Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Suzuki rider Jeremy Whatley went 1-4 for the 250cc overall. John Van den Berk co llected a pair of thirds to claim second overall in the opening round of the World C 'ship 250cc MX Series in France. 14 through the pack to finish in Anstie's wheeltracks and Carlqvist, who condemned the condition of the track as dangerous because the dust restricted vision to a few feet, claimed eighth. The promised track watering before the second moto was too little. Despite promises to water half of the track, only one downhill was soaked. After len gthy discussions on the start Iine by the top riders, they agreed to start. The watered dowhill was to p laya prominent role in the first lap happenings. With Vimond once again quickly into the.lead, he stormed past Claudio De Carli, Thorpe was sitting in a comfortable seventh with Nicoll in his wheeltracks. But Anstie was right in front of Thorpe. ''I' m embarrassed to have to say th is, but a fellow Englishman rode rather crazily o n th e first lap," T horpe sai d. " We were a ll ta king it carefully on the watered section of th e track which was now extremely slippery, except for Mervyn (Anstie). He lost control and took me down. Another rider was unable to avoid me. That is why my shirt is ripped to ribbons. From then on it was just hard work." Eyewitness Nicoll: ."Mervyn just lost co ntro l as David took a line inside him. The impact kept Mervyn o n and David went down." But for Nicoll, th e sight of the crash m eant he needed no signals to tell him that Thorpe was way back in the pack and the chance of 20 points was there. He completed the first lap 10th, and advanced to sixth on lap three by passing Anstie. Lacher fell and soon retired with the strains of the first race telling on him after an excellent start in fourth place. Vimond, once again, escaped from the pack as Nicoll set about catching the Kawasaki trio of Do lce, De Carli and Geukens after a fall fo r fifthplaced Carlqvist h ad gi fted Nicoll one p lace . Carla the n had to sto p to straighten the ' ba rs before a final powerful charge took h im back fro m outside the first 15 to 10th. When the lesser rivals wilted in the heat as the race went into its second half, Nicoll took over second place with four laps to ride. Vimond h ad a 10-second lead, but that was halved within a lap. "I was getting very tired towards the end," admitted Vimond. "Once 1 had Jacky in m y sights, 1 knew the race was mine as he was starting to make a lot of mistakes," Nicoll said. " I passed him at the same . p lace where David had gone past in the first race." But still the overall would go to Vimond as it was clear that even a great fight back from Thorpe was not going to take him to th e third he needed for the overall. Van der Ven, however, was charging hard from 15th on lap one. In a dramatic final lap the Dutchman used his head to get past Vimond's Yamaha. "There was a jump before the double which was throwing the others high into the air," Van der Ven said. "I lifted the front wheel on the approach and £Iattened the jump. While J acky was losing time in the air, 1 had th e rear wheel back . on the ground and raced away. I used the same technique when I beat Thorpe at Gaildorf in 1985 at the Nations race." Vimond's fairy tal e GP win disappeared as he totaled just o ne point less than Nicoll, and with Thorpe charging past Geukens on th e fina l lap, the Frenchman dropped to third overall. While Nicoll wa s delighted with his win , Thorpe wa s frustrated with his defeat: "I don't ever lik e to lose, but I particularly don 't lik e it when Kurt and Kawasaki are those who beat me," Thorpe said. HRC teammate Geboers had another frustrating rnoto. H e hit the start gate and was dead last, and could only recover to ninth at the finish, running in the middle of the six-man, high-speed train which crossed the finish line. "It was my own fault at the start," said Geboers. " It's another not-sogood day, but jobe had only a couple more poi nts than m y total after two GPs last year." Kurt Ljun gqvist finally started to show some good form to finish seventh ahead of j ared Smith, who proved that his first moto show was no fluke after his non-qualification in Austria. Mark Banks h ad again been in the leaderboard battle until he collided with an out-of-control Geboers in the second half of the race . "Erik was right out of co ntrol," Ban ks said. " He went into Anstie a nd then bounced off into me." Banks was a lonely 15th a t the finish. Ans tie had gradua lly dropped back from a good start to finish 13th. " I was struggling with lines. It wasn't a good race for me but at least 1 scored," he said. For America the weekend was one to forget. . Billy Liles had a big crash in qualification o n Saturday ana wrenched his left shoulder. Despite massages from a specialist, Liles had to pull out of the second race, leaving a battle with teammate Franco Rossi for th e final points with a seized motor in race one. Goat Breker just .wanted to forget the whole thing. " I need to .get my bike sorted out. I know 1 can ride the same pace as th e leaders, but not with the bike the way it is. I've got a real