Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

.~ :' .. ,- ~ g) ." 00 00 C"l ........ Van der Ven (3) had good starts in both motos but crashed out of top contention. He's chased by Mark Banks (20) and Thorpe (5). England's Dave Thorpe won the first mota but could only manage a fifth in the second mota to capture second overall. 8 o n fourth-place Van der Yen, w ho ha d been p a ssed by G eboer s. In seco nd was Vim ond, w ho ea rlie r passed a fading Banks. A few laps later, Gl over motored past Van der Yen , th en found himself with a lar ge gap between himself a nd G eboers. With th e crowd chee ring h im o n, Gl ov er began closing the ga p o n Geboers. Gl over, rid ing a m odified Yamaha wi th a YZ490 mo to r tu cked in side a YZ250 frame, was on th e move. "The 250 frame has sligh tly better geometry th an th e 490," sai d Gl over , "and si nce we've been riding a nd testing th e 250 all year, we've go t th e suspe nsion a nd linkages a ll d ialed in . All it took wa s o ne motor m ount cha n ge a nd th at was it." But th e big questi on was co u ld Gl over 's air-cooled en gine maintain enough horsepower in th e late stag es to keep up with th e works watercooled bikes of Geboers, Thorpe, Vim ond and Van der Yen ? "Well th e motor works good but it does lose horsepower as th e race go es on," sai d Gl over. "There were hills I co u ld pull in one gear ea rly in th e race, th at I co u ld n' t pull in th e same gea r later on." Nonetheless, Gl over was o n th e move, but with appro ximately 10 m inu tes left in th e m oto he dropped o u t o f to p co nte n tio n a n d wa s runnin g 10th . " A ha y bal e had ro lled onto th e co urse wh en a rider a hea d o f me clipped it," sa id Gl over. "There was noth in g I could do a nd I smashed into it h ead o n. " G lover went down an d by the time he got goi ng again, he was in ch es beh in d Engla nd 's Merv yn Ans tie. By th e en d o f the m ot o , Gl over co u ld o n ly pass An st ie a nd finish ninth . U p fro n t, Thorpe was cru isi ng, e njoyi ng a m oderate lead o n Vimond, who was read y to take advantage o f any m istake by T horpe, but Vimon d a lso h ad a closi ng Geboers to co n tend with. With G lover in IOth , Sta nton was th e top Am eri can but wa s stuc k between a heated battle with Van der Ven, Ni coll a nd Lei sk. With a few laps to go , Stanton made h is mov e on Van der Ven a nd passed th e KTM rider a t th e bottom o f the hill through a tight turn th at led up to a steep uphill. H ow ever , Sta nton lost momentum u p th e h ill , lett in g both Van der ven a nd Nicoll by. " I wa ited too lo ng to make a pass; I wasn't aggr essive enough," sa id Sta nton. " I got by Van der Yen but I got in th e so ft stuff up th e hill a nd lost tra cti on, a nd th ey both went by." Watching all that ac tion from close behind was Leisk, wh o put in a late moto pass on Ni coll. Heading to the finish line was Thorpe leading Vim ond, bu t G eboers was cha rging hard a fter Vimond. As th e two riders flew over a jU!TIP, a: turn before th e chec kered fla g , Geboers went all o ut to pass Vim ond. Geboe rs and Vim ond flew over th e jump almost side- by-side, an d as th ey grabbed a handful of brakes for th e next tight right-hand turn , Geboers locked up th e rear wh eel a nd stalled th e motor. Vim ond co nti n ued o n to fin ish seco n d behind winner Thorpe, while Geboers was left trying to restart his big-bore Honda. It took a number of kicks before it fired, but he had enough time on Banks to maintain th ird in the moto. Banks wa s followed in by Van der Yen , Lei sk , Nicoll, Sta n to n, Gl over and An sti e, Lil es, from G eorgi a , th e o n ly Ameri can cam pa ign in g th e entire 500cc GP series, suffered an early mo to get -off relegating him to the back o f th e p ack . H e eventua lly dropped o u t, whi le ridin g o u t o f th e poi nts . He was saving himself for the seco nd m ot o . " I j us t haven ' t had th at good of a season ," sai d Liles. " I've DNFed si x rnotos so far, most of them have bee n mec ha nica l. I got a n e w mechan ic a n d th ing s h a ve been ge tti ng better. I' m goi ng to stay in Europe un til I wi n this thi ng (50Occ Worl d Cham p io ns h ip) ." Swede H akan Carlqvist, th e 1983 500cc MX World Champion a nd th e last European to wi n a 500cc MX GP in th e U.S. a t Carlsbad in 1983, fin ish ed 12th. Gl o ver slipped into h is "good lu ck " pin k JT Racin g ridi ng gear fo r th e seco nd m oto , a nd it looked lik e it would be a runaw a y for th e Ca lifornian . The factory Yamaha ' ride r blasted his YZ490 into th e lead a nd cha rged to a five-second advan tage over Leisk before th e end of th e fir st lap. Back in third was Tho rpe foll ow ed by Geboe rs. Gl over was o n th e gas an d th e crowd was o n its feet and scream ing. Gl over sai d af ter th e race, " T ha t was th e loudest chee ri ng I've ever heard for me." T he emo tio na