Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

KTM -mounted Jacky Martens was the runner-up overall w ith 5 -2 moto scores, and he ended up fifth in the f ina l po int sta ndings. World Champion David Thorpe took his fourth consecutive GP overall victory by winn ing both motos of the Swiss GP finale. World Championship SOOcc MX Seri~s:' Final round Thorpe takes fourth straight at Wohlen By Alex Hodgkinson File photos by Hodgkinson WOHLEN, SWITZERLAND, AUG. 27 En gland's David Thorpe confirmed that h e's rightly on top of the world when, two weeks after clinching the 500cc WorI d Championsh ip crown, he ham mered the message home with another devastating double-mota win for his fourth successive GP victory in the Swiss finale to 16 h . Wh I t Vh~I~~~~ wa~ ::;~ in a~ful con. ditions after heavy rain fell for much of the previous night and during race day . With the title decided, the promoters were already expecting a smaller than usual crowd and the weather reduced it to an estimated 5000 spectators. Although the title may have been decided there was still a race for the runner-~p in the series. In his first GP season Jeff Leisk, the 24-year-old Australian, outpointed defeated champion Eric Geboers for second place ' in the final standings and Geboers only just held on by two points to stay ahead of Kurt Nicoll and complete a Honda sweep of the top three. Joining Thorpe on the rostrum at Wohlen were second-overall Jacky Martens and. third-l?la~e Lei~ Persson, who claimed hIS first pomts of a troubled second half to the year. A request by the HRC team for the race to be cancelled because of . th e tra ck conditions was rejected, although th e supporu~g four-stroke r~ce was cancelled to grve organizers time to pump at least some of th e water from th e track. And t~e next drama was a Ialse start wlt.h the subsequent 30-mmute delay m the program.. . Most of the riders on the favored right side of. the gate had .already emb~dded thel~ front wheels into the barrier before It was rele~sed a full 12 seconds after th e five-second board. The ru lebook says that the gate must drop between five and 10 seconds after this signal is given and the 20 riders who completed a la p had done so in vain. Mechanics had to wash th e bikes by han d since ma chinery cannot be returned to the pits during the delay before a restart. The riders ere held for a long time again at the second attempt to start the race, but this time it was released ·j ust in time. Whi le th e fastest men from the inside line turned tight with the exception of Nicoll who drifted wide and surrendered four places after getti ng the holeshot, Geboers took out the rest of the pack as he simply failed to turn or slow down and went straight into th e ropes. In doing so he ended the hopes of many others, including Billy Liles, Dietrnar Lacher and Karl Sulzer. Liles was far from pleased as he had a lso been leading the race at the first a ttem p t when it was red-flagged, and neither was Lacher. " I had a good start from the outside and was in the top 10, but G eboers just never turned and came flying across in front of us ," said La cher, who retired almost immediately as did Sulzer and Geboers. · Liles never actually went down and rejoined the race fairly quickly. " It would have been even faster but guys just kept slamming into me as they slithered out of control ," Liles said. At th e front Persson had accepted the lead, while Martens, Thorpe and Georges Jobe had also cut inside Nicoll when he failed to turn as tight as he would 've wished. On lap two Mervyn Anstie a lso got past Nicoll as the top six moved away .from the rest of the pack. With Geboers out, Leisk was looking to pick up as many points as possible in the battle for the si lver medal and he was quickly up to 10th behind Ludovic Lucquin, Kurt Ljungqvist and Arto Pantill a before a crash dropped the Australian to 22nd. . Knowing that his lack of race fi tness was goi ng to be less of a handicap in the muddy conditions, Persson led without problems for three laps but then got a flat rear tire. "With a Ig -inch rear wheel it wasn't so much of a problem as it might have been," said Pe rsson. But it was enough to cost him places o n successi ve laps to Marte ns and Thorpe. Then Martens also got a flat, in front, and the way was open for Thorpe to ride unchallenged to the flag although Persson was never far behind. Martens eased h is pace a little bit too much at first and befo re he realized that he could've kept going faster, he was down to sixth and even starting to come under pressure from Lucquin and the Finns. Jobe had inherited third but he too had a fla t tire and was passed in rapid succession by Anstie and Nicoll. Anstie's glory was to last less than a lap. "I had a partial seizure and by the time I got going again I was down to I I th," .Anstie said. " T h e motor was pinging a lot but I managed to keep it going until a few laps from the end when it seized solid." That left Nicoll third and with a great chance of pulling back most . of his points deficit on both Geboers and Leisk, but with two laps to go Nicoll got caught up in the trackside marking and gave third back to Jobe. "Someone had clipped a post and I got the rope in the rear wheel as I went up the hill," said Nicoll. Martens was fifth with Ljungqvist sixth ahead of Pa n ulla , who confirm ed his mud reputation with his first points of the season. Franco Rossi seemed sure to finish ninth, but ran out of fue l halfway around the fina l lap. That gave Leisk an extra point which put him ahead of Geboers in the standings, with Nicoll a further nine behind. Martens' fifth virtually clinched th e number five plate since J obe would have to win race two to beat h im , but Jobe was 15 points clear of Liles, who salvaged a single point from 15th place after a mid-race crash denied him a better score. He at least moved ahead of the absent Kees Van de r Ven, who was still assured of automatic qualification for next season following the retirements of Dirk Geukens and Anstie.

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