shock over here. The guys race at an amazing speed in qualification. That is so hard. They just ride wide openand hang on to make the fast lap time. And the tracks are so varied. I understand n ow why the results change from wee k to week. .Breker struggled to 30th in race one, having been la p ped at the halfway stage, before pu lling out of th e second. "I got la p ped again, but th en I sta yed with Virnond for a lap before crash in g. I can go th eir spee d, but if I try it on this bike, as it is now, I'm going to kill myself. • Results 0 / A: 1. Kurt Nicoll (Kaw) 4- 1; 2. Dave Thorpe (Han) 1-4 ; 3 . JackyVimond (Yam) 2·3: 4 . Kees Van der Ven (KTM) 7-2 ; 5. Eric Geboers (Han) 5-9; 6. Dirk Geukens (Kawl 11·5 ; 7. Mark Banks (Han) 9 ·15; B. Dietmar Lacher IHon) 3 ·0; 9 . KUrl ljungqviSl (Yam) .13 ·7; 10. Mervyn Anslie (KTM) 6-13 . POINTSTANDINGS: 1. Thorpe (73~ 2. Nicoll 1631; 3. Geukens (37~ 4 . Van der Ven (KTM); 5. Vimond (32); 6. Hakan CarlqviSl (31); 7. Eric Geboers (30); B. Banks (23); 9. Michele Magarono (22); 1D. Franco Rossi (21). World Championship 250cc MX Series: Round 1 Whatley jumps out front in France SALIN DRES, FRANCE, AP R. 17 Br i ta i n ' s J er em y Whatl ey scored th e overall win in th e opening ro und of th e 250cc Grand Prix season at Salindres on the French Riviera. Whatley wasn 't considered a pre-race favorite since he had competed only once in pre-season international races, but when' the gate dropped for moto o ne Whatley erased all doubts as he went from start to finis h with the lead. A fourth in moto two gave the Englishman the overall victory. Reignin g l 25cc Wo rld Champ ion j ohn Van den Berk proved th a t he will be a threat o n the larger machines as he took ru n ner-u p honors with a pair of thirds. Local favorite Yannig Kervell a combined 2-7 scores for third overall. Rodney Smith" was the top American at fifth overall behind Gisuseppe Andreanni. The win puts Whatley at _ e top th of the points standings with 33 points, three ahead of Van den Berk. Several of the top contenders were knocked out of the running before Sunday's race even began. Yamaha 's Rob Herring, riding with a plastic cast on his injured left wrist and a left ankle injury heavily taped after jamming it under the footpegduring Saturday's training, Herring struggled for 13th in moto one then retired in race two, not to return u ntil the fourth round in Czechoslovakia. American Ricky R yan , Marc Velkeneers and Michele Fanton were elirnated in Saturday's wet and cold ' training sessions, and form er world champ H ein z Kinigadner broke his hand in timed training. When the ga te dropped for the start of the first rnoto, Heron Suzuki's Wh a tley sprang to. the fro nt ahead of Gert-jan Doorn , Ro land Diepold , Van den Ber k and Kervella, A few turns from the start former 125cc World Champion Pekka Vehkonen collided with another ri der over a tab letop jump and tumbled off his factory Cagiva. He recovered and charged back for five laps u n til he had to pit to free a sticking throttle and fina llv finished 18th . Another early casualy was KTM's P e ter Hansson, who crashed and wa s carried off with a suspected broken leg. Out front Whatley was getting pressure from van Doorn, whose works Cagiva developed a lea ky oil seal w hich eventually forced h im out. Kervella had charged up and took second when van Doo rn retired, whi le Diepold, Van den Berk and Adriano Ferrarini diced for third. Ferrarini eve ntually wrestled the posi tion away and was attacking Kervella, but with o ne lap to go he crashed off an uphill ju mp. Wha tley took the wi n ahead of Kervella and Van den Berk, whi le Peter Dirckx moved up to take fourth from Soren Mortensen. Van den Berk grabbed the early lead in moto two . A first-turn pileup claimed Farranini and broke the leg of New Zealand's Darryll King, who was making his Grand Prix debut and finished I I th in the first moto. Vehkonen fell again on la p two, dropped to the back of the pack the n fought back to II th at the end. Rod n ey Smith, who had crashed out of seventh in the first round, took the lead from Van den Berk 20 minutes into the 45-minute rnoto . But it was 30-year-old Andreani who forced his young rivals aside to take the point and hold off several challenges by his rivals to take the win. Van Doo rn made a charge late in the race, but a rock in the eye slowed him drastically. Whatley passed the injured Van Doorn, who fought o ff jorgen Nilsson, then closed to within three seconds of Van den Berk. At the finish it was Andrea n n i ta king th e checkers first followed by Smith, while Van den Berk kept Whatley behind hi m for third. • Results OVERALL: 1. Jere my Wh atl ey (Suz); 2. John Van den Berk (Yam); 3. Yannig KeNelia (Han); 4. Gisuseppe And reanni (Han); 5. Rodney Smith (Suz); 6. Soren Morten so n (Ka w); 7. Pete r .Jchene - son (Yam ); B. J orgen Nilsson (Cag); 9. Peter Dirckx (Han); 10 . Gert·Jan van Doorn (Cag). POINT STANDINGS: 1. Whalley (33); 2. Vanden Berk (30 ); 3 . Kervell a (26); 4 . And reanni (20); 5. (TIE) Smil h/MOrlenson (1 7. Joh ansson (16); B. Nilsson (14); 9. Dirckx (13); 10. van Doorn (11). n

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