Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 O"i ....... Frenchman Jacky Vimond piloted his works Yamaha to a 1-3 moto finish to capture the overall victory in Sweden . World Champion (250cc) Eric Geboers is finally getting settled in on his 500cc Honda, finishing second overall, via a 4-2 tally. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 3 - Vimond back-on track in Swede-n By Alex Hodgkinson STURUP, SWEDEN, MAY 8 ) Frenchman -Jacky Vimond claimed his first GP. victory since dinching the 250cc World Championship title back in 1986, with a ' 1-3 showing at Sunday's Swedish 500cc GP, Vimond who finished last week's S~iss GP in third has · di h ' . d move. up to t h l~ m t ~ point standings, despite sconng no 28 points iii the opening round in Austria. Joining Vimond on the ro strum were Belgium 'S Eric Geboers and Gre at Britain's Dave Thorpe. Both Geboers and Thorpe beat Vim ond in the second mota after both were involved in a first-turn . mishap in the first mota. Geb oers ' second-mo to victory put ~he factory Ho~da rider in~o fourth m pomts, while Geboers H onda teammate Thorpe maintains his points lead over fellow cou ntryma n, Kawasaki's Kurt Nicoll. Thorpe has 110 points to Nicoll 's 86. Vim ond is third with 67 foll owed by Geboers with 63. Thorpe was riding with two broken bones in his back wh ich h e su ffered in a cras h at th e Swiss GP. Nicoll actuall y ga ined ground on Thorpe in race one by taking third, , Honda's Dave Thorpe continues to lead the "points chase with a third in Sweden. He has a 14 point lead over Kawasaki's Kurt Nicoll. two ahead of T ho rpe, but a cras h mi dway th rough race two saw h im restricted to eighth place. Wat ching th e starter ra ther th an th e gate, Bri t Willie Simpson led the start of race one but chaos reigned in his wake. Nicoll had veered to th e rig h t drama tica lly as he left th e start and pushed Geboers to th e back of th e pa ck, while Amer ica n Billy Lil es, . the next man alo ng the lin e, wen t do wn . O n the in side of th e first turn Mark Ban ks left hi s braking desperately lat e and with J o Marten s head in g for th e apex of th e turn from th e outs ide, Kees Van der Yen was sandwiched. Wh ile Banks got through Martens and Van der Yen went do wn , and precipitat ed a simi lar conver gi n g collison in tha t part of th e track which was still free wh ich claimed another dozen victim s, incl uding Thorp e, Ni coll , Am erican Goat Breker, Andy Nicholls and Dietm ar Lac her. Lac her, th e sole Germanspea king qualifier , pulled out after just two more laps, hi s still-healing left shou lder having been wrenched in th e cras h. H e did not start in race two and will not con test Finland next week. Neither will Nicholls wh o added a groin inj ury to his kn ee, whi ch he hurt in Switzerland, and pulled ou t ear ly from bo th motos, Thorpe had piled into the back of Ni ch olls and caught his le g in Ni choll s' rear wheel. " I was upside do wn desperately trying to get free, and I saw Kurt (Nico ll) getting away which made th ings even worse ," said Thorpe. Geboers, meanwhile, was threading his way around the tangled bikes and bodi es but a fall two laps later left him also struggling right at the back with the o ther favorites, as Simpson dropped back quickly , his pr ogress being hampered by stomach pain s, a nd Vimond, Banks and Hakan Carlqvist dictated th e pace. After leading to th e finish flag, Vim ond said, "I expected Hakan (Ca rlq vist) to attack strongly at the end, because he would expect me to be tired, but I felt confident. He go t close but I could hold him back. " Carlqvist was frustrated by hi s attempts to pass Banks: "I know I was faster, but he kept changing his lines, so every tim e I lined up a pa ss, he was in front of me." Second was still to be Carlqvist's, th ough, as Banks had the heartbreak of retiring just one and a half laps from th e end with a broken gearbox. Ni coll made the fastest progress of th e chasers, bu t thi rd was almo st snatched from him on the lin e by Geboers, clea rly the fastest man on th e trac k. T he Belgian had spun around on the slippery surface two laps from th e end, but an .outside driv e in th e last turn took him to wi thin a wh eel of Nicoll 's Kawasaki. Thorpe foll owed home in fifth after displ acing ho me track star Leif Persson in the fina l stages, whi le Van der Yen cli mbed to ninth behind th e battling Finnish du o of Ismo Veh konen and Kurt Ljungqvist. Liles re tired from the chasers battered and bruised after being taken out by Magnus And ersson , wh ile Dirk Geuken s lost his th ird in th e table with a sha ttered rear whee l on lap one , as Mervyn Anstie, ridi ng below form, had dropped from an ini tial fourth to the middle of a race.long Ital ian battle for the lower pl acings. The dust had been ' held in check during race one, but it was awful for th e second mota, desp ite attempts to wat er th e back of th e track. " You had to really be care ful onthe water ed section because the vi sibil i ty wa s virtu all y nonexisten t, " said Nicoll , who lost severa l pl aces on th e first lap after starti ng aro und 10th, right behind Thorpe and Geboers. "That is true," said Thorpe , "but I wish it had all been slippery. I pref er to see where I am going." At th e front of the second moto, Van der Yen a n d Vimond had charged under Michele Magarotto as all three broadslided side by side out of turn two . A lap later, Vimond and hi s Yamaha took command as the duo ra ced cl ear 'wi th Magarotto dropping back rapidly and Jacky Martens third un til h e fell at halfway. Geboers had been quickly fourth but lost 10 places-when he fell on lap two, and it was Thorpe wh o was making the first moves towards ca tch ing th e front two . But by the time he caught them, Geboers was already in his wake again and the tw o H ondas of , Geboers and Thorpe took com mand. Thorpe was the first to lead as Vimond offered only a, token challenge. " I realiz ed they were faster and it was better for me to settle for third and the overall.win," said Vimond. But Geboers was destined to win the race. Thorpe said, " I got into a tank slapper when he was behind me, and

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