Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

MOTOCROSS World C hampionship 500cc M otocrossseries Round 2:Austrian GP I I (Above) Winner Daryll King raises his hand In victory, flanked by runner -up J oel Smets and third-place finis her Rupert Walkner. (Left) Homeland hero Walkner had an ep ic win in the first moto, but dropped to 10lh iii the second moto after catching a rock in the nose. By Alex Hodgkinson SCHWANENSTADT, AUS1RJA, APR. 21 t was big brother Darryll King's turn for victory in round two of the World SO Occ Motocross Champion ship in Schw anen stadt, Austria, while se riesopener victor Shayne King suffered the heratbreak of a bro ke n frame w hile lead ing race two and slu mped to fifth in the sta ndings. But neither of th e Kin gs could preve n t defendin g champion Joel Sm et s from securing the ch ampion ship lead I with a last-lap pass on Dietmar Lacher. The 12,000 spec ta tors we nt wild in the opening moto as homeland hero Rupert Walkn er extended the KTM win strea k to thre e before the elder King regis tered his first win in moto two on a Ho nda. In mot a one, the Austria n led all the way, d espite pressure from behind in a three-way battle. Walkn er on the overgrown 250, Smets on the big four-s troke, and Bernd Eckenbach on his traditional bi g-b ore two-stroke represented the - thr ee typ es of machines in the class an d proved the fairn ess of the track for all. Eckenbach had gated abo u t LOth, "I made some good early moves while others were getting tangled up with eac h other, so I was already fourth after a lap ," Eckenbach said. "i passed Martens easily, and I even gotthrough on the inside of Smets once but overshot the comer. I started to get a little tired from half distance but then Smets fell and Walkner slowed. I was on Rupert but a Swede (Engl und) go t in my wayan the next to last lap an d I lost him again." "I sho uld have pushed harder early on," Smets said. "Wa lk ne r seemed to grow more and mor e in con fidence the longer he was lea d ing. I tr ied three or four times to go under him in the turns, but he alwavs closed the door well , and in the enct'the w heels washed out underneath me as I tried to go "ide in the soft dirt and drive under him leaving a turn." The winner was elated , of course. "Everything went perfectly until the last three laps," the elde r King said. " It was a good thi ng th at Sm e ts h ad fa lle n because I go t so me tra ck-marker tape in my rear whee l and I wa s riding wi thout a rear brake for more than a lap. Eventually I burned the tap e ou t and was able to hold Eckenbach off." Plenty of othe r b ig nam es were in trouble. Dietm ar Lacher s ta rte d th ird a nd points lea der Shayn e Kin g fourth , but b oth were on th e g ro u n d w ithi n a min u te of the start. "My han dle bars got caug ht in Smets' shirt at the ch ican e," Lacher exp lained, w hile the Kiwi was to find the cha mpion in his way at the pad dock hairp in. "I tried to go under Sm ets, bu t he stop ped dead in the tu rn and I had to lay the bike d ow n and sta lled ," King sai d . " It wouldn't sta rt in gear for some reason, so I was dead las t by the time I go t going aga in. 1 had used u p all of my tear -offs by 'the third lap!" Kin g finished 11th, Lacher 13th. Darry ll King, meanwhile, had a long rid e from an ini tial 12th to fourt h. "All my own fault," King said . "lhad the holeshot but didn't back off early enough for the first turn. They're all complaining it is difficult to pass, but I have some cool lines up at the top of the track, going out wide and slamming past on the inside." It was not a good race for the Belgians . Jacky Martens hit a stake and broke his right hand , whil e Gerald Delepine crashed and broke his ankle . Still at the head of the table going in to ra ce two, Shayne King made no ~ mistakes on the firs t lap this time and eased inside the holeshotting Leonardo Leoni, who was already at the first chicane, to establish a big lead while the others sought a way past the Italian. Big bro ther Darryll was also on a m iss ion , however, and stormed past Walkner to be the next to attack Leoni, givi ng the Kings first and second positions. . A b attle royal s eemed a li kely prospect, but the leader knew he had a pro blem . " I felt so mething rubbing on my right boot and the handling wasn't right , but I wasn't su re w ha t it was," the you nge r King sa id . "I kept go ing as fast as I d ared for se ve ral laps, and I was already looking to see how far back the rest were . I though t I mi ght be ab le to han g on for second, so I just waved Darryll through when he got with me, but then the rear brake was gone and the .. rear end collapsed." When he stopped it was discovered tha t the frame had broken jus t above the swing-arm mount, the rear brake line ' had been severed, and finally, the top # .s h o ck - mo u n t in g bolt had snapped under the stra in. "I w ou ld have wo n anyway," Darryll decla red af ter bei ng greeted at the line by Shayne. "I had mo re speed in reserv e still and 1 would have been ab le to pass him a t that top corner which I used so well in the first race." In the wake of the Kings, Smets was on a rampage. From an initial 10th, he barged his way through to second with a series of hard but fair passes on the paddock hairpin. But one silly mistake dropped him back to third before a final thrillin g lap when the Belgian charged past Lacher for th e second tim e at the paddock tu rn. The pass could no t preven t Kin g takin g the G P w in b ut it moved Sme ts to the head of the points tab le. First-race hero Walkn er started third , .. but took a large rock d irectly to his nose. "I d idn' t kn o w w h ere I w a s fo r a mo ment," Walkner sa id . "I didn't fall, but I had to vi rtually st op a nd I wa s d own to 10t h b efore I could co llect myself again. It was difficult to breath e all the way to the finish." I~

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