Belgian Grand Prix
BELGIAN GRAND PRIX
COLIN LYSTER
SPA Francorchamps, Belgium — Practice was in normal bad weather, but this cleared up by race time, and we had a hot clear day. No outstanding practice times, though the 250 Suzuki with Frank Perris on board did put up fastest time in one session and the Kreidler 50 with Jan Huberts lapped four seconds faster than Ernst Degner on the 50cc Suzuki. The MV was by far the fastest in the 500 class, and there was no 350 race to follow up the Assen classic.
So for the 35th Belgian GP, the sun shone, a huge crowd, and in the 500 class some very good facing.
The day started with the 50’s. Degner, on the No. 1 Suzuki, led from start to finish. Hans Anscheidt on the fastest Kreidler tucked in for the first two laps, but got dropped off to the tune of 2 seconds a lap, finishing an easy second. Behind there was a good go for third place between Luigi Taveri, Gedlich and Suzuki, on Honda, Kreidler and Suzuki bikes. Luigi, being the better rider, pipped the other two over the line and Huberts was a close sixth.
Warming up, the 125’s ran up and down the road, then came to their places for the next race. It was too hot for the normal air cooled two-strokes but the water cooled EMC’s, though down slightly on power, ran faultlessly, save for the exhaust pipe fracture that caused Mike Hailwood to drop from third to fourth place. Jim Redman led the field through at the end of the first lap, followed by Taveri and Bob McIntyre. Behind came Degner on the only Suzuki, then the three EMC’s, then a long gap and the two Bultacos of Grace and Torras.
On lap 2, the McIntyre Honda and the Degner Suzuki failed to arrive, putting Hailwood in third place with Paddy Driver fourth and Rex Avery fifth. The field thinned further when both Bultacos went out, putting Arthur Wheeler up into 6th place, but as the two leading Hondas swept up to the flag, Taveri a slight bit ahead, the Ducatis of Wheeler and the Swede, Svenson, got mixed up with the flag and Wheeler stopped, letting the Swede away. Though he set off again he could not pick up the ground, so Sven-
son has a point in the world championship, for what it’s worth. Going into the last lap Hailwood’s exhaust pipe split, losing him a place. Driver, who had been following him closely, shot through, and though he slowed to wait for Mike, the No. 1 EMC was well down on speed so Paddy pressed on for third place.
In the 250, one Suzuki split the normal lineup of Hondas on the front row, Frank Perris having had third fastest time. But though he got up into fourth place for three laps the Honda boys had it all their own way. Redman and McIntyre swapped places at the front, Taveri rode effortlessly for third and the Honda lent to Belgian champion Raymond Boegart expired after one lap. Private owners came up into good places, and Guenther Beer on the Adler twin finished fourth, having caught and passed the Wheeler Guzzi. Redman had a spot of oil troubles, the tank splitting or a pipe coming off, and oil sprayed all over his boot and the rear tire; he eased up and McIntyre carried on to win. Taveri, coming up on the slowing Redman, held off until Jim crossed over the line, thus gaining points for the championship.
The front row lineup for the 500 found Hailwood on the MV, Mike Duff with the G-50, Ron Langston with a Norton, Jack Ahearn again with a Norton, Alan Shepherd, G-50, and Paddy Driver, Norton. Behind were Bert Schneider, Tony Godfrey, “Tiger” Findlay, and so on. Hailwood led from flag to flag, but behind him were two huge scraps, the first between Schneider, Shepherd, Duff, Langston and Godfrey. Duff went out after only half a lap with a broken crankpin, so the other four went at it, no holds barred. Just behind them came Driver, Findlay and Ingram, in front of the thundering field. Schneider led his little race for three laps until the big end went, narrowing down the foursome to three. Then Findlay and Driver battled for the lead, but Findlay had a valve spring go, dropping him back, about the time that Ingram went out with mag trouble. After Hailwood got the flag, Shepherd arrived round the corner at the top of the downhill straight past the pits. As he accelerated there was a crunch, and he free-wheeled over the line just ahead of Godfrey. Driver came into sight but Langston was missing, having blown up on the last lap. Findlay nursed his over the line in fifth and from out of the blue came a lucky Fred Stevens. So, a strange ending to a very good race.
The sidecars wound up the meeting. Florian Camathias, at his best, went away from the flag and was never headed; his luck held and he won with a new lap record, the only one of the day. Fritz
Scheidegger was an easy second, and Max Deubel the same for third. Behind them, Edgar Strub worked up from a slow start into fourth, and a race-long duel between Rohsiepe and Lambert ended that way. The whole crowd was happy to see the small Swiss win, as were most of the boys. Chris Vincent was well down on speed over this very fast circuit and blew it up; here the BSA was just not able to cope with the BMW’s.
Belgian GP Results:
