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/127132
Holland's Kees Van der Ven piloted his KTM to fourth overall via a 72 score. Van der Ven is also fourth in the series standings. Kawasaki's Kurt Nicoll traded -4-1 moto scores with round one winner Dave Thorpe. Nicoll's second moto win netted him the overalL .. Thorpe's second overall performance (1-4) was good enough to maintain _ his 10 point lead over fellow countryman from England, Nicoll. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 2 Nicoll nips Thorp_e in Switzerland By Alex Hodgkinson PAYERNE, SWITZERLAND, APR. 24 England's Kurt Nicoll and Dave Thorpe _ resumed their battle for top gun at the Swiss GP with Nicoll edging last week's doublemota winner Thorpe by virtue of a second- 12 moto win. The riders traded 1-4 performances to tie in overall points for the day,' however, Team Honda's Thorpe still maintains his 10 point advantage over Kawasaki 's Nicoll in the championship poin-t standings. It was only in the final lap of racing that the English duo raced to their final overall positions on the rostrum as Holland's Kees Van der Ven, reviving KTM 's fortunes, stormed past Jacky Vimond to deny th e Frenchman the overall win after a sensational comeback to GP action by the Yamaha star. Vimond led both extremely dusty races from the first lap and only surrendered to Thorpe in race one, and to Ni coll and Van der Ven in the closing laps of rac e two. It was a magnificent performance from a man - who had been taken to the hospital one week earlier in Sittendorf with leg injuries. Sp ectators looked on in aghast as Virnond, fastest in training, chose a position on the unfavorable left-hand sid e of th e start gate, but th e Frenchman chose correctly to power the YZM Yamaha into an immediate lead. That meant that he was the only one in th e rac e who could see the track in th e early laps. " U nbelievable," said Nicoll regarding the track's dust problem. " I never even got out of second gear on th e first lap. You could see abso lu tely nothing. " Hakan Carlqvist said between motos, "T hey either water the track before the Junior race, or we don 't start race two . I have spoken to David (Thorpe) and Kurt (Nicoll), and they agree. We are risking our lives out there; Some riders cast caution to the wind on th e first lap and I lost several places, but I'm too old to take such risks!" One of the riders who was driving blind and going faster than he cared to was Thorpe. " I took more risks in those first few laps than I ought to have to take in my entire career," said Thorpe, . "b u t I knew it was necessary if I wanted to have a chance of winning. I was just praying that there was - going .to be no one laying on the ground when I went off the jumps, because it was impossible to see. I don't want to have to do that again, but I want my title back., " It would help if I could get good starts," said Thorpe, "but I just cannot get used to these backwardfalling start gates. I'm so afraid of hitting them because I know that if I do, I will be dead last. At least from 20th, I still have a chance." Indeed he had. The 25-year-old HRC rider battled from such a lowly start to eighth place after two laps, a nd two laps later he was past Mervyn Anstie Iorthird. In front of him were Vimond and Dietrnar Lacher. The German Lacher, who had shown tremendous speed on his 500cc GP debut in Sittendorf one week earler, was riding as immaculately as ever, but admitted after the race, "I haven 't been able to practice all week because of my shoulder and I started to feel the pain again after 20 minutes, Fortunately, I now have some tablets to prevent my forearms going numb, but I don't know if I will be able to make it to the finish in race two." But having only given way to the mighty Thorpe to finish third, the 22-year-old German 125cc Champion could say with pride, "Now I have proved I am a real man with a third place in a 500cc GP. I'm now called Dietmar. Didi is behind me at last." Thorpe passed th e German after 20 minutes, but was a full 17 seconds behind Vimond and wondered to himself if he could catch up. "I kept pulling back a second here and a second there, and I figured that if I got close enough Jacky would start to panic," said Thorpe. "When I got it down to six seconds, he started looking back and I knew I had him. Once I had dived past on the inside on a downhill , he settled for second place." " I was having some problems holding the bike on that particular section of th e track, " said Vimond. " I often go t into a wobble there, and it was clear that I had no hope to repass David, so I had to settle for second." , Lacher maintained third to the finish and it was Nicoll who eventually took fourth at the head of a string of riders who had fought long and hard with only the front man able to see anything because of dust. . " I had no idea what the positions were in front of me, as I came through except for the man right in front of me," said Nicoll. " T he dust was awful. I think I could have finished higher if we had not been grouped together. That made it even _ worse." Anstie had been the initial leader of -th e group, but dropped - back gradually to sixth. "I was feeling a bi t nervous after last week and my riding was a little tense, " said Anstie. " Kurt had a neat line to pass me on the inside and Erik (Geboers) had seen it. I tried to keep him back but he just went even tighter and got through." Fifth was not the performance which was expected from Belgian's Geboers, who struggled to come to terms with the track, while insisting that the shoulder he injured in the spring is not a problem. Van der Ven came a long way