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pulled out of a GP where he considered his c:z to be too slow and demolished it with a hammer in front of his adoring fans! Robert was a phenomenon. At the time of his retirement from the sport in the mid-70s, there had been 250cc GPs in 17 different countries and he had won in each and every one of them. Those who remember his dominance in the U.S. tours of the late '60s would be in no doubt that he would have added the U.S.A. to his list if there had been an American GP prior fo 1978. The table of GP winners tells its own story of the man who came closest to Robert in the "most wins" stakes, so let us look at the other claims to fame in more detail. Just four other riders have won 250cc GPs in 10 or more countries Hallman in 15, Guennady Moiseev and Georges Jobe in 11 each and. Sylvain Geboers in 10. The only riders of the present generation to get close are Pekka Vehkonen with 9 and Alessandro Puzar with 8. Jobe registered three wins in both France and Swiuerland before he moved to the 5OOs, and that record has been equalled by Bickers (England), Vlastimil Valek (Czechoslovakia), Geboers (Holland) and Jacky Vimond (Swiuerland). Hallman also made that figure in Sylvian Geboers, fifth on the all-time win list, scored 14 250cc GP victories but never a World Championship title. The winningest riders in 250(( MX GPs/1957 . May 1992 1st Joel Robert Torsten Hallman Georges Jobe Dave Bickers Sylvain Geboers Guennady Moiseev Jaromir Cizek Pekka Vehkonen Jacky Vimond Torleif Hansen Hakan Andersson Alessandro Puzar Harry Everts Victor Arbekov Kees Van der Ven Jeff Smith Heikki Mikkola Neil Hudson Hakan Carlqvist Rolf Tibblin Arthur Lunpkin Vladimir Kavinov Vlastimil Valek Danny LaPorte Heinz Kinigadner Jean-Michel Bayle Jeremy Whatley Gert Jan Van Doorn Eric Geboers Adolf Weil Fritz Beulbacher Jaroslav Falta Trampas Parker Brian Stonebridge Michele Fanton Rick Johnson Jeff Stanton Olle Pettersson John Van den Berk Rob Herring Stig Rickardsson Petr Dobry . Roland Diepold Willi Oesterle Miloslav Soucek Raymond Boven Andre Malherbe Kalevi Vehkonen Zdenek Velky Kent Howerton Evgenij Rybalchenko Rolf Dieffenbach Friu Kobele Belgium Sweden Belgium England Belgium Russia Czechoslovakia Finland France Sweden Sweden Italy Belgium Russia Holland England Finland England Sweden Sweden England Russia Czechoslovakia USA Austria France England Holland Belgium Germany Germany Czechoslovakia USA England Italy USA USA Sweden Holland England Sweden Czechoslovakia ,Germany Germany Czechoslovakia Belgium Belgium Finland Czechoslovakia USA Russia Germany Germany 2nd 3rd 50 37 18 16 24 22 9 5 9 8 4 5 2 7 9 2 9 8 5 12 8 7 2 2 2 16 5 13 10 12 6 9 3 3 9 3 3 4 9 4 4 5 3 1 4 9 8 7 4 14 14 13 12 12 11 10 10 9 9 9 7 7 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 6 6 5 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 l~ 1~ 11 9 7 2 2 2 6 3 3 6 4 4 2 4 2 1 8 1 4 5 3 2 8 I 15 6 5 4 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 4 4 3 3 1 2 1 5 3~ ~ I 2 2 2 2 Finland and Russia as well as bettering it in France (4), Italy (5) and his Swedish homeland (6). That latter figure was not even achieved by Robert who registered three wins in Russia, Spain and Austria, four in France, Holland, Yugoslavia, Germany and Swiuerland, as well as five in Poland and England. Hallman's six wins on five different tracks in his homeland came in just seven years between 1962 and 1968; his one defeat came in 1964 when he finished second to Robert at Hedemora. He also registered hat-tricks in France and Italy between 1962-64. Holland (1966-68), France (1967-69) and Spain (1969-71) provided three-ina-row for Robert, while he won in four successive years in Poland (1966-1969) and Yugoslavia (1969-72). Incidentally, Joel defied superstition with those Spanish wins; no one had previously won the traditional series opener and the title in the same year! Even then he lost the lead at some stage of the season and indeed only three riders have ever led a 250cc MX GP series throughout - Mikkola in 1976, Jobe in 1983 and Puzar in 1990. Switzerland in the first half of the '80s was the domain of Jobe and Vimond. Each won their final three 250cc GPs there before switching to the 500cc class in 1984 and 1987, respectively. Hat-tricks irrespective of country have been more common place as riders hit a purple patch when they can do no wrong. Three-in-a-row have been registered by Cizek ('58 to '59), Hallman ('63), Valek ('63), Robert ('68 and '71), Carlqvist ('79) and Vimond ('86), while there have been equally as many riders who have gone one better with four on the trot - Cizek again in 1958, Bickers with two each at the end of 1960 and the start of 61, Robert on two occasions in 1964 and again in 1972, Jobe in 1983; and Puzar in 1990, while Danny LaPorte registered his first four wins in successive GPs on his way to the title in 1982. Those victories came in France, England, Holland and Russia. The record of five is shared by three champions - Tibblin took the last five· GPs of 1959, Hallman in 1963 and Robert (1968-69). Hakan Andersson (1973) and Neil Hudson (1979) each finished three GPs in a row as the best series contender but on each occasion they lost the Belgian GP to guest riders, namely Roger DeCoster and Harry Everts. Truly impressive records with a slight hiccup in the middle have been the province of Robert who won 8 out of 10 in 1964, six out of eight in 1971, and six out of seven during his final championship-winning season, while Puzar, having quit the 125s with a win, not only won his first four 250s but also his sixth and seventh. The fifth GP of the year in Yugoslavia had been red-flagged as he held the lead because of an injury to Dave Strijbos; the. overall was awarded on the first moto - to the hospitalized Dutchman! The most dominant figure of alltime in the 250cc GPs however was Hallman during the second half of 1962 and first half of 1963; during this period he won 13 GPs out of 16, finished second in two more and third despite a flat tire in another. That record of successive top three finishes has never been approached, though Robert made it to 10 in 1964 and Sylvain Geboers to nine in 1969. During their titanic struggles for spremacy in 1982 and '83, LaPorte made first three in 10 successive GPs, while Jobe did it in nine. For most wins in a season Robert and Hallman have no master. HalIman equalled the previous seven win record of Cizek (1958) on the way to the 1962 title, beat that figure by one the following year, and saw Robert equal his figure in both 1964 and 1971. Vimond (1986) and puzar (1990) each won seven on their way to the title, while six-win champions have been Tibblin (1959), Bickers (1961), Robert (1968-69-73), Moiseev (1977), Carlqvist (1979), Jobe (1981-83) and Jean-Michel Bayle (1989). Last year, Trampas Parker became champion with just two overall victories· (Austria and Italy), a figure which equalled the achievements of Jon Van den Berk (1988), Moiseev 23