Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ MOTOCROSS World Championship 500(( MX Series: Round 9 m Eric Geboers won both motos at the 500cc San Marino GP to put himself in position to clinch his fifth Worl d titl~ at his home GP in Namur, Belgium. Pekka Vehkonen's two-mota sweep of th e 250cc Venemelan GP moved him to within two points of series runner-up John Van den Berk with on e G P to go. Geboers moves in on title with San Marino sweep By AI~x Hodgkinso n 20 BALDASSERONA,SAN MARINO, JULY29 elgian Eric Geboers moved one step closer to his fifth MX World titl e when he won both motos at the San Marino G P. He now leads B England 's Kurt Nicoll, who finished third overa ll with 7-2 rnoto scores, by 87 points and can clinch the ti tie at the next GP at Namur in his native Belgium. That race also falls on his 28th birthday. Geboers' compatriot Dirk Geukens combined a pair of fourth-place moto finishes to claim second overa ll, whi le defending 500cc World champ Dave Thorpe bounced back from a very poor performance in the German G P to grab fourth overall with 3-6 moto finishes. The race was marred by blinding dust despite attempts of the organizers to combat it. For the third time this year Englishman Pau l Malin, who was second fastest in timed practice to Gi useppe Gaspardo ne, shot to the fron t from the start but was down on the ground within two minutes. "The front wheel washed out in a co rner," sa id Mal in . Remo u n tin g seventh, Malin rode well for half th e race before pulling ou t, unhappy with the way he was riding. Malin 's fall handed the lead to Geboers, but on th e second lap German Dietmar Lacher stormed past h im and opened up a five-second lead , wh ile Geboers resisted the challen ges of Gaspardon e. But when Geboers saw Ital ian Franco Rossi comi ng through stro ngly from eig h th, he decided it was tim e to get go in g. Rossi was past · Gaspardo ne within a lap of Geboers increasin g hi s tempo and the gap between them rema ined th e same to the finis h. At the checkered n ag Geboers and Rossi were 1-2. Geboers had caugh t Lacher afte r 25 minutes, bu t the p ro sp ect fo r a du el for the lead immediately disappeared as La cher sna ked under acceleration, looked dow n at the rear wheel and pulled oUL The spokes coul dn 't stand the strain of the bo ne-ha rd track. Within a coup le of laps Gaspardone was also ou t wi th a rear fla t as Thorpe closed in on h im. Thorpe go t a really bad start , but go t th rough the collisio n in tum two and was 12th after half a lap. Riding more like h is old self th ou gh still not 100%back on the pace, Thorpe pulled through to th ird but th e top two were too far ahea d for him to consider a challenge. Thorpe had to wa tch hi s back to keep Ja cky Martens at a di stan ce. The Belgian had fallen after 15 minutes when close to Gaspardone, and after a couple of laps of settling in to th e pace he came back stro ngly to cross the finis h line fourth. Martens' efforts did n't br in g him the 13 p o in ts expected, howeve r, as his factory KT M failed the pos t-race noi se test a nd Martens was pena lized one minute whi ch dro pped him to ISth . _ Geu kens showed that he is improving all the time on a variety of sur faces with fourth on a track where he has previousl y strugg led , while Ku rt Ljungqvist confirmed his return to the top flight of privateers by ma king the top six for the third G P in successio n. He pushed hom e favorite Giovanni Cavatorta down to sixth on the last lap. Nicoll had been one of the riders hindered by the cras h in the secon d tum an d he faced a 100l g, bl in d rid e through the pack for seventh place. "You just cou ldn' t see a th