Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Geboers' chances of catching up to Dave Thorpe were ruined by two crashes. Geboers is now nine points behind.Thorpe in the series. Eng land's Dave Thorpe claimed back-to-back wins at Hawkstone Park to gain six points on Eric Geboers. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: · Round 8 Thorpe stops Geboers' roll in England By A lex Hodgkinson HAWKSTONE PARK, ENGLAND, JULY 10 Brit Dave Thorpe fin ally halted the ru n of .Belgian Eric Geboers with a double win over his Honda teammate on home territory at Hawkstone Park, to triple his ·slen der lead . in the 500cc World Motocross Championship from three to . . B h n .Hrne d pom ts, h d u t t e two on a ea men ~ere so 20 evenly matched an~ ~ommant, that a reversal of the posinons could have easily occured. The title chase is now definitely between.the HRC duo, as Kawasaki's Kurt NIcoli from England could only '!1anage ~4 points. He. is now 47 pom~ behind Thorpe with four ~Ps to ride, and head!TIitted, " That' s rt , Unless something desperate happens to one of them, I'm going to be third. Ijust wasn 't good enough today and they were both incredible. " . . And that they were. Crossing the line Just ~ne second apart at the end of th e First moto, Thorpe and ~eboers la~ped all except the top five, and third-placed Kees V~n der Ven was one-and-a-half rmnutes back. In race t~o, more riders completed the full .distance and Van de~ yen could stil l se~ Geboers at the f~ms~, b~t the B~lglan had fallen twice m his pursuI~ of Thorpe , . [n the first moto, It was Van der Ven who took the start, but as they emerged from the woods, Geboers stormed past in a tum. Desperately trying to go back around the Belgian in the next tum, the Dutchman went too wide and fou nd himself instead falling victim to Thorpe, who was determined not to let h is arch-riva l get away, as he battled away with company boss Mr. Matsuda looking on B'e fore th e san d ' Th orpe had pit, drawn alongside the Belgian and emerged from the pit in front, to lead for the rest of the race. But it was not as simple as that even when the home fans took heart as Geboers dropped back several seconds in midrace "I kn~w that Eric was trying to lull me into a false sense of security," explained Thorpe. " He wanted me to relax, so that I would then find it difficult to respond when he attacked later on. But I know all of these tricks and I was ready to counter any move he made. Even though it was so dose at the finish, I never felt I was going to lose that onel" Geboers was not so certain: " J ust as I was ready to attack again with 15 minutes to go, I got a flat rear tire " But the Bridgesto ne rear stayed on the rim even as Geboers closed right up on Thorpe. Van der Ven had a lonely race in third: " They (Hondas) were just too fast." . After the initial sort-out, Andre Vrornans, the ex-world number two ~ho had been racing a frustrating final GP season so far, came to life in his favorite sandy going and held fourth for many laps before falling victim to Ismo Vehkonen and Nicoll. But soon after the Finn had taken fourth, he had a big crash on the whoops which left him sore between the legs. Nicoll, who had taken some time to get past Mervyn Anstie, was a long way behind Van der Ven as he inherited fourth place and had no chance of improving his placing even though he narrowed the gap on the Dutchman as the race wore on. Vromans was the only other rider to remain on the same lap as the two leading Hondas in the hard, wet race as rain fell throughout. A desperate battle for the placings had been fought out early on but the com batants disappeared one by one. Jacky Martens crashed alone and Hakan Carlqvist could not avo id hitting him wh ich put the Swede out of the top 15 before he stopped with rear suspension prob lems, then Martens crashed again in a collision with Mark Banks, which saw the Belgian p ull out wit h bent bars. Next . to go was J acky Vimo nd who fell heavily and wre nched his right shou lder wh ile Dirck Geukens and An stie also retired with bent bi kes a nd bodies. T he English man had been in trouble right from the start as his rear bra ke proved inoperable from the first tum , and he had injuries to his right leg and cheek after go ing down later in the whoops. _ All of the retirements left Finland's Kurt Ljungqvist a lonely sixth, albeit a lap down. And neither of the leaders were very pleased with the Finn, who in the absence of blue flags, had failed to move over for them as they lapped him. Leif Persson rode his best race Iora long time to take eighth. After losing his rhythm early in the race, he had lost several places but stormed back well in the final minutes to power away Irom long time on-track rival Jared Smith and pass Jo Martens. Billy Liles was lOth despite riding with a painful lo wer back, the result of a crash in an Italian stadium 'race one week earlier, and Banks continued for II th despite bruised ribs and bent bars from the clash wi th Jacky Martens. As the five second boar d went up for race two and 38 riders concentrated on the start gate, one blueshined figure was seen removing his ~ogg les Carlqvist's motor "had Just gone ping again, just like it did at the Swedish GP" and the Swedish veteran faced another zero score. But it was another Swede who led as Persson , getti ng more and more at home with the Honda, spurted into the tunnel in the lead. He still ·Ied after the first short lap, but with Thorpe, Van der Ven, Nicoll, Veh konen and Geboers in chase after Lei£. . Already on lap two , Thorpe was past and pulling away, while one lap later Van der Ven was second and keeping .Geboers back for another lap as Thorpe planned an escape. The Belgian was determined not to let it happen and, once in second place, he systematically pulled back the Englishman's lead until th ey were almost together with a third of the race run. Then Geboers fell in the gulley and lost second to Van der Ven for a while, although he was quickly ahead of Vehkonen for third. With a lead of 20 seconds plus surely Thorpe's double win must be safe. But no. Even though Thorpe did no t relax, Geboers was in inspired form and was pulling back three seconds a lap, until the Englishman slowed do wn th e reduction of the defici t when it reached nine seconds wi th five la ps to go. Then Geboers went down again, and this time the race was decided, Thorpe said later, " I knew Eric had to be taking chances to close so fast . H e had to fall eventually. I wasn't worried." Van der Ven and Vehkonen kept third and fourth to the flag while Nicoll spent a long time getting past Jacky Martens for fifth as the championship slipped further and further away. Vimond was again prominent before he found it impossible to hold on any longer due to the strain of the deep sand pu lling on his injured shoulder, which gave Ljungqvist seventh despite a strong charge back from Persson. The Swede had lost places rapidly after the title contenders had filled him in and he had to dispose of his goggles, but he rode well in the closing laps to almost catch his former Yamaha teammate. Geukens and Vromans rode steadily for ninth and l Oth, whi le Li les was eliminated after a crash wh ich knocked the wind out of him. • Results . 0 / A: 1. Dave Thorpe (Hon) 1· 1: 2. Eric Geboers (Hon) 2-2; 3. Kees Van der Ven (KTM) 4 ·3 ; 4. Kurt Nicoll (Kawl 4·5 ; 5. Kurt Ljungqvist (Yam) 6- 7; 6. Leil Persson (Honl 7-8; 7. Andre Vromans (Kaw l · 11-5; 8. Ismo Vehkonen (Honl 4-0; 9. J acky Martens (KTM) 0-6; 10 . Mark Banks (Hon) 11·1 2. POINT STANDINGS: 1. Thorpe (251); 2. Eric Geboers (242); 3. Kurt Nicoll ( 204~ 4 . Koes Van der Ven (13 9); 5. Jacky Vim ond (128); 6. Ljungqvi st (104); 7. Banks (98); 8. Ma rtens ( 9 2~ 9. Corlqv ist (75); 10. Liles (721.

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