Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

. AMXT: GP CHALLENGER " '" "- ,... N Cl M' . N > ::;: ~ w Z W ..J U > U Bryan Kenney . SITTE NDOR F. A USTR IA. Ap ril 23 . 197 2. Dear A~ I XT Fo llowe rsT his is II otSh oc from ove r Europe way to give you the latest rundown o n A~IXT progress. In the last two weeks the team , consisting of Mar k Blac kwell, Bryan Kenn ey , and Bob Grossi, hit the Austrian and Swiss Grands Prix . Bob and Mark ar c over with IIusqvam a and will be join ing Bryan " a la AMXT " in quite a few races d uring the co m ing mo nths. Mud was th e name of the game at the 500 class opener in Austria. The tra ck looked like th e Austrian hills in "Sound of Music" , with the grass all washed away. Despite the con tinuous rains and the lack of publicity, there still was a good crowd to watch R oger DeC oste r rake in n umber o ne poin ts. By the time that p rac tice was over, the promo ter s seemed to disappear. In st ead o f starting off th e program wit h the sup port cl asses as ind icated in the program . th e first leg of the GP was run with a lot of riders still in the p its . Ilry an ma naged to get th e Maico a u t during the first lap bu t Mark and Bob were a little later. Bengt Aberg stationed himself on the starti ng line hoping for a re st art. Someone: motioned him to get going . and he did j ust that . ending up seven th o And did the mud ever ny ! Even the bi g na mes got a mouthful. I watched as Ileiki Mik ko la slid into a fe nce and lost his bike axle deep in the stuff. DeCoster and Willie Bauer were the only tw o . ride rs to comp lete every lap. Back in the USA earnp. Blackwe ll went sailing dow n a steep hill . h is bike righ t behind. af ter one of his b rakes locked up . The sp ill bent the Iront forks and sidelined Mark for the dav , With a good practi ce t ime. Grossi still had hi s troubles wi th the nca r impossib le co nd itio ns but managed to finish th e HAPPINESSI aDDD HAPPY GRAND OPEN ING CUSTOM ERS! THE CYCLE HOUSE STAFF THANKS YOU. Our F good th rouqh " wee k of May 18 - • 25 ' TDP G-aR M X BOOn:; - ' '1'1 '12: SPEcr..tL f.3 l.'i.E W~£R l..M:€:':.l,;.~~~- ~~\ V SP EUA L ~2 'f 9 S +- i3}.,f:$)' BRLG6S I"\K Et::or"s - ~ .'3 ~ ".!' 5P.. :IJ\L < r:mr., 5'PE"" Ittt. : &BruJ fhn C ~__ 4- '3). q, +- feJI!E"RS f~r ~ b"'!£ • I"F7!'t • 7 ~5. heat about h alfw ay up th rough th e pack. Bry an kep t m o ving and with few co m p lications finis he d l I th , Time fo r th e second heat an d all ride rs were read y wh en th e star ting ga te fell excep t Gr oss i. Ne ither h e n or R ol f T ibblin cou ld ke ep the Husk y running , an d neither could find the p roblem . When th e o the r bikes to ok o ff up the hill. Bob was p ushing hi s b ik e d own. lie spe n t th e rest of th e day specta ti ng. DeC oster handled th e mud like th e ch imp th at h e is. bl azin g th e tr ail for the o thers. On th e last lap he d rop ped th e chain , put it b ac k o n, and still held o n to h is lead. My oid m an maneuvered th ro ugh the sludge to a 14 th pl ace after crash ing into a me chan ic who jumped on th e trac k to help a rid er. Results from the firs t 500 GP showed DeC oster ho ld ing onto h is title w ith Willie Bauer in second . Our on ly fin ish er, Kenney ca me in II th overa ll, one po int be h ind the Ru ssian , Efimov, and o ne point from a world p oin t. lI e ' s ge tt ing cl oser. • . PA ZE R NE , SWITZ.. May 4. 19 72 Springtime came to Europe abou t the time th e AMXT sta rte d o ff for the Sw iss GP. T he race w as a co lo rfu l aff air with banners lining th e trac k an d mob s of peop le dotting the h illside. To keep in line with th e changed wea ther, th e colorful Finn , IIe ikk i Mik kol a ra ked in top honors ahead of Roger Defl oster, In the firs t 45 mi nute leg 47 riders charged ou t of the starting ga te and squeezed in to the first comer. T he comer had been watered down. Not only was it a tigh t squeeze bu t several riders slid ou t and in it ia ted a spectacular pile-up . T hrough the pack Ben g t A be rg emerged as leader though it wasn 't long til Mikko la passed . him by. DeCoster co uld ma nage no better th an secon d pushing Aberg int o th ird place. Mark Blackwell and Bob Grossi had no problems getting goi ng this week. Grossi took a co up le of p laces up on Mark, but USA's n um ber one held the th rottle wide open and snatched 16 th place aw ay fro m Bob. With rela tively few riders drop pi ng au t , they both h ad

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