Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Team Honda's Eric Geboers swept both motos in Finland to move w ithin 22 points of series points leader Dave Thorpe. Honda-mounted Ism o Vehkonen f rom Finland f inished second overall in his home co untry, his best overall f inish of his career. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 4 Geboers closes gap in Finland By Alex Hodgkinson R USKEASANTA, FINLAND, MAY 15 Eric Geboers moved -to within 22 points of HRC teammate .David Thorpe and trails Kurt Nicoll by three points after four rounds of the 500cc World Motocross Ch am pionsh ip when he repeated his 1986 doub lejno to win a t the Rusk easanta sand pits J' ust outsid e ... . th e Finnish cap ital of H elsin ki. Geboers' victory a lso mark ed th e 100th o vera ll motocro ss GP win for Honda. The injury a bse nce o f H ak an Carlqvist, a zero score for the da y for J ack y Vim ond after he was the cen ter of a co n trove rsia l red-fl aggin g of the first a tte m pt to start th e first mota , ri ~ged starts for hom e heroes Kurt Ljungqvist and Ismo Vehkonen a nd mechanical drama for th e top four in th e sta nd ings mad e it a memorable Grand Prix. .w!th a fe",: of. t h~ to p nam es !TI~SSI~g the tnp to .FInlan~ due to mjurres, ther~ were immed ia te fea rs of a no ther big nam e gOIng o ut as Vim ond la y m oti onl ess on t h e ground before the first turn a nd six mor e went down in th e corne r itself. " J acky had ab out ha lf a bike len gth o n me as th e pack co nverged o n th e first left-bander whe n he sudden ly veered to the righ t," sai d fast -q ua lifier Bill y L iles. " He must have been run over." With Vim ond refu sin g treatment by a nyo ne o ther than hi s pe rsonal medical adviso r as he fear ed injuries to hi s back , th e organizers prep ared to show th e red flag s. Seconds before Great Britain 's Dave Thorpe went 4-5 for third overall. Thorpe leads the 500cc GP Series with 125, while Kurt Nicoll is second with 108. G eboers, who had stormed past Ljungqvist for th e lead, approached the end of the first lap , Vimond agreed to be moved from the track but it 'was too late to reverse the redflag decision and tempers flared as riders went back to th e pit box and mech anics ran back for fuel to top off the tanks. HRC Europea n race m an ager Steve Whi teloc k said, " If tha t son of a bitch ge ts u p no w and starts th e rerun, I' m going to nominate him and his physio for Oscars. They sure deserve the m." In the end Wh itelock co uld thank the stop pa~e for th e win . " Keith Tho rpe noti ced th a t th ere were problems with the countersha ft sprocket as we waited and we quickl y changed them on both machines," he said. More drastic work was needed on Nicoll 's Kawasak i. The En gl ishman had fallen after hitting th e rear whee l of J acky Marten s' KTM and th e green machine was a wreck. The rear su b frame was cha nge d a nd th e bike . gene rally straigh tened, but th ere was no time to work o n the ex ha ust which was fouling the rear whee l a nd th e clutch lever whi ch fell off on the first I ~p of the restart. ~ Even wor se for Dirk Geuken s, who held seventh in th e sta ndings, as he had go ne back to th e pits after th e cra nkcases were holed in th e fir st turn. Hi s mech anic cha nge d motors wi th in the half hour but th e Belgian was excluded from the restart because all wo rk had to be carr ied o ut in th e pre-pa re. Veh konen , who had mi ssed th e sig na l a t the first attempt, jo ined Ljungq vist in jumpin g th e start of the rerun a nd Geboers was with the m. "Eric was go ne before th e gate dropped ," co mp lained Thorpe durin g th e interval. " It looks as though you quali fy for insi de kn owledge on th e sta rt if yo u have a Finnish mech an ic too!" Thorpe a nd arch rival Ni coll were eigh th a nd IOth after a lap as th e fro nt three opened up a lead . " I sat behi nd Ism o a nd Kurt for a cou p le of laps to study th eir lines and th en moved past. I go t Ljungqvist on th e first a ttemp t, but Ism o took a little lon ger ," sa id Geboers after th e race as he won by 100 yards, havin g sett led dow n to maintaining th at lead after passing th e two Finns. Lil es had started fourth but was soo n displaced by Kees Van der Yen befor e th e Dutchman's KTM threw a chain and he retired aft er losing a comp lete la p. Lil es couldn 't ca tch th e front three but looked good for fourth until he lost second gear , a must on the sandy trac k littered with massive jumps. Although Mervyn Anstie and Thorpe were close to Liles when he went out o n th e half hour it was Nicoll who had looked most likely to ca tch Li les earlier. Sweeping past Thorpe and pulling awa y with ease Nicoll was righ t on Liles wh en the replacemen t rear su b fra me broke a nd he los t the seat, dropping to 10th as he adjusted to the new ridin g style. Rob And rews was the n given pit signa ls to drop behi nd Nicoll and defen d his tea mmate by weavi n g in front of any a ttac kers. Onl y fellow Brit J ared Smith go t past as England put six men in th e top 10 a t the fin ish. There were in evitabl e jeers a t the team rac ing fro m rival s, but the same peo ple would have ca lled Kawasaki Europe Man ager Alec Wri~ht a fool if he hadn 't directed o pera tio ns from tracksid e since Ni coll is go ing for go ld a nd for And rews it was only his first score of the year. The visit ors took it into th eir own hands to prevent a seco nd rigged start as Kawasaki m echanic Laurence Spence was detailed to obs cure th e man identified as responsible for signall ing both the starter a nd the Finnish rid ers. The starter hesitated a t th e fir st a tte mp t, held the gate for 10 seconds a nd a dozen rid ers flew over th e barrier. After regrouping they tried again a nd the gate dropped before Veh konen and Ljungqvist rea lized that there was to be no signal th is tim e. They both faced a long chase through for event ua l seventh and eigh th pl acings. Geb oers needed no such advantage, leading from th e start with Van der Yen seco nd all th e way and Marten s th ird until he fell under pressure from Nicoll, who had come from seventh to cross the line in Van der Yen 's wh eel tra cks. Thorpe fini shed a distant fifth aft er starting II th as Leif Persson co ntin ued his terrible year: eliminated from th e top six by clutch failure after ignition problems put him out of the first mota. Vimond made th e seco nd mota and split Ljungqvist a nd Vehkonen until his Yam ah a threw its chain. Liles adva nced from 18th to 10th to score hi s first points since the first round in Austr ia. • Results ' 1. Eric Gebcers (Hon) 1- 1; 2. Ismo Vehkonen (Hon) 2-8; 3. David Thorpe (Hon) 4-5; 4 . Kurt Lju ngqvisl (Yam) 3-7; 5. Jacky Martens (KTM) 64; 6. Kurt Nicoll (Kawl 9-3; 7. Jared SmiIh (Hon) • 8-6; 8. Kees Van de. Ven (KTM) ONF-2; 9. Mervyn An stie (KTM) 5-16 ; 1D. Franco Rossi (Kaw ) 13-9. POINT STANDINGS 1. Thor pe 11 251 2. Nicoll (108); 3. Geboers (1D31 ; ; 4 . Van der Ven (72); 5. Vimond (67); 6. Ljungqvist (55); 7. Vehkonen (54); 8. Ca rlqvist( 48~ 9. Geukens (441; 10. 8anks (42).

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