Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Parker won the British GP despite an injured shoulder and ankle. Italy 's A lessandro Puzar (4 ) gained 10 po ints on series po ints leader Trampas Parker at the World Championship 125cc MX GP in Ireland. World Championship 12Scc MX Series: Round 9 Puzar launches attack on Parker in Ireland By Alex Hodgkinson Photos by Davey Coombs KILLINCHY , IRELAND, J ULY 8 Italian Alessandro Puzar scored a perfect II mota combination to win th e Irish Grand P ri x at Killinchy to keep his title hopes alive against the series poin ts leader, American T rampas Parker, who finished third overall. Suzuki-mounled ' 10' P uzar ree led l.n . pOInLS. on . Pa~ker but sull IS 44. pomts behl~~ the factory KTM pilot from 14 l.:o~l sl an ~ . Parker, how ever , wa s riding with a ~ore shou!der a nd a nkle, s u ffere~. m a practi ce cras h befo re th e. British GP almos t two weeks ea rl ier, P uza r had not only Pa rker 10 contend with but two other Arnerican riders aboard KTMs _ Mik e Healey and Bobby Moore. Healey finished up in second overall with 3-2 mota finish es, whi le Moore settled for fourth with a 4-3 tally. R o u nd in g out the top five was Italian Andrea Bartolini with an 85 score . Du tch ri der Marcel Van Dru nen and two mo re Americans - Rick Rya n and A.J. Whiting - were top contenders in bo th heats. Honda rider Van Drunen took sixth overall and now ties for seventh in th e championship point standings with Cagiva's Massimo Contini and Suzuki's Edwin Evertsen. Local hero Alan Mo ,!i~on ,. a 2~ year-o ld Honda racer ndmg .m h is on ly GP of the year, repeat ed h is 1988 feat a nd hol esh ot th e first mot o 10 lead for o ne and a half laps. Heal ey took th e lead with Parker next past followed by Puzar a nd Moore. But o nce th ese four rid ers were past , Morrison settled into fifth. . After 15 minutes Parker under . I b P ' I ed co nti n ua pr~ssure y uzar, c a s down H ealey s early lead and Moore closed o n. them all. Ten mmutes later, Puzar .made. a clean pa ss on .t~e championship leader who was riding conservatively 10 protect a sore shoulder and an kle. Two laps later, th e pass. was repeated on Healey and Puzar Simply pulled away. Aro und the same tin:te, Moore !?ot taken o ut by a lapped rider, and with just under two laps to the finish, Healey hit a stone and fell, so Parker was gifted second place. Finishing sixth behind Morrison was Van Dru nen . Suzuki-mounted R ya n , who looked to be a shoo-in for seventh place, had a la pped ri der push him into the tires with four laps remaining and th e rear brake ped a l was bent around th e foot peg. H e was passed on the last lap by a forceful Charrel Sweebe, from Holland, a nd Barto' lin i, from Ital y. Finishing in th e last point-pa yin g p o siti on in 15th was H ondamount ed Whiting. Ba rt ol in i took th e hol eshot in rn oto two , but th e Itali an soon had to make way for th e four stars of th e cl ass. Moore demoted Bartolini before th e end of the first lap and was soo n followed by P uzar. Puzar was clearly in tent on making an early esca pe th is time and on lap six he forced past Moore a t th e sa me time as Heal ey demoted Parker just before th ey both passed Frenchman Yves Demaria in rapid successio n. From that point on th e onl y cha nge amongst th e lead ers cam e when H ealey passed Moore and snatch ed second in the race and overall. Holland's Van Drunen quickly estab lished himself in sixth place again , bu t this tim e the very ra p id T eus Visser was abl e to ca tch h is fellow countryman befor e the finish, T he Irishm an Morrison had not started so well this time, but battled on 10 finish just ahead of th em , while Whiting and Ryan, the fourt h and fifth Americans, were amongst th e Dutch score rs. Results a /A: 1. Alessandro Puzar (Suz); 2. Mike Healey (KTMt 3. Trampas Parker (KTMt 4. Bobby Moore (KTMt 5. "'ndrea Banolini (Hon); 6. Marcel Van Drunen (Han); 7. Teus Visser (Yam); 8. Charrel Sweebe (Yam); 9. Ricky Ryan (Suz); 10. Alan Morr ison (Han). MOTa ONE: 1. Puzar; 2. Parker; 3 . Healey; 4 . Moore; 5. Morrison; 6. Van Drunen; 7. Sweebe ; 8. Banolin i; 9. Ryan; 10. Visser; 11 . Edwin Evertsen (Suz); 12. Obeno (Hon); 13. Hans Menens (Hon); 14. A.J. Whiting (Hon); 15. Jacob