Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~ m , .-.. I C"l 00 C"l I""""i ~ t- CN .... Q.) .D 8 Q.) ..... 0.. Q.) sr: Mike Kiedrowski flies over the crowd-covered Gaildorf hillsides on his way to a 1-2 score in the 12 5 cc c lass, list , which put him II points behind in th e rac e for th e title. Ameri ca 's toughest com petitio n was figured to co me from th e Belgian team o f Georges J ob e (500), Eric Geboers (250) and Marniqc Bervoets (125), but th ey ended up finishin g ninth. Ital y was a lso fa vored to tak e America 's title away, and th e Bri tish team a lso looked stro ng. But an y doubt a mong th e 30,000plus fan s and international press cor ps was quickly silenced wh en th e first of th e three motos took to th e hard-pack, blue-groove tra ck. The winner a t Gaildorf would not o n ly have to be th e fa st est , but t he smoo thest rider as wel l. " I could push harder," Stanto n would la ter say , "but yo u want to go easy and be as smooth as you can (on this trac k)." Although Aussie Leisk, who finish ed number two in the 500cc World Championships, got th e jump on th e pack to start th e first moto, Ward put hi s Tom Mo r g an -tuned fa ctory Kawasaki in front a fter a few turns and wou ld nev er be caught. ' Kiedrowski wou ld have to do like he's done in numerous Na tionals this year and pla y ca tch -u p a fter starting from th e second row. Nea r th e end of lap o ne he wasn 't even in the top 15 on th e track, a nd wa s out of the top five in th e 125cc class as France's Patrick Demaria was th e fir st 125 a t 10th overall. World ch a m p Thorpe badl y wanted to beat th e America ns, and in Saturday's practi ce sessio n he raced with Ward. The two bumped a few times in th at session as Thorpe tri ed to intimidate the factory Kawasaki pilot, but after a lap Ward let him go . But now th at it was time to race Ward wasn 't going to le] Thorpe get close, as th e Englishman moved into second on the first lap and tri ed to ca tch th e Am eri can. Wa rd knew. where he was the wh ole time, often looking ba ck to keep a close eye o n Dietmar Lacher (7 3 ) leads Jacky Martens (19). Jeff Leisk (40) and Jeff Ward (1) at the start of the f inal moto. Ward won moto one but crashed in the final moto and finished eighth in the 500cc class. th e HRC-backed ri der. H e didn 't ha ve to look too far as Thor pe kept him in sigh t for most o f th e race, finishing seven seco nds behind. " I knew after th e first few laps he -wo uldn ' t get me," said Ward. " I was bei rig ca u t io us a n d h e wa sn't ga ining. " " J eff had a few sectio ns on the course where he was faster a nd mad e a gap that I could n't ca tch," said T horpe. German Dietm ar Lache r kept th e h ome crowd e nt h us ias tic as he moved into th ird when Leisk sli pped back ea rly in th e mot o. When Leisk rega in ed hi s composu re he cha rged ba ck a nd the tw o H onda r id er s battled for severa l laps before Leisk force d his way past to cla im third. "I wa sn 't riding smooth a t first," . Leisk sa id. "After I was passed I sa w better lines, bu t af ter moving ba ck u p , J eff and Tho rpe were gone a nd th ere was n' t m uc h I co uld do." Tram pas Parker sa id he hadn 't ridden h is 500cc KTM much prior to the event. The last time he had ridd en the big bike was be fore th e GP season started in Ap ril , a nd befor e tha t he took the 500cc Italian Championship late in '88. It sho wed a t first as he sta rted slowly. "T he bike was ea rin' me up," he sai d , " I wasn 't used to it," But as he got th e feel for it he began chargi ng from a o nce-dista nt ninth. H e got as high as seventh, b ut that's wh en he ran into Belgian Georges J obe. The two ba uled for th e last 10 minutes o f th e !SO-mi n u te p lus twolap moto but Parker never could get by a nd the pair wasn 't far behind J a cky Martens at the finis h. . "Whe n everybody was ge tting 7

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