Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

(/) 1 (/) ~ i2 0.. :r z ; :r 0 -, > '" 0 .... 0 :r 0.. O'l 00 O'l ... O'l ..... en ~ bD ~ < Brit Simon Cross leads Americans Shawn Moran and Greg Hancock in the U.S . vs. England Test Series match at Belle Vue, England. Yank Dave Roper beat Kiwi Hugh Anderson to win the Classic Super Prix at England's Brands Hatch Raceway. Both rode Matchless G50s. seconds for starting from th e wrong place on the grid after sta ll ing on th e line, dropping him to fourth place behind two m ore Duca tis. Rutter was well-pleased with eig h th p lace. The so-called " Battle of Singles" was another first for Ital y, the first International race o f its kind there for single-cylinde r four-strokes of any capacity. T his encouraged two factories to bu ild m achin es especiall y for the race: G iler a , w ho deve loped a 560cc version of their Saturno roadster b y s lotti ng a lightly-tuned en gi ne from th eir 600 Da ko ta trail bike into th e Sa turno's spaceframe chassis, entrusting the resul t to Britian journalist Ala n Cath ca rt ; a nd Cagiva , w ho p er formed a more ra di cal transplant by shoe-homing a 510cc Husqvarna four-val ve engine into th e Ca giva Freccia chassis, ri dde n by factory tester Pa ulo Bianchi. Though th e two bikes were quite equal o n top speed, the Gilera braked and h andled far better, and after tracking th e Husky-Cagiva for two laps, Cathcart, wh o had qualified on pol e 3.5 seconds ahead of Bianchi, swept past his adversa ry in th e fast Lesmo bends a nd pulled aw ay to an easy win by a lmost 15 seco n ds. ·Result s BOTT: 1. DaniJo Toseh i (Due); 2. Ma ssimo Bertolono (Duel; 3. Iva Bellezza (Due); 4 . Roger Perrot .. (Due); 5. Giann i Peroni (Duel. BOS: 1. Alan Cathcart (Gil ); 2. Paoloa Bianchi (Cagl; 3. Giorg io Gall inell i (Gil ): 4. A ngelo Tencon i (Gil): 5. P. Garr en (Ae rl. 500: 1. Franz Glauser (See): 2. Alan Cath cart (Nor); 3. Jim E. ans (Mat): 4 . Bill Sw allow (Aer); 5. Jan Lawton (Aer) . 350: 1. Ian Lawt on (Aer); 2. Bill Swallow (Aer); 3. Anto ny Ainslit ( D ue~ 4. Jim E.ans (Nor); 5. Lauro Micozzo (Due). Brands Hatch Classic Super Prix Roper beats Brits By Robert Fawcett BR ANDS H ATCH, ENGLAND, J U L Y 15-16 Ame rican Dave Roper, aboard th e T eam Obsolete Matchless G50 , took an undisputed victory in Britain's premier his- 16 toric bik e race of th e seaso n, th e 20lap Classic Super Prix held at Brands H at ch as the culmination of a two day festival o f nosta lgi a. Organized as the 10th birthday celebra tion of Britain 's Classic Racin g Motorcycl e Cl ub (C R MC), th e meeting n ot on ly featured a to tal of 38 ra ces over th e two days (incl u ding th e Super Prix a nd the annual Ray P ett y T rophy Race excl usive ly for pre-'64 Manx Nortons), but a lso saw a series of parades and demonstrati ons of exotic racing machinery fr om co n ti n en tal m anufa ctu rer s organ ized by former car and bi ke Wo rld Champion john Surtees. The parades featured suc h g lo rious go lde n o ldies as a pair of fourcylinder Ben ellis o n loan to Surtees from th e Italian factory, the fourcylinder G ilera 500 from th e works museum , n o less than four MV Agustas of various ages, (in clu di n g one of th e rare three-cyli nder bikes ridden by Ago sti n i to countless World titles), six- and four-cyli n der H onda s, twin-cyl in der works BMWs (with a nd without su~rchargers),. and, of more recent vintage, the Da yton a -wi nn in g Q u a nte1-Co swo rt h BoTT bike, which made a farewell to the track in th e h ands o f its former ri der, the no w re ti red Roger Marsh all. To ride th ese bikes were a n array o f riders of various eras, rangin g fro m Surtees himself , Roper, Marshall, form er Br ands H atch sta r Der ek Minter, Manx GP winner Ri chard Swallow, a n d trials ace Sammy Miller. The ra cing was far from overs hadowed by th e sideshows, th ough, and as th e various su p port events were run off over th e two day s, it became evide nt th at the battl e for Su per Prix h onors la y between Roper, making his first visit to th e short-bu t-tricky Brands track, an d four-time former World Cham p io n H u gh Anderson from New Zea la nd, wi nner just three weeks beforehand of th e 1989 Dutch Historic TT during th e GP meeting at Assen. Bo th he and Roper wer e riding G50 Ma tchl ess machines in the Super Pri x , (restricted to bikes built before the end of 1963 under the CRMC's Peri od I rules, up to 500cc in capacity). Chris McGahan had previously disti nguished h imself by performin g a remarkab le stunt in aid of charity, standi ng o n th e wing of a pre-WW2 Tiger Moth biplane as it circled the trac k 500 feet in the air, dressed in his racing lea th ers. Beneficiaries of th is sponsored disp lay of looniness were th e Physically H andicap ped but Abl e Bodied (P H AB) charity, who took a portion o f th e m eeting 's p ro ceeds for th eir funds. Back on ea rt h (and on two wh eels ra the r than two wings) it wa s McGahan who aga in di stinguished himself by leading o££ th e line for th e Super Prix ab o ard T elfer ' s 500 Norton, th ough th e h ea vier bike was