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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126987
Multi-time World Champion Phil Read (3) holds off Clark (28); Read retired when his Team Obsolete Matchless G50 gave way to a misfire. Malcolm Clark (2 8) and his Matchless G50 leads A lan Cat hca rt's Paton (11 ); Clark f in ished sixth w ith Cathcart end ing up seventh . IHRO Historic Road Race Series: Final round i Evans wins British Historic Finale By Robert Fawcett Photos by Phil Masters DONI NGTON PARK, ENGLAND , SEPT. 27 After a highl_ y-successful first full season bringing the growing worl d of historic racing to top level international meetings, the International Historic Racing Organiza tion (l H R O ) staged the last of its 1987 even ts as principal su p port rac e to the final Wo rld TT F-l round at Doning to n 28 Park. With all four winners of Historic GP events held so far this seaso n in th e field , it was some thing of a showdo wn: the result was a gripping, nail -bitingl y exciting 10-lap race over th e fuIl2.5-mile G P circuit, which resulted in th e narrowest of wins for Spanish G P victor j im Evans (Seeley G50 ), wh o took th e checkered n ag just 600ths of a seco nd a head of Bob New by's uni q ue fourvalve Mularney Manx Norton, aft er the two had tra ded the lead th ree tim es on the las t lap alo ne. " Wo w! Tha t was a cliff -hangert" . excla im ed a brea th less Evans afterthe nostalgic th rill er , which had mo st of the 10,000 crowd postponing p lans to drift ho me after the end of th e TT F-I race in favor of cheering on the finest selection of hi storic racers yet assem bled for a sing le suc h race in Bri tain. " Bob had a slight edge on speed, but this is the fir st time he's raced the bike with drum , brakes" Eva ns added.. And I co u ld tell he wasn 't really su re how deep he cou ld brak e in to the co rners. That wa s th e toughes t race I' ve had all year, but Bob can derive so me co nso la tio n fro m my win: he prepared my bike's engine!" Evans had been th e favorite for victory after qualifying, earn ing po le p osition a hea d . of th e s im i la r Matchless-powered Seeley G50 of David Dearden, a refugee from th e 350 class whose Aermacchi h ad blown up in another race the week before, ca using him to bo rrow th e Kentucky Fried Chicken-sponsored 500cc bike of Fred Walmsley. Third on th e grid was Du tch G P winner . Alan Cathcart, having hi s fir st race since breaking his leg in th e French GP in j ul y, a nd riding a revised Event ua l wi nner J im Evans and his See ley G50 narrowly topped 80b N ewby and his Manx Norton on the 2.5-mile Donington Park circuit. version of th e . twin-cylinder Italian Paton he regu larly cam paigns. " I have two 500 Pa ten s;" he exp lained, " o ne of which has th e good engine that Mau rice Ogier has . made so fast a nd reliable, but a chassis from a 250 whic h is four in ches shorter in th e whee lbas e th an th e other o ne, which is a '67 mach in e o nce raced by Bill ie Nelson in th e G Ps. With tim e in ha nd whi le I was off raci ng, we've pu t the good engine in th e lon ger frame, and whi le the han dli ng is much more stable a nd pr edictab le, I also ha ve to relea rn how to ride th e bike, it's so different from the o ther o ne !" Vintage Club Champion Malc olm Clark was next up o n h is sta nda rdframed Ma tch less G50, a fin e pe rfo rmance to q ua lify ahead of Seeley G 50 riders T ony Osborne a nd R ich ard Cu tts. New by was well down in eighth place on the grid, just ahead of Gand ia winner Dave Degen s on h is Triumph-powered Dresda spe cia l, and one p lace behind none o the r than eigh t-time former World Ch amp io n (includ ing th e TT F-I class ) Phil Read, ha ving his first ride in an IH RO event o n th e America no wned T eam Obso lete Matchless G50. After his stirr ing second p lace in th e Vin tage Support race a t th e Laguna Seca meeting in j u ly, Read ' Ielt he was back in th e groove after some years a way from racing - but ยท stillunable to tra ce an elusive misfire th at has plagued this p articu la r machine all year. " It runs fine till the engine ~ets really hot , th en the m isfire sets Ill, " said a disappo int ed Read. " We've . cha nged everyth ing you cou ld thin k of in terms of ign ition a nd carburetion, so it has to be some obscure problem inside the engine. I doub t if it'll run properly in the race , but you never know, so I' ll start and hope for the best." In even worse trouble was Du tch man Ton Groo t, 10th on -the grid a nd fastest of th e large co nt ingent of foreign riders : he brok e the cra nk on th e Gold Sta r engi ne powering hi s Seeley-BSA in unoffi cial prac tice, but an all- n igh t rebuilt by. tuner Arie va n Balen had the bik e rep aired and running 10 minutes before th e start of ti med qualifying. G roo t's gri d p la cin g o n a p u shrod ma chin e aga ins t th e more th orou g hbred racers was a m p le rewa rd for h is tea m 's endeavors, but less fortuna te was British vin tage racing ace j ohn Arm strong, wh o ran a bi g end in Andy Savage's Manx Norton a nd was forced to non-start. A sta rte r, but much further down the grid tha n usual in 19th p lace was Fren ch GP win ne r Da ve Hughes, who se exPeter Williams Arter-Matchl ess felt reluctan t to rev. " I hope it isn 't goi ng to seize, else I doubt T om (Arte r) will lend it to me again!" said a worr ied H ughes. The trad iti onal -style push start saw th e lead ers a ll get away toge ther, apart from Cathcart, whose hard-tostart Pa ton proved even more diffic u lt th an u sual th anks to h is recently-rep aired leg. A gripping seven-bike battle ens ued a t th e fro nt of the field , rem in iscent of th e heyday of N ortons a n d Matchlesses on British circui ts in the I960s, with Dearden , Newb y and Os borne taking it in turn to lead, wit h Richard Cutts occasionall y forci ng hi s wa y to the front and R ead go i ng we ll in amo ngst them a ll, and ho p ing the dreaded misfir e wo ul dn't return. Evans was p layi ng a wa it ing ga me a few ya rd s be hind , b u t found . h im self forced to fend off Swiss rider Franz G lauser (Seeley G50), who had by now begun to pick up the tricks 0 (- getti ng aro un d the awkward Doningto n tra ck fast, a nd was learning fast fro m the sextet in front of