Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

6" >- ~ ~ 0 :I: 0. W ..J ~ f « CD :::l « a: w ~ Z 00 00 >CD 0 >0 Cj') ,.....; :I: 0. A ustralian J ef f Leisk w o n the Dutch Supercross over Jeff Ward. Leisk leaps to victory in Holland SI By Alex Hodgkinson NIJMEGEN. HOLLAND. SE PT . 4 In a reversal of the fortunes from Friday's race in Sweden , th e overseas contingent took the first three places in the 20 third ro und of the Rodil World Championship at Goffert Stadium in Nijmegen on Sunday. and 250cc MX Worl d Champion J ohn Van den Berk was th e o n ly Eu ro pean in the first eight, . But It was not a n American wh o did th e winning. rather it was 23year-o ld Au stralian J eff L eisk, headed to Eu ro pe for the 500cc.GPs . in 1989. wh o won the main event after taking the lead late in the race from J eff Ward with Broc Gl over a close th ird. The second best European was Pet er H an sson. one of Friday's hero es. a nd th e seven p oints he earn ed him ninth place lifted hi m to within two poin ts of Rodil leader Leif Nikl asson who was 16th in Nijmegan and th us fail ed to score. Promoter s Gerrit Wolsink an d J oo st Carlier on ce again had the weather gods on th eir side as the race was bl essed with clear skies for th e eigh th successive year; heavy storms during th e week. however. meant th at th e ju mp s rutted badly and many riders had trouble on landing. Micky Dymond had already discovered th e danger dttring practice wh en he cras hed heavily on a tabl e top jump and wrenched his left sho u lder. Dymond fell again at the sam e jump in hi s qualifier . but without serious inj ury and the Yamaha star was a b le to recover qu ickl y to transfer directl y to the semi-final . In fact, in con tra st to th e muddy Swed ish race. all nine Americans plus Leisk and Ross Pedersen transfered di rectl y to the semi-finals and on ly T yson Vohland failed to make th e main although Billy Liles needed to ~o .to the Last Chance after falling In his semi . Ron Lechien had come through th e pack to win a three-way battle with Glover and Holland for th e win in th e first semi, but the Europeans had offered more resistance in th e second semi as Van de Berk chased Leisk all the way and Ward had to . co me through from a first lap crash to take third place late on from Peter Hansson. The crowd. 'wh ich at 25,000 was nearly 10.000 less ' than the number of paratroopers and gl ider troops wh o fill ed th e skies over th is part of Holland in th e "Bridge T oo Far " airbo rn e invasion th at too k pl ace 44 years ago to th e m on th d ur ing WWII , went wild with deligh t as Van den Berk took the lead at th e start of the 20-min ute main even t. and. with Leisk and Ward in his wheeltracks. this trio from three contine n ts on three different makes of machinery pulled awa y to decid e th e race amongs t themselves. Dymond had gone down in th e first turn and had taken Lech ien with hi m. an d 100 yards furth er Liles had join ed th em on th e ground. Only Lech ien was to rejoin th e race and he put in a superb ride to fini sh six th . On the th ird la p Leisk pai d th e penalty which so oft en befalls the m iddle man in a three-corn er battle; as he tried to ride round Van den Berk it was Ward who took advantage on the best lin e to push him back to third. A la p later and Ward was leading! But onl y tem po rar il y. Van den Berk spun ro und in a tum knd both his rivals went past but th e energetic Dutchman was no t pr ep ared to yield ye t. Reco vering quickly. he dived for th e' inside at th e next turn to block pass h is way back into the lead! Ironically. th e sa me series o f jumps over which he had regai ned those lost yards were to prove h is downfall two laps lat er. Remounting in fifth . Van den Berk needed severa l laps to repass H oll and for a well deserved fourth. George H olland had held fourth from th e star t bu t had steadi ly lost ground from the first lap on and was passed by a hard-chargi ng Glover on lap three. Glover had been taking advantage of th e li!:'lders gettin g in each o ther' s way to clo se th e deficit. but once Ward and Leisk had a clear