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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127385
RM orDeROSS W orldChampionship500cc M XSeries: Round 5 e American Bill Y Liles finished second overall with 3-2 moto finishes. Georges jobe (right) offers his condolences to the fallen Kurt Nicoll. lobe was Nicoll's closest rival for the 500cc MX World Championship. j acley Martens (4) scored the overall win and mo ved in to title contention. Here he chases Ronny Weustenraed (66) and Kees Van der Ven (7). ou t of actio n for the rest of th e season. Now the title battle will be between Jobe, Malin and Martens who are now sepa rated by ju st nine points at the halfway point of the World Champi onship 500cc MX Series. Arto Pantilla, Dirk Geukens, Kurt Ljungqvist and Liles join the top three as automa tic qualifiers for the second half of the year. (T he top eight in the point sta ndings automatically qualify for each G P. When th ere are more th an 40 ent rant s at a GP, timed qualifying is held during Saturday's practice sess io ns 10 th i n the field .) Li les clinched his au tomatic qualification sta tus after a titanic struggle with Jo Martens o ver second place which lasted throughout th e second rnoto. Nicoll's injury also give Liles renewed hope of winning his first-ever 500cc Wor ld Ch ampionship as the American is now 40 points behind Jobe. The day before the GP, jobe, Malin and three-time 500cc World Champion Dave Thorpe won support of FIM Jury President Walter Angel l" for a change 10 the first corner. The change angered the organizers and also many of the rid ers who felt that th e original layout, a slow left-hander, was much safer than the sweeping right-hander that replaced it. The riders' fears were justified at the start of the first 40-minute p lus two lap moto when Ljungqvist went down in the middle of the pa ck and took several other rid ers down with him. Others, including Thorpe, were badly hindered. Ironically, Malin and Jobe both got away without trouble and were split only by Soren Mortensen at the end of the first lap. A battle ro yale between Malin and Jobe seemed predestined, but it was not 10 be. On the third lap J obe fell in a tight turn. Trapped under his own bik e, the Belgian was run ova by a couple of riders and looked a pal e shadow of his best when he remounted in 23rd. J obe struggled back to ISth enteri ng the final lap, but another fall dropped him to 16th at the fini sh. " I was in suc h pain," said J obe, who immediately called his doctor after the race. " I thought I had broken something in my foot when I fell the first time. I have had it taped and will race the second rnoto." Malin was never challenged at die head of the pa ck. He had a six-second lead over Mortensen after five lap s, and continued to stretch his advantage when the Dane lost second to Liles at half distance. " I felt good and just kept going away unti l I was in no danger," said Malin. "It was safe to slacken my pace a little in the the final laps. " Jacky Martens was the man tearing through the pack. " I made a pretty bad start, and it was very difficult to pass early in the race," said Martens. "After five or six laps it was getting bumpier and then I was able to start making a move, but by the time I passed Li les for second place after half an hour I was already 16 seconds down on Malin." With Mal i n backing off in the closi ng laps, Marte ns ended up finishing II seconds behind the Englishman. No sooner had Martens passed Li les than the American hit trouble. " I got track marker tape in my rear brake and had to stop to remove it," said Li les. "That cost me two places, but Mortensen was fadi ng fast and I got Pantilla for third on the last lap." After not being able to train the previous week, Mortensen began to get tired after 30 minutes and dropped back to finish sixth behind Carlo Hulsen , who had started 18th. Leo Combee had held sixth and he too began to fade after 30 minutes, giving seventh place to Geukens. Combee Nicoll crashes, breaks leg in practice T Martens moves into contention with ' u hGP win D tc By Alex Hodgkinson NORG, THE NETHERLANDS, JUNE2 acky Marten s stor med into co nten tion for 500cc MX Wor ld Cha mpi onship as the titl e was thrown wide open at the Dutch GP wh en points lead er Kurt Nicoll brok e h is th igh d uring timed p ractice. And Georges J ob e, w ho h o ld s second in the point standi ngs, crashed in the first moto and broke his lo wer ri gh t leg. J 20 Paul Malin defeated Marten s in the first rno to, bu t Malin cras hed in the firs t turn at the start of moto two and hit the deck twice more befo re giving up. Martens went o n to record the win and o verall victor y, American Billy Lil es clinched run ner- up honors after recording 3-2 moto fini shes. Desp ite hi s inj ury , N icoll is sti ll at the top of the sta ndi ngs bu t will be he ~OOcc MX World Championship was thrown wide open in the morning when Kurt Nicoll bro ke his left th igh and ankle in a crash during timed practice at the Dutch G P. The British Champion, runaway leader of the series prior to the crash, immediately realized the seriousness of his injury and made no attempt to move from the center of the track. Flag marshalls reacted quickly to protect Nicoll, and Paul Malin was the first rider to stop and assis t his fallen rival before riding off to inform Nicoll's famil y of the incident. Former 250 and 500cc. World Champion Hakan Carlqvist was also quick to assist Nicoll after seeing the end of the crash. " I heard a bike rev o ut and as I look ed I saw Kurt falling off the back of the bike after looping out," said Carlqvist. "It is difficult 10 say how it ha ppened as he wasn't on a fast lap ." Three-tim e World Champion David Thorpe also stopped to place his bike in front of Nicoll, and the common concern was expressed by Georges Jobe, Nicoll's clos est rival for the championship, who appeared on the scene a few minutes later. " Kurt doesn't deserve this." Jobe said . "This year was his big chance of winning the tit le after three years of being second. This is no way to lose the title." Nicoll was taken 10 a local hospital where he underwent surgery to set the leg. After a short recuperation, Ni coll will return to England where his recoverv will keep him Ollt of action for the rest of the season. . For the second straight year the rider dominating th e first half of the World Cha mpionsh ip 500cc MX Series has fallen victim to a practice crash at the halfway point. Las t year Ameri can Bill y Liles broke his thigh while leading the championship .