Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

i~~j"·· MOTOCROSS : : ':·: · ·' · · -:· ". Round 6: Slovakian GP .~ U , _ ChampiOnshi5llki ~ $iri,s at- ir • (Above) Mervyn Anstie's flrst-ever GP win came under brutal cond itions. The Brit finis hed second in moto one, despite having two flat tires. (Left) Franco Rossi won the first moto and despite an early crash In the second outing · placed second overall. By Alex Hodgkinson SVEREPEC, SLOVAK!A, JUNE 5 nglish privateer Mervyn Anstie s h r u g ge d off a w eek-old leg injury and two flat tires to score his first-ever GP victory' after 10 years of trying with a scintilla ting d isp lay of courage, determination and skill at a muddy Sverepec track in Slovakia, where controversy reared its head for the second successive weekend in the 500cc MX GP series. E 26 .. Four of the five championship leaders boycotted the second mota after an unsuccessfu l attempt to get it called off because o f the con d itions, while fifth man Billy Liles, riding at the insistence of tea m bo ss Georges [obe, pulled out after a single lap. The ab senc e of the big names gave th e resu lts a strange appearance, bu t cou ld not detract from Anstie's victory as the 28-yea r -o ld Brit ha d alrea dy whipped 'em all soun dly in the opener with two fiat tires! "I got the front wheel puncture 10 minutes into the race when I was leading, but only (Franco) Rossi came past. Then 10 minutes fro m the end I go t a rear puncture as well, but I st ill kep t second ." Anstie became the sixth winne r in as many GPs so far this year. A first -m ote th ird was s uffici en t to increase the po ints lead of Swede Mar cus Hansson to 10 and 14 points, respecti vely, over Be lg ians Joel Smets and Jacky Martens. Anstie's win moved him up to seventh at the halfway point of the series. Bu t should the second race have been started? Smets was the most vociferous ad vocate of cance llation : "Tha t is not a race anymore. It is a lottery." Martens was in agreement: " It wa s so slip pery on the hills that it was nearly imp ossible to get 'round by the end of that first race." Their fellow cha mpions hi p chasers agreed, and the quintet's solidarity was commendable, but their concern was not widely shared. Team Ve rte mati co-c hief Alvaro Vertemati said, "Hansson rides for himself and can please himself if he rides , bu t Smets rides for the Vertemati brothers and we expect him to ask us first if he sho uld ride. He did not do this. For us it was correct to race, and we want you to print that!" Jobe agreed , saying, "It is the sa me for every one . They d on ' t wa n t to ride here because it is slippery, but wh en it is dust y and yo u ca n no t even see yo u r own fron t wheel, they race at ridiculous sp eed s. A tru e champion should be able to ride on all surfaces!" As the "stars " inspected the first tum to the jeers and w histles of the 14,000stro ng crowd which had braved the elements, clerk of the course Pavel Almasi stuck his finger in the mud a nd was ada man t. "Look, it is hard one inch down," he said. "We race!" After d ecid ing to support Almasi, jury p resident Tony Skillington admitted, " I was worried about the safety aspect, but 34 riders wanted to take the risk, so who am I to say no?" FIM colleague Albert Hofhuis agreed: "We said that we would red-flag it immediately if more than 25% of the riders stopped on the first hill. That didn't happen, and we saw that conditions were better for race two than race one." Of the protesters, Liles had been prepared to compromise. "I personally did not wan t to race again, but 1 was told to d o so by my team manager (lobe)," he said. "I d idn 't get a good pick of the gate because 1 was s till in th e to wer when they called the riders to the line, and 1 got completely filled in on lap one." His eyes al ready sore from the first moto, the American retired , but added: "If they had delayed the start another hour and done more wo rk with the bulldozer it would have been a good race." H e ha d a point, but his suggestion wo uld probably have back-fired , as it sta rted to rain again as Anstie crossed the line. Non-st op rain fro m early mo rn ing had caused the proble ms on a tra ck whi ch had been in perfect condition on Satu rday . The facility will host the Motocross des Nations in 1995, and was the scene of an Am erican Trophy d es Nations success back in 1983. Anstie led th e opener until the flat front tire let Rossi past for the win. Liles, in itia lly second, was in big trouble for the last four laps. "I got a big dod of mud on my goggles and had to th row them away," he sai d . " Then ano ther hit me righ t in the left eye and 1 couldn' t see ou t of it to the finish." Hansson inherited third in a quiet ride, happy to rack up the points as his main cham pionship rivals struggled. Sme ts had sto p ped ea rly on an uphill: "I g o t ro os ted b y (Miroslav) Kucirek and could see nothing at all." Martens mad e a big mess of the sta rt and got filled in on the first climb. "My roll-offs stuck and 1 had to stop at the .end of the first lap for new goggles," he explained. New Zealand's Darryll King had also gated bad ly, but showed more resilience

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