Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Twenty-two-year-old Dietmar Lacher. from Germany. who was 15th in the po int standings. scored the overall victory in Italy via a 2-2 tally. Eric Geboers narrowly snatched his third GP overall w in in a row. He won the first moto but took fourth in the second for second overall. Yamaha 's Jacky Vimond came back after an 11th-place f inish in the first moto to w in the second round and claim third overall. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 6· . Lacher scores victory in Italian GP By Alex Hodgkinson LOMBADOR~ ,ITALY, JUNE 12 Germany's Dietmar 'Lach er captured the overall victory at the Italian GP, USIng consistency as the key to success. Lacher, 22, went 2-2 to give Germany its first 500cc G P victory since th e days of Willie Bauer H erbert Schmitz " 1' h id '70 an d Ad0 If yve.l In t e rm s. Lacher 's WIn came at the ex- 26 pense of first-rnoto wi nner Belgian Eric Geboers, who, with h is mota win, eq ualled consecutive mota wi ns at six with Jeff Smith (1965), Paul Friedrichs (196~) a nd Dave T horpe (1984). Geboers bid to become the world record h ol der a t seven came to an end when the factory Honda rider stalled his mount early in the second mota. H o wever , Geboers came back to finish sixth in the mota to salvage a second overall, and more importantly, gain on series points leader Dave Thorpe. With seven more events left on th e 1988 schedule, the next round ta king p lace in the United States, June 26, Thorpe holds a slim four-point advantage over Geboers , 180-176. Thorpe could only manage a 36 tally to claim fourth overall, while England's Kurt Nicoll, who was second in points until the last round in West Germany, had even less luck with a seventh overall finish. Ni coll, however, sits comfortably in the standings at third overall with 158 points, 57 points ahead of his nearest competitor and today's second-moto winner, Jacky Vimond. Virnond 's 11-1 tally gave him third overall in Italy. When the gate dropped for the start of the first mota, Lacher blasted into the lead while Geboers took over second when Mark Banks fell in the first tum. For three laps, Lacher led the race. "I kept wondering where they all were because no one was even on my . rear wheel, let alone trying to get past," said Lacher. "Then 1 milled a berm at the back of the track and went into the loose earth. Before 1 co u ld regain my momentum, Eric was through on the inside and that . was th at. He was gone. Bu t later in the race 1 could see Thorpe as 1 looked across th e track and he wasn 't gaining on me." Geboers surged to his record-tying six 500cc GP mota wins in a row, while his teammate Thorpe battled through the dust to third. "I couldn't see a lot in the first few laps, and from then on it was just hard work," said Thorpe. Thorpe a lso said af ter passing a subdued Nicoll halfway around the first lap on his way from 10th, "I know 1 can give Eric a race if 1 can get out o££ the gate with him. 1 feel a lo t better than 1 did last week." Nicoll sai d, "I rode rea lly badly for th e first few la ps. 1 was just bei ng too careful. But 1 am no t ha ppy with my ride after th a t, either. 1 didn ' t make the headway 1 would have hoped for." Nicoll worked up to fifth behind Jacky Martens, who had a lonely ride except w he n T h or p e ca me u p to steal third from him on the half hour. The low er leaderb oard battle was a ll about scori ng points to get amongst the first eight ha lfway in the series, and with it automatic qualification for the second half o f the season. Martens' ride virtually assured him of seventh or higher, while Banks' first-lap crash started to make life di££icult for him. He got back on at the back of the pack and could only get as high as 19th at the finish. Kees Van Der Ven, who finished sixth in the moto, said, ' " I caught my right foot in a hole in a tum on th e fourth lap and it really hurts. Ljungqvist passed me then ," said the Dutchman as he treated the foot with an ice pack between races. . One rider really charging after his disappointments in Germany was Ismo Vehkonen. He charged through the pack from a lowly start and was pushing Anstie for sixth when he ran out of fuel on the last lap. American Billy Liles was also unlucky. Having joined Thorpe in passing Nicoll on the first hip, h e was seemingly assured of a top six placi ng u ntil the left footpeg broke off at h a lf distance, but he struggled manfully against the handicap to fin ish 10th and keep his top eight hopes a live. Dirk Geukens could manage no higher than 13th and all ofthe action left Hakan Carlqvist to move back to ninth in the tab le. He finished ninth in the race also despite a poor start which made things di££icult in the dusty conditions, and hopes of even more points went when he got a front flat four laps from the end. " I was getting a little tired in the final laps a lso. Tha t was my first fu ll mota since the Swedish G P five weeks ago," sai d the Swede. Light rain began to fall as the riders grouped in the pre-pare for race two, bu t there was no time to change tires, and those who had looked at the dark skies but decided to stick with hardtrack rubber were in trouble. .

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