Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

production-based, air-cooled YZ490. H is Yamaha will feature a modified 490cc motor in a 1988 YZ250 fram e. Kawasaki's Nicoll will be riding a modified 1989 production-based KX500 , while 1988 250cc National Champion Jeff Ward a n d fellow American a n d teamm ate R on Lech ien will r id e th e ir 198 8 product ion-based factory Kawasakis, th e exact same o nes th ey'll be ridi ng in th e upcoming AMA National Championship 500cc MX Seri es. Tho rpe a nd Geboers will be armed with sem i-works H onda CR500s. The 500s Thorpe and Geboers ar e riding are basicall y prototypes of the 1989 p ro ductio n C R500s , wi th the lo w-bo y exha ust p ipe. T he 500s look simil ar to th e 1988 prod uc tio n CR250s. H onda's o n ly Am eri canbased factory rider entered in th e USGP is Au stralian Jeff Leisk. H e'll be riding a 1988 producti on-ba sed CR500. Team H onda 's Rick Joh n son opted to pass up the H ollister USGP to co m pe te in th e 250cc USG P a t Unadilla, New Berlin, New York , July 24. Under FIM rules a rider ca nnot compete in two different GP classes in th e same year. KTM is sending an army of riders, including factory works riders Kees Van der Ven from Holland, Jacky Martens from Belgium and Merv yn Anstie from Great Britain. ATK will sport a three-rider, allAm eri can team o f Scott Brown, Willie Musgrave a nd Mike McLain, all riding four-strokes. In GP racing th e top 15 fin ishers a re awarded p oints in each 40minute plus-t wo-l ap m oto , And th e rider with th e m ost poi n ts ea rned after both motos is h onored as th e da y's overa ll winner. In case o f a points tie, th e ride r w ho p la ced th e hi~hest in th e seco nd moto is determined th e winner. The m ost points that ca n be ea rned in a single m oto , is 20 for th e winner , th en 17 for second, 15 for th ird, 13 for fourth, II for fifth , 10 for si xth, a nd the n one point less for each p osition down to 15th. Pl enty h as happened in th e previous six rounds o f th e 500cc GP season , and it all beg an a t the Sittendorf tra ck in Austria, April 17. , The big ' win n er th er e was Dave Thorpe, who shocked th e world with back-to-ba ck wins, despite th e dusty conditions that prevailed a t Sittendor£. Thorpe's win was a surprise since he missed most of th e 1987 GP seas on due to a broken arm , an d many didn 't expect th e former World Champion to come o n so strong right at th e start, but he did. Thorpe's closest co m petito r was fell ow Englishman and a rch ri val on th e factory Kawasaki team, Kurt Ni coll. Nicoll worked up to second in th e first" moto and was gaining ground on leader T horpe, until Thorpe got the m essage from his pit board that h is respected n em esis N icoll was on th e move. "Seeing Kurt's name on th e board is like showin g a red rag to a bull for m e," said Thorpe. Geboers was never in the pi cture af ter falling victim to a fir st-turn p ileu p and cou ld only manage a 14th in th e moto. Another top rider, Fren ch m a n Ja cky Vimond, was involved in the big crash and was , ta ken to the hospital with a leg injury. The secon d moto was again won by Thorpe, who had to come from behind after taking advantage of a fall by Ni coll. Nicoll finished fourth for second o vera ll , while th ir d overall went to Belgium 's Dirk Geukins. Geboers took sixth for ninth overa ll. So Thorpe left Au stria with a 10point lead over Nicoll, with Geboers way back in 10th. of Geboers wit h a third , whi le Martens and Nicoll stayed in the picture in fourth and fifth. Geboers' bid of breaking the alltime consecutive moto JVin streak at seven fizzled early in the second moto when h e stalled his Honda and had to work his way up through th e pack. Vimond ended up winning the moto, but it wa s Lacher's da y with two second-place finishes, which was more th an enough to cl a im th e o ver a ll. It wa s the first tim e a German rider had won a 500cc MX GP overall since th e mid-70s. Geboers settled for seco nd overa ll with his 1-4 tally, while Vimond edged out Thorpe for third. Fifth went to Carlqvist with Nicoll losing gr ound back in sixth . Thorpe left Italy with his smallest points lead yet in th e seri es, just four points over th e hot Geboers , 180-176. Nicoll sits in a co m fort ab le third at 158, with Vimond (101) and Van der Yen (93) rounding out th e top five. The next stop on th e tour is the U .S., where Geboers could steal the points lead from Thorpe. Not only will Geboers have Thorpe an d Nicol l to contend with, he'll also be banging handlebars wi th top American riders such a s 1988 250cc National and 1987 Supercross ch am p Ward, former 125cc National champ Lechi en and former 125 and 500cc National champ Gl over . Geboers lost out to Am erican Rick Johnson one year ago a t the 250cc USG P in Hollister ; and wa s again beaten by the Am er icans a t the M otocross d es N ati ons ' in New Berlin, New York, a t U nadilla, last September. G eb o ers is o u t for revenge. Ther e are a number of ri ders with a good chance of wi n n in g th e USG P , in cluding C eboers, Thorpe, Ward, Lech ien, Gl over , Leisk, Vim ond a nd Van den Yen, wh ile Carlqvist , Vehkonen , An sti e a n d Marten s are ca pab le of sn ea king in and pulling o ff a surprise victory. This