~ Interview:
250cc World Champion
Dave
~ While ahis· hometown rival the m osStrijbos
t GPs,
makes habit of. winning
John Van den Berk, the 21-year-old Yamaha
works ri der from Oss in central H oll and,
concentrates on winning.titles.
In five years of G P racing,
Strijbos has 21 GP wins and
one World cro wn, while Van
den Berk has won just eig h t CPs,
but has ad ded the 1988 250cc World
title to th e I25cc crown of 1987.
La st year " Berky" was the seco nd
mo st popu lar spo rt sman in Holland
behind foo tball p layer C u llit.
When you switched from th e 125cc
to the 250cc CPs in the winter, did
you expect to end the season as World
Champion?
I knew th at I was a better rider tha n
m y new rivals, but I did not ex pect
to be ab le to win in a new class
during th e first year. I had in iti all y
set .myself a targe t of three years to
win th e 250cc World Championship,
graduall y working up from top five
thi s year to : top three next year and
th en the titl e itself. But as it has
worked o u t, I a m alread y the cham-
pi on , even th ough th ere is sti ll much
room for impro vement.
What were the most difficult things
for you to learn in th e 250cc class?
The most d ifficu lt cha ng e fro m th e
125s is learning ho w to ha nd le th e
bike and get the optim u m from it.
It is not so much the basic rid in g
tech n ique, but rather th e respect you
have to show for the bik e. Wh en you
make a small mistake o n th e 125,
then it was not a p roblem to get ou t
o f tro ub le. But on the 250, mis takes
mea n cras hes . I th in k the preparation of th e t b ike was also more
di fficu lt , but perhaps th at was just
becau se I was not used to do in g th at
at this level of competition.
R ace tactics were a lso diff erent.
T here are fa r mor e potential win ne rs
in th e 250cc class. Anyone of the
first 15 in this year's seri es were
capable o f wi n ning a Crand Prix,
whi le in the"125cc clas s it was just
Strijbos and Hayle. And it has been
Holland's John Van den Berk captured his first World Championship title in the
125cc class;n 1987, then backedit up withthe 250cc championship;n 1988.