l crowd boos ted Glover's drive to wh ere he worked hi s way up to an l l- second advantage over Leisk, with Geboers taking over third, Thorpe fourth and Nicoll - fifth. Near th e 15-minute mark Glover was still cruising up in front, but Leisk had noti cably ga i ne d on Glover. In fact Leisk had cut Glover's lead in half. " I tipped over in a tight turn ," said Glover. "The front wh eel got out of sh ape and I went down." Fo r th e next couple of laps Glover 's lead began to dwindle, with Leisk cha rging, Glover 's cushion . narrowed down to four seconds, then two seco nds then down to one secon d over Leisk. Then near the 30-minute point, Gl over came around in third, a few seconds behind Geboers as Leisk led with about fiv e seco n d s on the Belgian. " I was co m in g down the downhill a nd was about to pass a lapper when he suddenly gassed it into my line in a berm," sa id Glover. "He pushed me over th e berm and my bike got tangl ed up in a hay bale. I had to pull my bike out of th e wire a nd it wa s facing backwards." Glover still had a ch ance to pass Geboers but crashed one more time when his front wheel washed ou t in a rutted turn. Glover had pl enty of time to ge l hi s Yamaha restarted w itho u t h a ving to worry about fourth-place Nicoll, wh o had overta ken a tiring Thorpe. " I used up all o f m y energy in th e firs t m o to ,' said Thorpe, wh o felt the ef fects of 80-p lus degr ee tem perat u res a t Hollister. " So I h ad to be co ntent wit h fou rth a nd let Nicoll by." Back in six th was Vim o nd, who was h oldin g back a hard-ch arging Banks, Ans tie a nd Liles. Leisk en joyed about a five seco nd lead on G eboers th roughout th e rest o f th e m ot o to tak e th e win. " Le is k was riding very fast," sai d Geboers. " 1 tr ied to catch him but . h e was going too fast. But I kn ew if I fin ish ed wh ere I was I would ~et th e overall a n d ga in at least o ne pomt on Thorpe. I didn 't want to risk that by trying hard to ca tch Leisk. " Third place went to Glover with Nicoll and Thorpe rounding out th e top five. Next came Vimond, Banks, An sti e, Liles and An sti e. " I'm thrilled to win a GP rnot o: its th e first in m y ca reer," sa id Lei sk. 'T h is gives m e a good boost going into th e 500cc National s next week , it really h elps." L ei sk a lso surprised everyo ne. wh en he sa id, " Not many kn ow this, but I plan on riding the 500cc GP circuit next year. " Wh en asked what flag he'll be ra cing under , he sa id, " Bo th, the Au stralian a nd Am eri can flags." Glover als o sa id he would like to ca m pa ign th e 500cc GPs next year if he ca n line up some kind of su p port. " I think it would be great to ride in Europe," said Glover. 250cc Support The 250cc Support motos produced a three-man dogfight involving Dymond, Cooper and Holland, and the battle these three riders put on kept th e crowd on its feet every lap. . Holland charged into th e lead at the start o f th e first rnoto, with Cooper second an d Dymond third. The rest of th e 15-rider field was never in conten tio n with th e top three. Holland led th e race for a couple of laps with Cooper pressuring and Dymond watching at a safe distance in third. By the eight-minute mark of the 20-minute-plus-two-lap race Cooper found his way into the lead, with Dymond following in his footsteps. Now it was a two -way duel between Cooper an d Dymond, but th e duel didn 't last for long when Dymond shot past Cooper and into the lead. The Yamaha rider then proceeded to march a way for th e win. In th e seco n d moto, it looked as if Holland a nd Cooper would stea l th e show aw ay from Dymond. HoIland led for m ost o f th e race with Coope r in seco nd a nd Dym ond a dis tant third. But with two laps to go , Cooper made h is m ove o n Holland, but H olland retaliated by sla m m in g the door shut on Cooper, wh o went off th e tra ck. Dymond, meanwhile, was sitti ng back and saw th e o pen in g he needed. Dymond sh o t past Cooper when h e wa s o ff th e tr a ck a n d quickl y m ot ored by H olland, taking th e lead. Dym ond went on to take th e win a head o f Holl and a n d • Cooper. Results 0 / A : 1. Eric Geboers (Hon) 3·2 ; 2. Dave Thorpe (Hon) 1-5; 3. Jeff leisk (Hon) 6-1; 4. Jacky Vimond (Yam) 2-6 ; 5. Brae Glover (Yam) 9-3; 6. Kun Nicoll (Kaw) 7-4; 7. Mark Banks (Hon) 4-7 ; 8. Kees Van der Ven (KTM) 5-11 ; 9. Mervyn AnSlie (KTM) 108; 10. Jeff Sianion (YamI8-12; 11. Billy Ules (Kaw) 0-7; 12. Jacky Manens (KTM) 15-10;· 13. Hakan Carlqvisl(Hon) 12 -15 ; 14. Ismo Vehkonen (Hon) 11-16 ; 15 . Billy Frank (Yam) 18-13; 16. Franco Rossi (Kaw) 13-0; 17. Kun ljungqvist (Vam) 1614; 18. Jared Smith; 19. Willy Musgrave (ATK); 20 . Waller Van RomPaey (Kaw) 25- 19 . POINT STANDINGS: t . Thorpe (211); 2. Geboers (208); 3. Nicoll 1180); 4 . Vimond (12B); 5. Van der Ven (109); 6. Banks (89); 7. ljungqviS1 (85); 8. Manens (82); 9. Carlqv isl (75); 10. Anlsie (69).

• Cover