year's running of th e 500cc USG P will be th e fir st time in U.S. history that it won 't be h eld at Carlsbad Ra ceway in Carlsbad, _ California. It'll be a first for Hollister Hills, a lth o u gh the California track hosted the 250cc USGP last year, in which Rick Johnson topped the Europeans. The last European to win a 500cc USGP was Carlqvist back in 1983.'This year , however, the Europeans have a strong chance of ending the five-year losing drought. But no matter how you look at it, a runaway win at Hollister Hills is unlikely. And it's about time. • The Europeans haven 't won a 500cc USGP MX since 1983 when Sweden's Hakan Carlqvist did it at Carlsbad Raceway. Round two of th e series took pl ace in Switzerland, and anoth er extrem ely dusty track made rac in g dangerous, but this time it was Ni coll who took revenge o n Thorpe, taking th e overall victory. Both riders had a fo urth an d a first place finish, but since Ni coll won th e seco nd moto , th e Kawasaki ace was a wa rded th e overa ll victory. However , it was a ll in va in for Ni coll, since both riders pi cked up th e same amou nt o f p oints, so Ni coll ga ined n o gr ound o n points leader Thorpe. After cras h in g hard in Au stria, Vimond came ba ck and turned in two sp arklin g rides to claim third ov erall via a 2-3 tall y. Fourth went to Van der Yen a nd fifth to Geboer s, wh o wa s still having troubles ada p tin g to his 500cc mount. Vimond proved his inspiring ride in Sw itzerl and was in no wa y a fluke. The factory .Ya m ah a rider, who sustained severe back injuries after the 1986 250cc GP series in a freak, non-race related accident, claimed his first GP win since that year. A first-turn pileup in th e first m oto left Thorpe with his leg stuck in Great Britain's Andy Nicholl's rear wheel and h e watched his rival Kurt Nicoll and Geboers roost away. G eboers, however, cra sh ed two turns later and spent his time working his way up, through the p ack , as did Thorpe. Vimond ea sily won th e m oto , despite threats by Sw eden's Hakan Carlqvist, who ended up finish ing seco nd. Third went to Ni coll who was follow ed b y G eb o ers a n d Thorpe. The second moto ended up being a one-on-one dogfight for th e lead between Thorpe a nd G eboers, while Vimond watched contentedl y in third with the overa ll locked up. The Thorpe/Geboers dogfight left Geboers taking the win a fter Thorpe bobbled just enough to let the Belgian slip by for the lead a n d even tua l win. After three rounds, Thorpe h eld a 15-point lead over Nicoll, 101-86, while Vimond had shot up to th ird with 67 points. Geboers wa s on th e move in fourth with' 63, while Van der Yen rounded out the top five with 55. .' Round four of the seri es m oved to Finland where .Geboers took ba ckto-back wins, making it three mota wins in a row. Second place went to home co u ntry fav orite Isrno Vehkonen , on a Honda, who m otored to a 2-8, rnoto score, while T h o rpe finished in third with a 45 tally. Fourth went to Ljungqvis t followed by Martens and Nicoll. ,With h is sweep Geboers ga ined 16 points on Thorpe and m oved into third overall , just five points behind Ni coll. Vim ond sco red no points in Fi n la n d a fter cras h ing hard in th e firs t moto a n d was sideli ned for th e rest of th e day. Vimond dropped to fifth behind Van der Yen . T he West German GP , th e fifth round of th e series, saw G eboers ex ten d his win streak to five with another sweep. His fast riding moved him into second in th e sta nd in gs, ahead of Nicoll by seven points, 143136. Thorpe, who finished seco n d overall in Germany, continued to lose ground on Geboers . Oeboershad closed to wi thin 12 points of Thorp e, before heading to Italy, the last stop of the circuit before heading to the United States. In Italy, Geboers ex ten ded his moto win streak to six, tying th e alltime record, by winning th e first moto ov er Honda rider Dietmar Lacher, who was 15th in the point sta n din gs. Thorpe kept within sight Saturday, June 25 Gates open Riders meeti ng Free practice (500cc class) 8:00 a.m. 11:4 5 a.m. 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.rn. 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.rn. 2:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. 3:15 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. 5:15 p.m. to 6:00 p.m . (25Occ Support) Qual ifying prac t ice (500cc) Sunday, June 26 Gates open Free practice (500cc) Timed practice (500cc) Support practice (250 cc) Riders meeting First moto (500cc) Firs t moto (25Occ) ' Second llloto'(500cc) Second,moto(250cc) . . '" , . . • . . ' ,' . ' . 8:00 a.m, 9 :00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 11:10 a.m . to 11 :50 a.m. 12:00 noo n 1:15 p.m . to 2 :00 p.m .. 2:30 p.m. to 3:10 p.m. 3:45 p.m . to 4:30 p.rn. . .. 4 :45 p.m. to 5 :15 p.m. Additionallnforination Ticket pr ices (One day) ... . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. .. . .. . .. . . . .., ,' .. $15 . . (Two day pass) , $20 Overnight camp ing . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . ••. . .. .. ... . . . . .. . $5 (a night) • Park ing Free Ticket sales Ticketron Bass, Wherehouse, Tower Records . Ticket charge . • ..... .... . . . .. ...... 4151762-BASS or 408/998-BASS Add it iona l in fo : 408/637-5507

• Cover