Banh (Hon). MOTa TWO: 1. Puzar; 2. Healey; 3. Moore; 4 . Parker; 5. Barto lini; 6. Visser; 7. Van Orunen; 8. Wh iting; 9. Ryan; 10. Sweebe; 11. Jimmy Dobb (Hon); 12. Evensen (Suz); 13. Morrison; 14. Anders Svensson (Suz); 15 . Craig Pratley (Hon). POINT STAN DINGS: 1. Parker (307); 2. Puzar (263 ); 3. Healey (199); 4 . Moore (180 1; 5. Dave Stri jbos (138); 6. Yves Demar ia (l OBt 7. (TIE) Massimo Contini/ Evert senlVan Orunen (89); 10. Banoli ni (BBl. World Championship 125cc MX Series: Round 8 Parker wins fifth GP in Britain ' By Davey Coombs SC H REWSBU R Y, ENGLAN D, J ULY 2 American Tra mpa s P a rker moved one step closer LO the 125cc World Champ ionsh ip a fter lak ing the overa ll wi n wi th 4-2 mota finis hes at the H awksto ne Park circuit. It was Parker's fourth consecutive G P victory and it came as a surpise after the KTM pi lot crashed whi le practicing in Italy during the week and injured hi s foot and shoulder. " I cra cked a bone in my foot and dis located my shoulder while practicing this week ," said Parker from the rostrum. " I had hoped 10 just finish in th e top five today and then try to heal some more this week , but things just fell into place for me today." Some of those things that fell Pa rker 's way included a second mota " DNF" for titl e cont ender Alessandro P uzar , Holland's Edwin Evertsen and fellow Am erican and KTM teammate Bobb y Moore. Finishing seco nd and third o n th e day were Yamaha-mounted T eus Visser and H onda rid er Marcel Van Drunen. In the first mota, Holland's Jacob Barth led th e full gate to the top of th e starting hill but was soon overtak en by Evert sen with American Mi ke H eal ey, Puzar , Moore and Parker following past. Furt her back came Ameri cans Ri ck Ryan a nd A.J. Whiting. Evensen stretched his lead quickl y as Heal ey began looking rep eat edly down a t hi s forks and even tua lly pulled out of th e ra ce. " I heard a loud bang when I landed from a jump," said Healey. " A val ve blew in the fork s and th e bike was unrideabJe." .With Hea ley out of th e wa y Puzar began to hau l in Evert sen by more than a second a lap , overtaking th e young Dutchman with 10 minutes remaining. Moore dispatched Pa rker for third a nd was soon setting his sights on th e visibly fati gued Evertsen. But Moore ran out of time, crossing th e fini sh line just half a length behind Evertsen; Puzar 10 seconds clear on both. Parker was next with Van Drunen fifth and Dobb sixth . Rou nding out th e top nine were Visser, Ryan a nd Whiting. The start of th e second race was riddled with even ts concerni ng the top Americans. By virt ue of his poor qualifying tim e, Parker was forced to li ne up on the steep middle part of the gate. Ho wever, before the referee stepped ou t with the starting card, th e KTM rider som ehow managed to find a spot just beh ind Healey a nd Puzar at th e favored inside right. An offi cia l stepped in front of the cha m pio nsip leader as th e 30-seco nd card was going up and th e two began to sho ut o ver th e revs of th e other ma chines. Parker angril y spun hi s bik e around a nd barely made it 10 the o the r end of the ga te before it fell. In th e meantime Moore, who was wat ching hi s teammate's pl ight from two spots further down, fouled a plug due 10 th e wait a nd was left on the line wh en th e pack fin all y lit off. It would ta ke two more minutes to get th e KTM running and Moore entered th e track just in front of the race leaders Barth and Heale y, as th ey completed the first lap. Moore turned the fastest lap times of the race while trying to get into the top 15 pla ces for points but hi s efforts were in vain. P uzar was third but wasted no time in trying to get past Healey. P uzar 's ea rly all-out assault ended wh en he slammed into the sand after tryi ng to force the equally aggressi ve H ealey off his lin e in th e woods section. T he Ital ian 's bars were too badly ben t to co nt inue and P uzar was ou t of th e race. Park er who had gated fifth, passed Barth a nd fo urth-place Ryan to shadow Healey but seemed to decide early on to let his teammate go . Evensen wo uld rise to th ird beh in d Parker but his Suzuki holed a p iston before the 20-minute mark . Dobb,

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