overhauled before th e firs t turn by eq ua lly fast-starting jim Evans on his lighter Mat chless G50 . Roper was ba ck in the pack , but soon moved • through to third place, tra cked by Anderson, whose push st art was handicapped by the seri o us foo t injury he su££ered racing in New Zealand a t the start of the year, from wh ich he's still recovering. Evans looked to be trying to make a break for it , as a ga p opened up bet ween him a nd th e rest, as Roper looked fo r a wa y around Brandsexpert McGahan , wh o lives o n ly a sto ne 's thro w from the ci rcuit entrance. By lap three, Roper was in second p lace, as McGahan slowed and p u lled o££ wi th clutch trou ble. Mo me nts later , Evans' engine cu t out at the o££-ca m ber Clearways tu rn for no apparen t reason; he just saved th e resulting n ear-accident, and pushed back to th e p its with what a p peared to be a m alfunctioning m agneto. This left th e two main protagoni sts on each other 's heels, wi th Anderso n using h is su peri or Brands experien ce to close up on Roper at th e start o f lap five, lo oking for a way past a t Paddock Bend. Next time aro u n d, he found the way , cu tt in g up th e in side o f Roper under braking and forcing through as th ey both turned in to the long downhill sweep. Roper thought about closing the door, but hesitated just long enough to let the Kiwi through. Not for long, though: The American countera tt acke d just two co r n ers later , sweepin g p a st An derson o n the downhill left-hander of G raham Hill Bend to retake th e lead. " I co uld see H u gh wa s really fired up, so I co u ldn't let h im lead too long as we were jus t start ing to lap th e slower guys , and I m ight have been held up," sai d Ro per. He was right, a nd in tu rning th e tables he managed to open u p a short lead that qu ickl y became a two-second o ne withi n three laps as the leading pair encoun tered tra££ic. " I could see I wasn' t going to be able to keep up, so I knocked it ba ck a n d settled for second," said Anderso n. " Dave was rid in g . rea lly well an d h is bike's a flyer ; he h ad th e race sew n up by half distance, though I still kep t m y h ead dow n i n case h e ran into a ny p roblem s. " No suc h luck for the Kiwi, as Rope r p u lledsteadily a way to win co m forta b ly and ensu re a rendition of th e Star-Spangled Banner on the vic to ry ro strum . And erson w as seco nd, with Malcolm Clark reco vering from a bruising fall in the first race of th e me eting to be first Briton home in third pl ace, to m akean a llMatchless top three. The CRMC plans to turn Super Prix -into an annual event on the same date each year; one who won 't complain is ci rc u i t owner john Webb , who cancelled his flight to a tte n d the ri val British ca r GP at Silverstone th e same weekend when he saw the size of th e 15,000-strong Brands Hatch crowd. Results SUPER PRIX: 1. Deve Roper (Mat); 2. Hugh Anderson (MatI; 3. Melcolm Clark (Mat); 4 . Jerry Summerfield (Norl; 5. Paul Barren (Nor). RAY PETlY TROPHY 500: 1. Chris McGahan (Norl . - RAY PETTYTROPHY 350: 1. Da.id May (Nor). u.s. tops England in Speedway Test match By John Hipkiss BE L L E VUE , MANCHESTE R, ENGLAN D, J U L Y 14 U .S. speedway riders put in a fig h ti ng performance a t Bell e Vue to sq uare th e three-match speedway T est Series with Erigla n d. Only one poi nt separated th e tea ms a t the end of 18 grueling heats bu t it was America who h eld the ad vantage, a nd a fter th eir crushing 64-44 defeat a t Crad ley H eath in the open ing meeting, it was a much im p ro ved d ispl ay. T he sma lle r Manch ester circu it wa s better su ited to th e Amer ican sty le a n d skipper Shaw n Moran ma de th e m ost of his cha nces with soli d support fro m Sa m Er molen ko, Lance Kin g and Robert Pfetzing. Mora n led his team brill ia ntl y a nd the wi nning margi n wou ld h ave bee n much bigger if Ronn ie Co rrey hadn ' t crashed o ut in his second race. H e fell awkwardly as he came out of th e first turn and broke his right wri st. At that stage America had a firm grip on th e match. Moran and Correy looked perfect as th ey streak ed away from Andrew Silver and Martin Dugard in th e openi ng race to giv e th e U.S. a winn ing start and then Ermolenko and Pfetzin g dealt the same treatment to Chris Morton and j er emy Doncaster. Am eri ca was eight points u p and th ings were looking good, but there were shocks in store. R ick Miller fell in the third race, leavin g Kin g to chase Si mon Cro ss and Pa ul T horp. T he re was double disaster in the fou rt h hea t when bo th Moran a nd Co rrey locked u p at the same spot as they turned into th e back st ra ig h t. Moran was unhurt but Co rrey 's injury meant he had to go to the hosp ital a nd he was o ut of the meeting. Bo th rid ers were excl u ded from the rerun for ca us ing th e race to be stopped. Ermol en ko a nd Pfetzin g immediatel y put America on top agai n wi th a nother full -p o inter agai ns t Cro ss an d T horp, on ly for Silver an d Dugard to reverse th e score aga ins t Kin g and Mill er.

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