track wi th Ward about 30 yards ahead of th e Aus tralian, Gl over co ul d no t gain any further. Ward see me d to be marc h in g maj estically to victory, but sudden ly in the closing sta ges his concentration lapsed mom en tar il y on the tabletop jump which had cla imed Dymond twice earl ier in th e day. That meant Leisk was on hi s rear wheel and wh en Ward went down aga in on th e next la p . the lead changed and th e smooth riding Aussie was on th e wa y to his biggest ever WIn. Ward was cl earl y i n tro u b le , having bent his gear lever in the second fall . and it was a hectic last lap as Gl over sough t a way pas t. H e was never to find the gap he needed. having nearly go ne do wn halfway round the lap as he touched Ward's r ear wheel wh en the' Kawa sak i slewed sidewa ys on the exposed wooden surface at th e sa nd pi t. Van den Berk was a lon ely fourth .after repassing H olland a n d Lech ien, Ryan and J ohnny O'Mara were next in line. The second best European.min th pl aced Peter Hansson was the o nly o ther rider to stay ahead of Mik e H ealey and Ros s Pederson in this overseas rout of th e home stars. Hansson had started eight h. but quickly moved past O 'M ara a nd Healey for sixth. a posi tion he held for a third of th e race until Dave Strijbos got pas t. having come through from a poor sta rt . The Cagiva rider was to hold sixth for only one lap before crashing out as he lost control coming o u t of a slippery tum and was forced to quit. Hansson reinherited sixth. and only in the 'fin al minutes co u ld the visitors, led by the hard-charging Lechien, demote him. Fellow Swede Leif Niklasson was always at the back of the field in the fin al after experiencing no difficulties qualifying. but he fini shed just one pl ace too low to gain poi nts . Resu lts FINAL: 1. Jeff Leisk (Han); 2. Jeff Ward (Kaw): 3. Brae Glover (Yaml; 4. John Van den Berk (Yam): 5. George Holland (Han): 6. Ron Lechi en (Kaw ): 7. Ricky Ryan (Han); 8. Johnny O'Mara (SUl); 9. Peter Hansson (KTM ); 10 . M ike Heal ey (Cag). Vehkonen wins European SI opener in Sweden By Alex Hodgkinson GOTEBO RG. SWED EN. SEPT . 2 T he European Supercross season go t off to a sen sational start as the U. S. contingen t took a severe drubbing a t .Ollevi Stadium as Cagiva 's Pekk a Vehk onen forgo t h is disappointment of five da ys ea rlier. wh en he . lost th e 250cc MX World Ch am pi on . ship. and dominated th e main event . A record 20.879 cro wd flocked to th e venue for th e second round of the FIM Rodil Supercross World Ch amp ionsh ip despite incessant rain whi ch turned th e IS-lap main into an end ura nce event. H ome hero Peter Hansson, ab oard a KTM . fini shed second and Hondamounted Leif Niklasson took th ird to com ple te a 1-2-3 sweep for Euro- . pean riders. Niklasson was th e only scorer ·fro m the first round of th e Rodil Supercross World Championship in India back in January to add to his poi nts total in Swed en . For the seven Ameri cans. reinfo rced by Canadian champ Ross Pederson and Australian supremo Jeff Leisk, bo th of whom have been reg ulars on th e V .S. scene in recent years. the resul ts were as dismal as .the weat her which tried its best to destroy the superb track that Amer ican J o hn Savitski had built. wh ich in better co nditiio ns wo uld have offered in n umbera ble co mbinatio n possibi lities over the series of jumps and wh oops. As it ·was. even gett ing th e wh eels in the ai r was a maj or task by th e end of th e even in g, but fou r of the Americans had fall en befor e that. Pr e-race favorite Micky Dymond. havin g his first race sin ce V nadilta, and T yson Vohland did not even make it to the sem is in th e Europeanstyle race format of qualification th rough heats and semis. in which all remai n ing rid ers had to co mpe te again to make the main, unless the y wanted to face th e tir in g Las t Chance race. Innumberabl e cras hes had eli mi nated both Californians. and also made life difficult for the likes of Broc Glover and Bill y Liles. Only Ricky Ryan, revelling in conditions wh ich were to get even worse than at Daytona in 1987. and Leisk had