Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127131
American Jim Evans. who qualified fastest. powered his 1970 Seeley Matchless G50 to second place in the It alian Historic GP. Walter Villa rode a four-cylinder factory Benelli 500 to victory in the inaugural Italian Historic G.p at Misano. . over here. so maybe it 's just a fault in assembl y ba ck in Japan. We haven 't touched th e en gi n es inside after getting th em from HRC. Honda is working real hard on th e problem, but we're going to do our own development too at Carlo Facetri's shop in Bergamo, where we're based (near the Agostini/Marlboro Yamaha GP tea m ). and I hope. between 'us we can find the answers before the next round o f the World Championship Seri es in Hungary. It's rea l frustrating; we know we ca n ' blow anyone else off, just as lon g as -the motor keeps workin g good." Brave words fro m the confident American. w ho's become a hero amongst Italian crowds in spite of the fact he .hardl y speaks a word of Italian. With his retirement, second place in the race , behind winner Tardozzi, and the overall win was handed on a plate to Pirovano , with Jari Suhonen third to make it a I2-3 for Yamaha engines in th e second race. Bu t perhaps even more noteworthy is the fact that the Suzukis which dominate U.S. Superbike racing don' t even begin to figure in the results in the Italian series. which is run to FIM World 'Championship Superbi ke rules. requiring a maximum of 750cc (no overbore allowed) and street bike carbs or stock inj ection. Strange! • Results 1ST LEG: 1. Fred Mertel (Han); 2. Stephane Mert ens (8 iml; 3. Fabrizio Plrcvenc (Yam); 4 . Edw;n Weibel (Han); 5. Augu sto Clerici (Yaml; 6. Jar ; Suhonen (Yam); 7. Joe y Dunlop (Han); ' 8. Peter Rubatto (8i m): 9. St efano Caracchi (Due): 10. . Daniel Amat r iain (Due). 2ND LEG: 1. Davide Tardozzi (8iml; 2. Pirovano; 3. Suho nen; 4. Weibel; 5. Dunlop; 6. Clerici; 7. Caracchi; 8. Amarriain; 9. Georg ia Ban i (Bim); 10. Dan ilo Stocca (Yam). O/A: 1. Pirovano; 2. Weibel; 3. Suhonen; 4 . Clerici; 6. Dunlop; 6. M erkel; 7. Tardoni; 8. Men ens; 9. Caracchi; 10 . Amatriain. Italian Historic Grand Prix Road Race Villa's Benelli sings at Misano By Robert Fawcett Photos by"phil Masters MISANO, IT AL Y, AP R . 10 Four-time World Champion Walter Villa was the star of the first-ever Italian Historic G P at Misano. The race was organized by the IHRO in conjunction with promoters Flammini Racing as a su pport even t to the Superbike International races run over th e . . weekend. 24 Villa qualified th ird on th e gri d with th e superb factory four-cylinder Benel li 500 which he ha s on loa n from company boss Alessandro de Tomaso personally. th en romped a way from th e nostal gic push sta rt into a n immediate lead from which he was nev er headed. For th e first time since th e MV Ag us ta team retired from racing a t th e end of 1976, th e haunting exh a ust note of an Italian four-stroke multi -cylinder en gine was heard being used in anger on a race track. rather than in a parade or demonstration event. . When asked on th e podium how many of the 1969 Benelli 'en gi n e's 15,000 permissible revs he'd used in the race, Villa had only one answer: "All of theml " It certai nly sounded that way. Behind Villa's flying Ben elfi , which ran with P irelli P ha ntom road tires, came 'a large field of eq ua lly hard-ridden historic bikes from the born-again Continental Circus. headed by the unofficial '87 H istori c World Cham pion, Jim Eva ns fro m . Bri tai n on h is 1970 Seeley Match less G 50. Eva ns h ad q u al ified on th e pole, bu t had no answer to Villa a nd the Benel li in the race, even though he p u t the credit for Villa's win on the form er H arley-Davidso n star's riding. " I wouldn' t want anyone to think Walter just won because he ha d the fastest bi ke." . Evans said generously. " I foIlowed him for a while in practice and for the first lap of the race . and he was just brilliant. We could swap bikes. and he'd st ill win" Several excitirig battles enli~ened the race all the wa y down the field. with the hardest-fought that for third place between SWISS rider Franz Glauser and his immaculate 1971 Seeley G50 and IH RO organizer Alan Cathcart and his ex-Bille Nelson 1966 twin-cylinder Pa ton . which qualified second on the grid. Bu t th ou gh ts of emulating Vittorio Scatola's decisive victory earlier in the day on the latest 500 Pa ton in the European Cham pionship race we re set at zero w he n after a n unusuall y good start beh in d Villa. Cathcart's lP'een bik e was passed in a straight line by the British singles of Evans an d Glauser. "We've lost a lot of speed somewhere," sai d Cathcart ruefu lly afterwards. " T oday I kept passing Franz in the turns under braking and he would nail me again in a stra igh t line. It's supposed to be th e other way a ro u nd!" In spite o f th e Paton 's la ck of spe ed, th e two were even ly eno ug h matched to keep passing an d repass- ing, with a thrilling finale coming three turns from th e finish when th ey came upon a lapped 350cc class ri der. Glauser went to the outside. Cathcart dived for the inside. thus sandwiching the unfortunate Pa t Townsend's Duca ti. Townsend saw G lauser fir st riding th e curb on his left, moved over to give him some room. and smacked hard into the side of Cathcart's P a to n . Somehow a ll three m an a g ed to stay upright, bu t Gl a user was still just i n fro nt, and though Cathcart a ttached his Pa ton to Glauser's Seeley again in the las t tum, the Swiss rider managed to close the door on his British rival to take th ird. \ Equally close was the ba ttle for fift h, initially a five-way fight between former Ital ia n GP rider G ianni Perr on e on the 1969 Linto twi n formerly raced by Au stralian J o hn Dodds in the si xties. Du tchman Freek Berkers o n a nother period GP racer with Australian co nnectio ns, th is tim e the ex-Terry Denneh y 1968 Drix ton - H onda , Switzerla n d' s Claude Ma tt hey o n the ex-P a u l Smart 1968 Seeley G 50, Bri to n J ohn H old er a nd his Manx Norton , an d another Du tch ma n, Ed P assier on h is bellowing 1960 Keizer- BMW n a ttwin. a pushrod G P racer which was actively campaigned in G Ps in the sixties by builder Fra ns Keizer. Passier led the battle until gearbox problems dropped him back. Ma tthey suffered a similar p roblem a n d retired on lap four, leaving Perrone and Berkers to fight it out. The Italian managed to edge Berkers for fifth at the nag, with H older next up in sixth' after fen di ng off a last la p cha lle nge fro m Passier. The 350cc race ru n co ncurren tly saw former Swi ss 350cc cham p Heinz Kormann finish first in class and nin th overall on his 1966 Aermacchi. Duca ti-m o un ted Anthony Ainslie finished second in class, just over fou r seco nds be hind Korm ann and onl y two- ten th s o f a seco nd a head of Pa ul Barrett a nd h is 1968 H arl ey• Davidson. Results 0 / A : 1. Walter Vill a (Ben); 2 . J im Evans (See); 3. Franz Glauser (5••); 4. Alan Cathca rt (Pat): 5. Giann i Perrone (Lin); 6. Freek Berkers tOri); 7 . Jo h n Roy Holder ((Nor): 8. Ed Passier (Kei); 9. (lst 350) Heinz Korman" (Ae r); 10. (2nd 350) An t hon y Ainslie (Due).