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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126979
Fin land's Kurt Lungqvist piloted his Yamaha to a 2 -3 fin ish for second overall. He's third in points behind Jobe and Kurt Nicoll. With one more round left in the 500cc GP series, Belgian Georges Jobe clinched t he championship with a fifth place in the first moto. Kees Van der Ven , f rom Holland, went 1-2 in Luxembourg to capture the overall victory. the third win for KTM this year. .World Championship SOOce MX Series: Round 11 Luxembourg GP win to Van der Ven; title to Jobe By Alex Hodgkinson KOHLENBERG, LUXEMBOURG, AUG. 9 Belgium 's Georges Jobe wrap p ed up the 1987 500cc World Championship title with a fifth place finish in the first moto at the Luxembourg GP. His nearest competitor, Great Bri tain 's Ku rt Nicoll was forced into the safety fence . h f' b d IX: t e ~rst turn y a way war BIlly LIles and was unable to 24 continue because of a busted radiator. This was all it took for Jobe to claim the title. The second moto, however, was the revenge of the defeated, as Nicoll stormed to a superb win. At the same time, the championship has turned into a battle for the silver and bronze medals, and Nicoll was chased home by the two other candidates for these placings - Holland's Kees Van der , Ven ar.td Finland's Kurt Ljungqvist, Van der Ven took the overall victory ' in . Lu:cembourg, giving KTM its third victory of the year. Van der Ven is now five points shy of Ljungqvist, After the timed training in which all of the big names were well down the list, it was L uc Bursens the surprise leader of the morning session. He stormed ahead of Van der Ven, Great Britai n 's Mervyn Anstie, Dirk Geukens and Jobe. In the first turn of the first moto, American Liles and Nicoll both were found on the ground. "I made a good start, " said Liles, "but the guys inside of me started to drift out, so I had to also. Suddenly there was nowhere left to go except straight on, so I had no option but to lift the bike up and let it go just before I hi t the fence." Li les battl ed back through the field to 19th. Nicoll was less lucky. "When Bill y straightened up," said Nicoll, " he took my front whee l away and I smashed straight into the fence. The radiator was co mpletely smas hed. The title was gone." Bursens' lead didn't even last a lap , as.he crashed to his more accustomed place way down the field, and Van der Ven just disappeared into the distance. "It was sli ppery in both races," sai d Van der Ven. "The rest of the riders just did n 't seem to sett le into their rhythm as quickly as I did." In his wake, Ge ukens and Jobe battled for second as Ljungq vist stormed inside Anst ie wit h the rest nowhere. " I dropped it," said Anstie, " but the rest were so far behind that I didn't even lose a place. Bu t it too k a long time to catch the o ther three again." . Well aware that he only needed an l l th place to clinch the cro wn, J obe was content to sit behind Geukens, but th en after half an hour, the soo nto-be World Champion fell, restarting just before Anstie, who n ipped past J obe while he was rega ining his composure. Ljungqvist, well awa re that Van der Ven was the man he m ust wa tch in the points ta ble, set off af ter Geukens and took second with three la p s to race. T he next pas t th e Belgian was Anst ie, wh o dived under him as the track dr ied out again a little after a midrace thunder storm . Jobe was fifth and that was enough to clinch the title. To the delight of the crowd, he crossed the line and was hoisted hi gh after bein~ showered wi th champagne. He IS Belgium 's 10th 500cc World Champ ion. The masses who crowded onto the track did no t delight Sweden's Lei f Persson. "I came in to fin ish six th a nd a photographer ju mped straight in front of me and we bo th Tell to the ground. Before I kn ew where I was, Jo Martens had smashed into us as he raced for the line with Jacky Martens. Why can't these people stay 0(£ the track!" Persso n already had cause for anger from an incident earlier in 'th e race. Austria's He inz Kinigadner had charged bru tall y under the Swede to overta ke him. Bu t Persson came back to pass him. Kin igadner, mean wh ile, slipped . backwards after the Swede retook sixth place from him. " I was very nervo us af ter my wi n last week, because everybody was expecting so much of me," said Kinigadner. "When Persso n came back past, I got filled in with mud and I just couldn't find my lines again after that. " The second mo to was drier and Nicoll was out fo r revenge. " In a way , I think missing, the first race gave me an advantage. Ceukens. Van der Ven and Anstie were all riding the o utside of the turns because they thought th e slick surfaces would still be too slippery, but I noticed it straight away and went inside all of them with ease. After that it was no problem to keep the lead." . Ans tie fell after clipping a fence. . H e had to stop and repair a sticking throttle cable, and eventually worked his way up to finis h 13th . Then Geukens dissap peared when his H onda lost all of its oil, and Ljungqvist moved forward to challenge Van der Ven, as Jobe slipped furt her and further behind. For a time, Jacky Martens even got in fron t, but the Belgi an event ua lly dropped to seventh, as Kinigadner and Persso n charged hard fro m mo derate starts. Li les was running up fro nt before falling la te in th e race. At the finish i t was Nicoll taking the win ahead of Van der Ven , Ljungqvist, Jobe and Kinigadner. Results 1. Kees Van derVan(KTM ) 1· 2; 2. Kun Lju ngqvisl (YamI2-3; 3. Geoges Jobe (Hon) 5-4 ; 4, Kun Nicoll (Kaw l 0 ·1; 5. Leif Persson (Yam) 6-6 ; 6. Heinz Kinigadner (KTM) 9·5 ; 7. Mervyn Anstie (KTM) 3· 13; 8. Jacky Man ens (KTMI 8-7; 9. Jo Manens (Kaw) 7·11; 10. Claudio De Carli (Kaw ) 11-9. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 500cc MX POINT STANDINGS: 1. Georges Jobe (304 ); 2. Kurt Nicoll (244); 3. Kurt Ljungqvist (208); 4. Kees Van der Ven (203 ); 5. Dave Thorpe (165); 6. Leif Persson (158 ); 7. Heinz Kinigadner (140 ); 8. Jacky Manens (127); 9. Claudio De Carli (118); 10. Jo Manens (10 71 . World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 10 Kinigadner wins Belgian mudbath By Alex Hodgkinson NAMUR, BEG IU M, AUG. 2 Au stria 's H ei nz Kin igadner wo n his firs t 500cc GP ever in awful wea th er condition s at Nam ur in Belgium . The tortuous track, which wi nds its way through the woods in the grounds of an old fortified castle overlooking the ancient town of Namur, is a difficu lt place to pass at the best of times, but today it was at its absolute worst, as tor rential rai n turn ed the track into a quagmire. A good start was essential and tha t was exactly what Claudio DeCa rli and Kin igadner got in race one. T he Austrian two-time 250c c Wo rld Champion is an ack nowledged master of the mud, but the performance' of the Ital ian was a revela tion. T he duo had a 10seconds lead over