep t to the flag . . i n h eat two , a nd th e ra ce was 15As so o ften happens at th e Austrian While Malherbe was grittily threadminutes old before Malherbe even venue m any of th e ex pected front ing his way back to take th e Italian 's ca ug ht him. runners hit problems of one kind or third pl ace in th e closing laps, Geboers Even th en h e refused to be sh a ken another , but nothing co u ld detract wa s on the way down th e field, hi s o ff until a big crash , which left him from th e scintillating performance of decl ine m ade all the quicker when he groggy but nothin g worse. Persson Rob Andrews . fell a t the top of the hill under prestook up th e pursuit of MalherbehavRiding jobe's wo rk s Kawasaki , th e sure from Malherbe a n d rode the ing demoted Geboers after a quarterEnglishman lo st seco n d o verall o n ly fina l quarter with no rear brake. o f-an -ho u r a nd with th e Belgi an tako n the tie decider (an d h e would h ave With defending 250cc World MX ing n o ri sks wa s never far behind, but tak en runner- ~p spo t o n previous Champion Kinigadner a bag of nerves team leader Carlqvist was out o n lap methods for reso lving ti es) a fter two before his home public for his 500cc four, h aving spe n t tw o .laps revving sparkling rides . GP debut and Spence lo sing a lo t of th e guts off the bike with th e clutch Despi te a fall earl y o n when fourth , ground wh en th e front wh eel sl id in following a fall caused by a unreAndrews was seventh in h eat one aw a y o n loose stones early o n, the top sp o nsive motor which was not being after seeing o ff no less than three two KTMs were Werner Siegle and properly served by its power valv e. slipped behind the KTMs. world champions for the place, a nd Kees vander Ven , who fought a ra ceThorpe wa s also out by then, havSpence was all over van der Ven ended the second heat just nine seclong battle for fifth which wa s decided ing sw ept from around 15th to take but it wasn 't until the Dutchman got o n d s be hind winner Malherbe in in favor of the Dutchman, while a third from Malherbe in less than tw o into a tank slapper with two laps to ·fourth spot despite losing th e us e of recovering Andrews was a lonely sevlaps, while Kinigadner was another go that he got past: " It 's so difficult to the rear brake for th e final third of the enth for most of th e ra ce: " I co u ld well ba ck from another ragged start. pass here without stuffing your ophave gone quicker but had no one to Af ter falling to Persson, Geboers ponent, and yo u do n ' t do that to your race. Jared Smith got amongst the points •chase and it wasn 't until I saw the was soon being eaten up by a six-man own," said Spence. on his GP debut, while Kurt Ni co ll crowd three laps from the end that I train, Jobe leading Nicoll 'a n d Kinigadnereventuallygot through scored second time out after a frus~ ' realized Heinz was dosing. That was ' . Andrews with the KTM 's Siegle, van to a distant ninth, while R ei ter . d er. Ven an d Spence snapping a t their . . , boomed around to a magnificen t 11th trating first heat return to Team . . the incen tive to go faster and he n ever Green, and Laurence Spencescored ,'.,.got nearer,'" said 'Andrew~. · , '" .: . heels. ..' :" . . '.. ' .. on the four-stroke KTM having had a twice despite a number,of incidents . ·T h e Au str ian 'Sfina l ch ances o fi m < . Geboers went everiIurther down 's u p er ba ttl e with Noyce uri til the .wh ich ' restricted his tally' but co u ld . .: proving : .