starred for th e o verseas contingen t with heat wins alongsi de Vehkon en and J ohn Van den Berk. T hree falls and a broken clutch put Dymond out for the evening. but he was in good co mpany. Also gone at the firs t hurdle was Bosse Hogberg. th e Swede who had won the first Rodil round in India. Leisk and Ryan sta yed in co n tro l of their half of the draw during th e first sem i•.but ex-end uro ace Peter H an sson raced th em all the way after Van Doorn had been eliminated with a thrown chain. The track was getting into an ap palling state by the ' second semi . and Van den Berk went down at least four times without ever losing the lead . though confirmed Supercrosshater Peter jahansson, an out and out natural terrain rider•. was very close at the checkered flag . . Globe trotter Jim Holtey slipped from an initial second to a distant fourth at th e finish. while Glover. third at on e stage was feeling the effects of bruised rib s from a recent training cras h and just held off Donnie Schmit for th e final transfer spot. Schmit and Lil es both went down early in the Last Chance and never looked like getti ng near th e pace as the Cagiva du o of Vehkonen, wh o had quit th e second semi after three mu ltiple collisio ns in the first five laps. and Van Doo m dominated. T he Last Ch an ce wou ld take its toll on a track which had stopped the ent ire 80ec youth field wit hi n 100 yards of the sta rt in a race that was run d uring intermiss ion. Ryan. ever alert at the sta rt , led th e 15-lap main away and he and H ansson soo n had a 10-second lead as Vehkonen foug ht th rou gh th e in itia l sort-out to thi rd as Berk , Glover and Leisk were soo n str uggling, th ough not as mu ch as local man Micke Frisk. wh o had to run back up th e artificial-turf covered ramps to a freight con tainer used as a jump. Frisk had fall en 20 feet from the side. while his Yamaha stayed up top! Of the prominent earl y stagglers Berk made th e hardest charge, but di sappeared on lap six after breaking off the clutch lever wh en holding seventh . Le isk was to event ually tak e eighth ahea d of early fourth placeman Holley. whil e Glo ver was lapped before half di stance and lost even more ground to th e leaders on his way to 12th. Vp front the race began to resembl e th eat er as even Ryan and Hansson struggled to maintain mom entum as th ey exchanged the lead several times each lap. And each time one o f the m stopped . Vehkonen moved clo ser. On lap fou r the Finn took com mand. to be chased hard by Hansson until th e fin al three laps wh en th e Cagiva moved further and further away from th e recently returned from . injury KTM man. After losing co ntact when he went down in the wh oops and landed on the tank, Ryan dropped further and further back with a loo se tank and aching gonads and was 40 seconds down on the leader wh en Niklasson swept past for third just after half distance. The Rodil champ had sensationall y dela yed the start earlier when official s made him return to the pits for a face guard which is compulsory in Swedish National races but not in FIM events. Niklasson had earlier sparred with Holley and Ped erson . bef ore dialing in Ryan. The Canadi an was then left to fend off Van Doom for fifth after Peter Dirkx had seen his challenge for the top six .ended by a fall. Results FINAL: 1. Pekka Vehkonen ICag); 2. Peter Hansson (KTMt 3. Leil Niklasson IHon); 4. Ricky Ryan (Han); 5. Ross Pederson (SUl); 6. Gert Jan Van Doorn (Cog); 7. Peter Dir10c (Han); 8. Jell Leisk (Han); 9. Jim Holley (Yam); 10. Niklas Andersson (Han); 11. Kari Tiainen (SUlI: 12. Broc Glover (Yam); 13. Jonas Hermansson (SUlt 14 . Micke Frisk (Yam); 15. Marcus Hansson (Suz). Roper fakes second in Isle of Man Manx GP By Norrie Whyte DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN, SEPT. 7 New Yorker Dave Roper fin ished second in the Senior Class Manx G P. Riding the Team Obsolete G50 Matchless, Roper ended th e four laps of th e 37.73-mile Isle of Man Mountain Circuit 38.4 seconds down on winner Phil Nicholls of England. (Continued to page 24)

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