Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127202
Jeff Leisk gave Thorpe a fight for the lead in the second mota and his 2-2 mota scores moved him within 15 po ints of second in the standings. England's Dave Thorpe took a double-mota victory in his home GP , turn ing a 10-point deficit into a 1 O-point advantage in the standings. - orld Championship SOOcc MX Series: W Round 9 Thorpe hack on top at Farleigh Castle GP By Alex Hodgkinson File photos by Ken Faught and Kinney Jones FARLEIG H CASTLE, ENGLAND, J UL Y 23 HRC rider Dave Thorpe turned a IO-point deficit into a I O-point advantage over teammate and rival Eric Geboers with a scintillating double mota win at his h o m e country's G P at Farleigh Castle, It was the th ird British G P . . . f h' maXlm um- pOl!l t W I n . 0 IS career but the first at this track. Bu t any thoughts th at the titl e is a two -rid er race are fal se. Austra lian J eff Le isk a nd En gland 's KurtNicoll joined T horpe on th e podiu m at th e ' en d of the day a nd on ly 40 p oin ts separate th e four after n in e o f th e 12 G Ps. A m a ssi ve cro wd w itn essed a nerve-tingli ng battle of th e world's best on one o f the most de ma nding circu its in th e world in swe ltering temperatures and wi th humidity as high as it ever gets in Europe. T here was a fra ntic wavi ng of arms from G P sponsor Bobby Blackburn of Southern Formes and Cutters as the 30-second board was shown and h is sponsored rider, Mervyn Ans tie, realized that he had an inoperative fro nt b rake as a resu lt of a fractured lin e. Bu t even sponsors can' t delay a race a t th is stage, th ough a h ost o f rid ers must have wish ed tha t he co u ld h ave. An sti e inevitably went down in the heavil y-wat ered first tu rn a n d with h im we nt R ob Andrew s, Kurt Ljun gq vi st, L eif Persson, J o Marten s, Mark Banks a nd Ivan Grobben . T horpe , was unconcern ed , however, as for th e fir st ti me in ma ny years he took a GP h ol esh ot a nd immediately estab lished h im self as the favori te to win. Seven seco nds ahead af ter three laps, the home hero saw th at distance cut to five seco nds as Lei sk powered in sid e G eorges J ob e fo r seco n d p lace a nd set o ff in p urs ui t of Thorpe. But th at was me rely a sig n for Thorpe to up th e pace for two la ps a nd estab lish a 10seco n d lead that he h eld to th e final la p. " My bi gg est p roblem a ll race was to decide wh ether to push o n further and increase m y lead just in case a ny thing unforseen happened whe n I came to th e back markers, " sa id T horpe. - " In th e end I decided 10 seco nds was enough." Geboers wa s in tro uble. As in the previous G P he got a terr ibl e start but was pi cking u p places fro m around 15th whe n he fell just before the co m p letion of the first lap. T he race was 10 minutes o ld before Geboers got back into a p oi n tsscoring pos ition, and with th e field spreading o ut, he was clearly n ever going to be in a position to retai n his championship lead. Ge boers eventua lly made it to ni nth, hel d at a safe five -second dista nce by Karl Su lzer through the final la ps. Geboers' fi nal victi ms h ad been Dietrnar Lacher a nd KTM 's Jacky Marten s, th e KTM rider having lost the use of hi s cl utch wh en he got cross-rutted a nd crashed ou t of fourth a fter half a n hour. But not on ly did Geboe rs see Thorpe move three points a head , he a lso sa w Leisk move to wi thin 15 points. Jo be had tri ed to rea tta ck Leisk with - four laps rem a in ing, but th e Au stra lian always h ad th e upper h and. Nicoll , cl a i m ing th a t h is bruised toes from a midweek crash were not hampe ring h im , took half an hour to find a way past Billy Liles for fourth, by which time th e Hondas were too far ahead. " I ten sed up in th e early laps a nd it took m e until halfway to snap ou t o f it," sai d Nico ll. J ack y Vim ond rod e a su pe rb ra ce aft er a troubled first la p to sna tch si xth from J a red Sm ith in th e closing laps. Only one of th e fir st tu rn crashers got anywhere. Per sson quit a lm ost immediately in di sgust a t th e m ixture o f muddy _ co rners and dusty stra igh ts, wh ile Ljungqvist cras hed aga in la te in th e m ot o wh ile well on hi s wa y into th e points . J o Marten s m anaged to ge t up fa irly qu ickl y a nd finish ed 13th, th ough it may ha ve bee n one better. On th e last la p he ca ught Brian Wh eeler and on th e long downhill d ived past, but Wh eeler was deter mi ned not to let a nyone get past, " I m ust admi t that I cu t Martens up badl y in th e co rner a t th e bottom of th e hill ," Whee ler sa id. Marten s wasn 't pleased. Fra nco Rossi, fastest in practice bu t an early retirement in moto one, was fresh for the second battle a nd took fu ll advantage in the early laps after gating first. Su lzer emerged from th e p ack in seco nd p lace ahea d of th e H onda su pers ta rs. Lei sk poun ced o n Nic oll to challenge Geboers for th ird. J obe an d Thorpe sh ou ld' ve been next, but both were victims o f an inci dent back in the woods. Jobe caught Nicoll's rear wh eel an d went down, whi le Thorpe was too close to a void joining h im. j obe b lamed Ni co ll, saying " he cu t me up." Ni coll repl ied , " I was in front. I ca n choose m y own line." Thorped breathed a sigh of reli ef that it wasn 't any worse. "Fortu-