Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

I KTM-mounted Jecky Mertens led the first moto before being pessed by Geboers. then cruised to fourth in the second moto for third owrell. • Eric Geboers· won the first moto then finished fifth in moto two. but his scores movtid him into the points leed. 11 eheed of Thorpe. World Championship SOOcc MX Series: Round 2 Thorpe survives French mud bath By Alex Hodgkinson ST. JEAN D' ANGEL Y, FRANCE, APR. 16 With his eyes puffed up like a boxer who' had done a full 15 rounds with Mike Tyson, England"s Dave Thorpe passed Jacky Vimond on the final lap of the mud bath; French GP to clinch the over- I mate and reigning World all victory from Honda teamchamp Eric Geboers Thorpe's points for his 3-1 moto finishes moved him from ninth in the standings to second behind Geboers, who took over the points lead from opening round winner Dirk Geukens. Crashes restricted Geukens to just three points which dropped him to fourth in the table behind KTM's Jady Martens, who joined the two Honda riders on the winner's rostrum at St. Jean D' Angely. By the time racing began the magnificent hillside trad had been turned into a muddy morass and a good start would be imperative. Rear brakes were soon going to become inoperative on the riders' machines in these conditions, but being near the front of the P.'ld was at least going to give a nder the chance to see where he was going. The long man of motocross, Martens, and the short man, Geboers, had the first race in thenpocIc.et as they surged clear through the first few turns with the KTM slightly ahead. Kurt Nicoll's challenge for honors effectively ended in the first tum where he collided with Karl Sulzer and both went down. They were joined by Greg Hanson on the four-stroke CCM. "My goggles were totally covered in mud. by the time I ~ot halfway to the first comer," said Hanson. "All I know is that I must have hit something. When I got up, I could see one was Kurt, but I hadn't a clue who the other one was. " Sulzer retired immediately with bad problems and Hanson pulled out after a handful of laps when the situation was clearly hopeless. Nicoll, however, stormed through the pad and was already 26th at the end of the first lap, aided by more crashes around the trad. Points-leader Geukens ground to a halt after a good seventh-place start, and Dietmar Lacher, who was following, was unable to avoid him. Then Leo Combee charged into them and was unable to continue with his xear brake pedal broken off, but the other two joined in at the bacIc. of the pack. Leif Persson, having moved from 20th in tum one to 12th, looped out on a hill and was stretchered off for treatment to his left knee which had strud a roclc. when he landed, but the injury didn't prevent him from starting race two. Billy Liles, who hates deep mud even more than sand, stopped the first time past the pits. "I had used all of my Smith RollOffs on the first lap and I was all over the track," Liles said. At the front the big names who had escaped incident were loclc.ed in battle with a handful of surprise front-runners. After two' laps Martens was starting to make mistakes and Geboers seized his chance . to get a clear track, at least until he started to lap the backmarkers, and the pair had a good lead over the rest of the pack. Early third-place runner Romano Nannini gradually lost ground, and it was the HRC duo of Jeff Leisk and Thorpe who disputed third place to the finish, though Thorpe was always just in front after passing Leisk around half distance. Behind them Georges Jobe was a fairly lonely fifth for a long time, but Vimond was charging hard and there was every prospect of a close finish. But with the home crowd cheering wildly, disaster struclc. the Frenchman with just over a lap to go as the chain broke and left Vimond stranded on the hillside. Family honors were saved though, as younger brother Christian Vimond had the race of his life for seventh behind Giovanni Cavatorta. Nannini had dropped back to lead a mighty battle for .the rest of the points until he lost it on an uphill and lost a tbiId of a lap restarting. Amongst those recognizable in the group were Jo Martens, Mervyn Anstie, Andre Vromans, Franco Rossi and the boys coming through from the bad; Nicoll Lacher and Geukens. Minor incidents all around the tracIc. eventually left just Rossi and Nicoll saved from being lapped but only just as Anstie was the last to make a mistake and drop behind race-winner Geboers for lOth.

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