Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

John Van den Berk swept both motos in Italy to take the lead in the '2 50 cc World Championship point standings after three rounds. Italian Michele Fanton was the overall winner of the Spanish 250cc Grand Prix. narrowly edg ing American Rodney_Smith by one po int. World Championship 250cc MX Series: Round 3 V·an den Berk on top in Italy By Alex Hodgkinson ARSAGO SEPRIO, ITALY, MAY I Holl and's John Van den Berk p roved he's going-to be a big threat in the 250cc class after sweeping both mo tos it Italy, giving the 1987 125cc World Champion the 250cc series points lead. Van den Berk and his factory Yamaha bl .h C ~e~e unstoppa e, Wit .a gIva s Pekka Vehkonen claim- 28 ing second place in both motos for second overall. Third place went to German rider Rol and Diepold, while American Ricky Ryan went 4-5 for fourth: Rounding out the top five was opening 250cc qp . winn er Jeremy Wha~ley fro~ Britain, Last week s Spanish GP secondp lace finisher Rodney Smith from Antioch, California, piloted his Suzuki RM250 to a nimh overa ll. Smith found the Italian GP to 'h is disliking. "This track is the worst track I have ever ridden for passing," said Pekka Vehkonen scored second overall in Italy with a pair of runner-up finishes. Smith. "I rode my ass o££ for 45 minutes (first moto) after making a mess of the start, and all I got is lOth. I feel as though I deserve at least top six. " Nerv ous tension was high as the rid er s wen t to the ga te on the stadiu m -styleArsago Seprio tra ck in th e woods near the Cagiva factory a t Varese in the Alpine foothills, because every one of the 40 co m pe titors kn ew that a good start was impera tive with passing a lmost impossible. And that's what Van den Berk got - a good start. Only Frenchman Yannig Kervella headed him around the first few turns, a nd while Whatley a nd Die pold disputed over third, Van den Berk con cen tra ted on sett lin g down, ready to tak e advantage of th e first error b y Kervella. Van den Berk soo n found the way past and from that point on th e race for first place was over. Van den Berk simply settled into a rhythm and motored away, and eased his pace by halfway. - , It was a quarter of an hour before Cagiva's Vehkonen could dispose of Diepold for second place from his sixth place start, and as the two preseason favorites for the title - Van den Berk and Vehkonen - glanced across the track each lap to see where their rival was , each ' knew that the o the r could respond to a quickening of pace by the other and there was n ev er an y danger of a direct confrontation. Diepold, the first man past Kervell a a fter Van den Berk, was delighted with his third place: " Now I am starting to prove that my results so far were not flukes. I knew that this race was all about making a good start, getting a clear track and finding a rhythm. It took me some time to settle after I passed Kervella and that was when Pekka got past, but I'm content with third." For Whatley the race start ed promisingly. " We were all geuing in each others way trying to Iind a way past Kervella, then I made an awful mess of th e whoops and crashed into the trackside wire fence . After that I just went to pieces. I don't like the track and when I lost my rhythm, I just wanted to finish the race. Its not just the stadium type of track which I don 't like. You had to go o££ line to try to pass someone and there were so many stones, then that got real tricky. " Whatley eventually slumped to 12th, next to last of a nine-man train Smith would have taken the overall win in Spain based on moto scores. but lost it on points. which chased over the finish line in quick succession. Apart from the first three in the race, only Holland's Gert Jan Van Doorn, on a Cagiva, had managed to ease clear after a bruising charge through the group which confirmed his "Rambo" nickname. Probably the fastest man of all was Belgian Peter Dirckx who made an awful start but ch arged relentlessly to finish right behind Ryan. The Californian, Ryan, tried to stay wi th Van Doom but crashed, bent the handlebars and damaged th e radiator . at half distance so he was happy enough with fifth. Am eri can Trampas Parker, under the weather with a fever , had a hectic en d to his ra ce wh en his factory KTM 's frame snapped near th e h eadstock. After h is bad start in race one, Smith could not complain about the way he gated in race two. He led the start from Van den Berk only for Ryan to ride around both of them, followed by Whatley, who wa s shrugging of his first race dissapoin tment In workmanlike style to pro ve that his approach is 100% this year. Smith kept third for a lap, but, never settling throughout the first half of the mote-was soon relegated to fifth by Van den Berk a n d Vehkonen. And th e first two from race one were destined to take over the same placings before half distance. Veh konen pounced on his rival while they still chased Ryan and Whatley and then muscled his way to the front. Van den Berk knew that he could not allow his rival to escape and desperate late braking took him to second and o££ in pursuit of the Cagiva. At half distance, Van den Berk attacked but Vehkonen was having none of it and two comers later, he dived back inside in a similar hard but fair move. After a few more attacks Van den Berk dropped back slightly from Vehkonen. Vehkonen was lulled into a false sense of security and suddenly, with two laps remaining, Van den Berk upped the pace to leap past on the finish ju mp and power away for h is seco nd win . Whatley had seen Van de n Berk's passing move on R yan a nd copied It a lap later before riding to a lonel y third as R yan dropped back. At one point Smi th looked like he was reeling in Ryan, but Smith nearly lost it near the end and was so shaken by the incident that he was caught during the fina l laps by Kervella, Nilsson and Collin Du g-

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