Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.MOTOCROSS "'. .' .' . W Champiilnship500cc MotocrosS Series orld By Alex Hodgkinson . ONGOU, ITALY,JUNE 11 he Crossodromo Titoni at Cingoli ha s always been hard on machines, but the casualty rate at this year' s Italian round of the World 500cc MX Championship was alm ost unbelievable as just one of the top nine in the series crossed the line in the top 15 of both motos._ That man was Gera ld Delepine, who thus won his second successive GP - and even the Belgian privateer's Honda took such a shaking that the seat fell off on the last lap of the first race. His four-mota win strea k brought to an end in the duel to destruction at the Luxembourg GP two weeks previously, a n ervous Joel Smet s sa w his cham pionship lead slashed to just six points at the halfway st age of the series, while Trampas Parker took one win but his KTM broke ag ain as he led the other mota and Darryll King was once again plagued by a w heel breakage. Mike Young took a second , his best mo ta finish to d a te, in the opener bu t was tem porarily hospitalized in race two. The o rganizers were n o t sitting around d urin g the long midday siesta as they prepped their track perfectly to pr0vide a d ust-free showplace without a single puddle of water. The sto ny top su rface hid a sli ppery base just wa iting to catch the un wary and the 7500 crowd groa ned as home town boy Attilio Pig no tti, fastest man in all four training sessions, and Jam es Marsh sli thered to the gro und in fro nt of the pack at turn one. Smets' troubles had alrea dy begun. '1 had gone for the inside gate next to Pig- t Round 6: Italian GP nolti and when he went down ther e was nowhere to go and 1 just had to grab the brakes and wa it," said Smets. But once underway the Belgian went in to his own self-destruct mo de. His post-race comments suggest tha t the nerves which have cost him two World titles already are once again taking over. " I fell down twice ," he said. "They put down so much water and it was so slippery ." Up front Parker ripped p ast ea rl y le aders Peter H ehmann and Gerald Delepine and as the race ap proached the ha lfw ay stage he was looking like the new points lead er as Smets, riding with more care after his early falls, struggled to advance from 19th. • But sudde nly one sour American was stomp ing back to the pits. At lea st he didn't h ave to walk far . "T he cr a n k I landed off the jump before snapped the signaling area," said Parker. 'There was no warning. It hadn't been running tight before that." He was not alone at the trackside for long. Only two of a tight four-way battle for the win saw the checkered flag. Parker's departure was the signal for [ohan Boonen to pass Delepine as Darryll King and Young closed in. They stayed the same until 35 minutes w he n Delepin e ret ook th e lead with a block pass on Boonen. Within a lap King was ou t. "1 heard the spokes starting to ping so I s top ped to take a look," sa id King . "It was al rea dy wobbling an d I couldn't even risk riding back to the pit area ." You ng, w ho had ridden superb ly from a first lap ninth, zipped pas t and set abo u t Boonen. The Husq varna rid er as (Above) Approximately 7500 spectators attended the Italian 5llOcc MX GP at Clngoll. (Below) Belgian Joh an Boonen leads overall winner and fellow countryman Gerald Deleplne. Deleplne scored the overa ll via 1-4 moto finishes. .. could not d efend and gro u nd to a halt with a blown head gasket two and a half laps from the end , but time ran out for the Vert emati rider to ha ul in Delepine too. "I thought I would get him (Delep ine) w hen his seat fell off on the last lap, but he kept his pace well," said Young . . Indeed he did and the jubilant Belgian celebra ted h is second s uccessive GP mota wi n by pulling a wheelie while standing up on the airbox. Peter [ohansson had also been closing but was wo rried by rattling noises from the rear of his Husky and slowed to proteet his third. " 1 thought the wheel was going, but it was only a broken chai n roller," he said . Coll apsed rea r s us pe nsion for Dirk Geukens and a track littered wit h broken spokes from ma ny runners in the lower poin ts positions helped Smets to a lucky sixth, while Jacky Mart ens had also been chasing through for nin th after tumbling over Marsh at the start. The carnage contin ued in race two. Young was ou t within a few hund red feet after running into tires and hurting a knee and Boone n ' s rea r wheel was demolished before the end of the lap. " 1 don't und erstand it. I was fourth away and consciously didn't jump far," said a bewildered Boonen, Martens and Smets were also ou t of conten tion . '1' tou ched with Joel at the top of the main hill when 1 tried to pass inside him. His leg was caught in my wheel," said Martens. Smets got away the quickest but was soon sitting on top of trackside marker tires. "I don' t know why Klutz hit me," said Sme ts. " Perha ps h e jus t couldn't stop anymore. The front wheel was finished and I had to stop to fit a new one." After 20 minutes giving apparently fruit less chase nearly a la p d own Sm et s retired to the pits. It was a mistake. He had been in the whee l tracks of Shayne King , another to pit for a fresh wheel, and the New Zealander picked up a point after a top 15 Italian wa s given a tw o m inute time pena lty for a noise infringeme nt when he failed to replace a defective silencer. At t he front Pigno tti eased past

• Cover