in g," said Nicoll. " I' m su re th e other riders who were in th e pack will tell you the same th in g." Ind eed they did and a whole ho st of good riders simp ly quit the race after an incident in the dust, either a fall in a rut they cou ldn' t see or a collision with ano ther rider. Amon gst those to pu ll ou t were Kees Van der Ven , Leo Combee, Mervyn Anstie, Mark Banks , Arto Pan tilla and J ared Smi th. There was sensation before th e start of moto two when Rossi's bike arrived three mi n u tes too late in th e pre-pare but was still let in. The organizers then started the race late so tha t they cou ld resist any prot ests by claimi ng th at the clock was inco rrect, When th e gate dro pped it was Geboers immediatel y in front with a whole host of Brit ish riders in hi s wake. Smith was initially second but Nico ll and Malin soon p ushed him do wn to fourth while Geu ken s completed the breakaway and Van der Ven led the pack. T horpe was battli ng for 19th with Leif Persson , wh il e La cher a nd Martens d i sputed 2 7t h a nd Georges Job e was last after a crash. Rossi and Cavatorta had been locked in a battle for 11th and Rossi was the man to mak e th e most progress u p th e field in th e early laps as Nicoll and Ma lin pu t th e pressure on Geboers. Thorpe was trying his best to pull through th e pack but was soon trailing a tremendous amount of track marker tape for a tim e as he fought to catch up. By half distance Rossi was involved in an elbow-banging ba tt le with Geukens wh ich eventually saw th e Italian go down as th ey touched. Rossi was able to remount in fifth . The 'rest of the riders were peering through the clouds of dust but nobody was making much progress and it was clear that neither Marte ns nor Lacher were enjoyi ng th e dust. By half distance Persson had pulled out and Van der Ven, less carefree than his younger riva ls, was dropping down the pack. Larsson had been goi ng well in ninth place until he got a nat rear tire. Geboers held off Nicoll to th e nag an d Thorpe eventually used his strength to get through to si xth without a chance of catchi ng the first five. Malin held on to third over Geu ken s and Rossi. Martens a nd Lacher quit th e struggle late in the race as did l obe after a brave fight back through the pack whi ch still cou ldn't get him int o th e top 20. 01 Results TIMED PRACTICE: I. Giuseppe Gaspardon e (2 minutes. 41.5 1 seconds): 2. Paul Malin (2:42.25 ); 3. David Thorpe (2:42.55); 4. Kurt Ljungq vist (2:42.81); 5. Dietmar Lac her (2:42.99); 6. Jacky Martens (2:43.45): 7. Eric Geboers (2;43.46); 8. Kun Niroll (2; 43.81); 9. Fra nco Rossi (2;43.88); 10. G io vaon i Cavatorta (2;43.96); I I. Eho Card ucci (2;44.09); 12.· Robert o Costa (2:44.75); U . Lei! Persson (2:44.85); 14. C ian Marco Fausso ne (2:44.94); 15. Atti lio Pignoui (2:44.99 ); 16. Ano Pa mil la (2:45.72); 17. Geo rges Jobe (2:45.78); 18. Ro man o Nannini (2;45.86); 19. Mervyn Ans u < (2:45.87); 20. Dirk Oeukens (2:45.87 ); 21. Siegfried Bauer (2;46. 12); 22Robert Scou (2:46.36); 23. Dar io Dell 'An to n io (2:46.72); 24. Rob Andrew , (2:46.76); 25. Leo Combee (2:46.76); 26. J o Martens (2:46.84); 27. jean-Charles Tonus (2;47.21); 28. J ared Smith (22:47.54); 29. Lo ri, Gatti (2:47.79); 30. Stefan Lars son (2:48. 17); 3 1. Serge David (2:48.29) ; 32. J ohan Boonen (2:48.35); 33. Mark Banks (2:48.47); 34. Ken Van der vee (2:48.58); 35. G iancarlo Masin i (2:48.87); 36. J oel Smet (2:49.42); 37. Marco Ceri ni (2:50.02); 38. Jean-Mar k Blanch y (2:50.08 ); 39. J ean .M ichd Midq (2:50.36); 40. Mark Velkeneers (2:5 1.16); 41. G ia nlu ca Bernin i (2:5 U3); 42. W

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