Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.MOTOCROSS Motocross Series Round 3: French G P World Championship 500cc (21 ); 15. Er w in Machtl in ge r (16); 16. Ronn y weustenraed (14); 17. Mike Healey (13); 18. Trampas Parke r (13); 19. Fred rik Hedman (11); 20. Attilio Pignotti (10). Upcoming Rounds: Round 4 - Arganil. Portugal. May 12 Round 5 - Sverepec, Slovakia. June 2 (Left) A late pass of Darryll King In the first moto put holes hot man Pete r J ohanss on In third. Johansson was lead ing the second moto until his eng ine failed. (Below) Dletmar Lacher finished 63 for fourth overall . Th e second m ota was a battle of attritionand controversy. Joha n s son h o lesh o t with Shayne Kin g and Smets right on his ta il. Th ey we re both soo n past the Sw ed e, but he d idn' t seem to mind too much. "I wasn 't bothered," a confident Johansson said . " I d idn't want to sh ow them my lines, and I could fo llow them easily. After Smets cra shed, I could see all o f th e places where I w as faster th an King and it was no p roblem to tak e him back. My lin es we re so much better that I cou ld pull ou t four seco nds in just aile lap ." Confidence or no , w ith four la ps to go [oh annson 's hopes of a seco nd car eer G P win we re ove r . "Th e m otor just sto pped," h e sa id . "A p p arently it w as leakin g oil for several laps but th ere had been no pow er loss at all until th en ." Sh ay ne wa s a ware of the p roblem after Johansson had made a pass on the KTM rid er a n d b ided his time . "I smelled the oil as soon as Peter pa ssed me, so I wa s content to wait," King said. "If h is bike had not stopped I cou ld still have attacked aga in . I still h ad som e re serves an d it is not difficult to pass here. I hadn't tried to fight him off when he came past. There was time to come back." Smets meanwhile was in bigger trouble than h e realized . A crash on the third lap push ed him wa y d own in th e field and he also stop ped at the end of a la p to h ave h is bike straightened. Th e cha mpion recovered to pass tea m mate Dirk Geukens, a fir st-race, first -l ap crash er, for fou rth p lace in the closing stages. But then came th e anxiety an d cont roversy regarding th e mid race stop by the Husab erg rider. Catherine Leclainche, the contracts manager of a number of ride rs including Da rryll King. protes ted the champio n's sto p for assistanc e ou tsid e th e official w ork area, allegi ng th at one of the Husabe rg For ce team had touched the bik e. " It 's n ot true, " claimed m ech ani c Ludo va n d er Veken. "Joel d id not kno w wher e to sto p to have his bike che cked ove r. Geu kens' m echanic and m yself were there quickly and gave advice, but we d id not touch the bik e. There was nothing which could be d on e anyway except to readjust the' levers and knock the ba rs int o a riding pos ition ag ain . Joel did that himself." Ireland's Ton y Skillington, the FIM's top representative at the race, was th e head of the triumvirate who decided against sanctions. "I saw th e in cident W orldChampionship 250Cc M Xseries Round 5: nalian GP Hat tllick fOil Benooets . MANTOVA. ITALY MAYS , M arnicq Bervoets completed h is hat-trick of su ccessive GP wins in th e world 250cc MX s e ri es a t Mantova in northern Italy to extend his lead in the standings to 29 points. The Belgian Suzuki leader wa s com pletely d om inant, escaping from a fourrider tr a i n of Stefan Ev erts, Yves Demaria, Tallon Vohland and Frederic Bailey to w in race on e by five seconds before charging from an in iti al 10th to win the second race with ease. D efending cha m p io n Everts was again' second to tie American challenger Vohland in the stand ings. The Kawasaki team leader from Northern Cal ifornia had been expected to raise his cha llenge on the artificial track, but a hand injury during Saturday' S qualification forced him to ride a d efen sive ra ce to res trict his losses. able to ,race the international there in October 'as I have Italian championship commitments. ' . . . Mike Healey should return in Slovakia. -He's riding in California but is exhausted 'alter 15' ·minutes." explained team boss Graham Kent. •Mike will fly back to Europe next week but we wiHgo practicing in Belgium rather than to Por. tu gal. " An A meric an chiropractor has now m yself," SkiIIington said. "The mechanic d id touch the bars, but no one except Smets did an y work. We decided this did no t contravene the spirit o f the rul e. Madame Leclainche has been notified of her right to appeal to th e FIM if she wishes." Parker rode another sensible race to tak e his total score for the d ay to 13. "I s ai d wh en 1 came tha t I w ou ld be d eli ghted w ith 10, so tha t's a good comeback," Pa rker sa id. "I' Il be raci ng top five next month." f'X Frenc h 500cc GP Plomlon, France Resu lts : May 5, 1996 (Roun d 3 of 12) MOTO 1: 1. Joe l Sm e ts (H bg); 2. Sh ay ne Kin g (l

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