(;m~ .eighth ended.when he .> ' the' field a fter. touching.with Nicoll ; . plug cap blew off and eliminated the , nor.idisguise the ' fact that, he was .;' sta lled o n thdinallap: ! i ' :~::;:" -'.',:. ':.,-. ': as::~he. EnglishJPa·!1·~erit,'past . and" ." .,' Englishman, .' . ';' . . • " KTM's fastest m im. • :':': ,: . >.:,,,< ';, . . ·-Jo be was thankful that he had the ," , .. agamrt was Andrews who wascaus-: :~ R esults >.... : < ' :1 . ". . " H ea vyovem igh t "ra in lef.t . s.om e~> ·: D u n lo p. tu bel ess, tjye.s · oi" w hen ihe : " in g t.h e·sJiOcks: :<'";"-...' :: ',-' ..... /., t', . ' .. OVERALt.:: l :AridreMalh erbe( Hon):2. Leif Pers , • . . .' .. ' " . ' ' $on lYam); 3. GeorgesJobe (Kaw ); 4. Rob Andrews ' patches of the trackstill tricky.bu t ..: ,., p un ctured the.Iront tire after 25 min-v.. 10.;: H e rushed past'-Nicoll; a nd was (Kaw): 5. Werne r Siegle(KTM ): 6. Kees van der Ven ·fai led to prevent Sittendorfbeingthe '.', .: :: u tes and..lh e··reai: t wo lap s' later;:the > .. -...having rea l, go- ai ,Jo ~ ' when the :'. . (KTM); 7_ David Thorpe (Hon~ 6. Hakan Carlqvist . Iirst GP .this, year to be .i.un .i n. a.n 'y'·'. ·.Kawa.sa ki -tearri le,a a.er wo n a ., ",battIe,'·· . " Belg ian shut .th e' door 'a nd the Eng- c.'. .".' (Vam):, 9.• Hein z. Kin igadner (KTM); 10. M ichele . Maga rollo (Kaw ); 11. Laurence Spence (KTM ); 12. . thi ng other th an ' fil thy:'co!ld~ ii ons ;\ : ". P ~: 'ih e' troubl ed" Belgians'! ,,: ~9' ~ tak e.: '" .: lisl"!y ou~g'ster "st:tlled / nd 'bent' the . ' . Erik Geboers (Hon); 13. Kun Nicoll (Kaw); 14 . Jean and as the 500cc:chase made a belated ", ninth from Geboers. " , " .... . . rear ' brake pedal on a post .but got ' ,'_ Claude Laquaye(Hon); 15. Georg Reit er (KTM); 16. , Walthe r.Gru hier (Kaw); 17. Phil Larson (Mai); 18. · start after the Swiss postponernenra : Spence might .a lso have got past: . : going without.losing a p lace. '. " . Jared Smith (Kaw): 19. Corrado Maddii(Kaw): 20./ . Iortnigh t ea r lier , it was .M ichele. . ' G eboers, but he went down again o n . While jobe set after.Persso n , almost Gaudenz Gislar (Kaw ). ." . . . ., _ " MOTO ONE: 1. Thorpe: 2. Carlqvist; 3. Ma lherb e;' Magarotto who spri~too t? ' th e.fro T!f .. ' ,th e.!!n a! lap trying .to go around..the C ·.ea.t~ h i,n g him at . the: fi~ish , .~Nicol! . ; ". 4. Mil~arotto; 5. Van der Ven: 6. Siegle;7-.l'"drews ; from the u n fa vo red ngh t hand side of · (.'.-.: outsideand dropped to 14tli ; leavmg: '·. . tned to :take.advantage of-Andrews .: '. a K,"lgadner~ 9. Jobe; 10.Geboers: ., ', -. . ·'· . ' . ' " . ~' . .... , ,- " p -.. ' . 'h '1'\' h ....: ' .•:~ . ' :,". " h··· d ' " ' t: • ... . . k " "f ' 'h 'Ire .- ,.' .", MOTOlWO' f Malherbe'2 Persson'3 Jc>eb' 4 ' . th e gate> _. '. -: ...··...: -.':",: . :~ '. ' . i, .' ,,'; .: :.. , erssonto sn a tc ' _ . rom rin(ent~!l . _ ·: a n leap uut.}O~ ··t? O m_uc . ront , , " AndreWs; 5. Siegle; 8. Spe~; 7 . Van da'r V en: 8: " t .· Befo re the 'gate fell,. LeifPersson": hi l . . .. .' .P'Larson o n the Iinaltour. . . .... .. .'. brake on a do wnhill nght h anderand -:.'.. Nicoll ; 9.. Kinigadn er; 10 . Lsquaye.. ," . ," ; . " . . .. .,. . . ' . a. -. '

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