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'.
(Left) Takahisa Fujinami was a consistent 4-5 and now sits fourth in points.
(Above) After seven World Championships, Jord; Tarres has found himself struggling this
season. The Spaniard Is currently fifth In points after 8-6 finishes.
(Below) Amos Bilbao looked good on Saturday - he finished sixth - but the rain on Sunday
saw him drop to ninth on day two.
Belgian World Trial
BUstain, Belgium
Results: May 17-18, 1997 (Round 3 of 10)
DAY 1: 1. Doug Lampkin (Bet); 2. Kenichi
Kuroyama (Bet); 3. Marc Colomer (Mon); 4.. Tommi
Ahvala Cl'4on); 5. Takahisa Fujinami CHon); 6. Amos
Bilbao (G-G); 7, David Cobos (G-G); 8. Jordi Tarres (G-
G); 9. Bruno Camozzi (G-G); 10, Marrel J05mbo (G-G);
11. Steve Colley (G-G); 12. Joan Pons (G.G); 13. Graham
Jarvis (Sea); 14,. Gabriel Reyes (Mon); 15. Donato Miglio
(Bet).
DAY 2: 1. Doug Lampkin (Bet); 2. Marc Colomer
,
. .
were simply impossible. Lampkin, comfortable once again at the back of the
running order, was always in control of
the situation (shepherded as usual by his
father, Martin), and steadily and inexorably moved away from the field.
Lampkin's determination showed
itself in many sections. On the final section of a first lap that had seen only a
handful of hard-fought threes among a
host of failures, Lampkin went for an
all-out clean and he almost made it,
forced to ta ke a da b righ t on the end
cards. But the ride put him dear of archrival Colomer, who had pushed hard
throughout the loop.
In real terms, Lampkin and Colomer
were the only riders in the trial. Lampkin logged a total of nine deans on the
day, Colomer seven. In contrast, thirdplaced Graham Jarvis, on the lone works
Scorpa, managed a solitary clean from a
total of 28 sections. For Jarvis, IlIlder the
wing of former European Champion
Malcolm Rathmell, it was certainly a
move in the right direction and proved
that his third-place ride in Luxembourg
had been no fluke.
But it had been a close-run thing, as
Fujinami was only a single point behind,
as was Steve Colley, who lost out to
Fujinami on a tie-breaker. At least Colley was the first Gas Gas rider, home
ahead of Tarres, Camozzi, Bilbao, Cobos
and the rest. Kuroyama had plunged to
a disappointing seventh, the legacy of
dropping 10 fives compared to the winner's one. Until he can find some consis'. tency, Kuroyama will only ever be a
spoiler in the championship fight.
0
Brieflv...
wet
The
conditi9ns on Sunday in Bel· .
gium highlighted air·filter, problems on
.all the different marques. With· several sec·
tions featuring chatges across an axle·deep
creek, the pilots suddenly found that their:
filters had flooded and 'engines misfired.
refus",d to. rev and failed to deliver maxi·
mum power: Top' teams had used yards of
,duct tape ·to surround the air boxes. but
with apparently liftle effect. Most were seen
with tank/seat ·covers off at some stage. '
This is obviously a consequence of the very
low-mounted air boxes, and no matter how
much tape you use. air still has to get in
somewhere.
.
Tomm; Ahvala was pleasantly surprised
"Yhen the large crowed cheered loudly on
Saturday when he eased his new Montesa '
into fourth place. No one wants to see II
good rider down, and everybody was happy
to see the {992 World Champion back in
the points.
Much speC