Late News From England
LATE NEWS FROM ENGLAND
B.R.NICHOLLS
How times change. After the war the 125cc and even 250cc class was treated with contempt by most race fans. 1961 saw the 250 Honda four lapping the Isle of Man at almost 100 mph and the 125cc class gave us some of the finest racing seen at the Grands Prix. Now there is to be a two-lap 50cc race over the famous mountain circuit, a feature which will give added interest to this year’s racing and give many the chance to race there who could not otherwise do so. Just to give the spectator complete contrast the new event will be held before the Senior race on the Friday of race week. Will they stay the course? Definitely, and what is more an over sixty mph average is to be expected with a record lap perhaps as high as 70 mph. The class should provide us with some mechanical marvels and plenty of machinery to choose from with something like a dozen manufacturers interested. The battle will probably be between Honda and the German Kreidler concern that won last season’s Coupe d’Europe title but another to watch will be the Yugoslavian Tomos machine which won the 50cc class of last year’s German Grand Prix at over 70 mph.
Yamaha will stay at home during 1962, busy improving the machines that were so painfully slow during 1961. A lot of mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Ernst Degner, the brilliant East German rider technician who fled to the West at the end of last season. My money will be on him turning up with the Suzuki concern and having as team mates Toronto born Frank Perris and New Zealander Hugh Anderson. Hugh rode the machines in 1961 and his patience and painstaking efforts to help surmount the innumerable problems that beset them in the Isle of Man has not gone unnoticed.
Suzuki aims to make the world’s fastest two-strokes and they soon will. But what of M.Z.? Last season Franta Stastny rode the 250 model and may well do so again this year but he is a Jawa works rider so this machine will always have first consideration. Difficulties over riding more than one make of machine do not end with the problem of two or four-stroke or the number of cogs in the gear box, they also arise over fuel and oil contracts and there may not be the latitude here that there was in 1961. An example is Stastny himself. The Jawa was lubricated by one oil whilst the M.Z. which he rode used another. With “success advertising” the reason for oil companies supporting racing it is easy to see why they are not anxious for riders to change horses mid stream. This aspect can also arise over plugs, chains, tires etc.
Back to machinery . . . the Norton Domiracer will be much in evidence this year and may well appear in the sidecar class. The works machines in the charge of development engineer Doug Hele should soon prove more than a match for British singles especially if Austrialian Tom Phillis rides them. Hele rates this Aussie highly ae a development rider and no doubt
Honda thinks the same of this man who gained just reward for his work on the Japanese machine when he won the 125cc World Title. I regard his 100 mph lap in the Isle of Man last year on the Domiracer as one of the finest achievements ever on that circuit. But what of the Italian M.V. concern? You may well ask as Count Augusta the Gaffer is noted for keeping the motorcycle world in suspense. His only safe bet is the 500cc class but if pride was stung hard enough last season then the winter may have been spent preparing to regain prestige so readily taken by the Honda concern in the Lightweight classes. Much, of course, is still matter for conjecture but it is difficult to see Honda losing the titles this year, in fact they will probably add the 50cc to their collection. There is no opposition to stop M.V. and B.M.W. retaining the 500 and sidecar classes but in the 350 class we may well be in for a surprise. At the moment it looks like Hailwood vs Hocking both on M.V. but neither is likely to ride second string to the other so the machinery is due for a real caning, which puts Jawa and Bianchi in with more than a chance especially the latter with Bob McIntyre in the saddle.
Leaving the road racing scene there are two Moto-Cross titles to be won — the 250 and 500cc. Hitherto the 250 has only had European status with Dave Bickers on a Greeves taking the title for the past two years. In 1961 he was hard pressed all the season by Smith and Lampkin on B.S.A. and these three will again be the main contenders in 1962 with the odds on Bickers anxious to make it three in a row.
Manufacturer interest in the 500 class has waned and the title is almost Swedish property. Dave Curtis, the only Englishman to stand a real chance against all comers, has retired. But note the name of Vic Eastwood. At twenty he is a 5 foot 8 inch, 140 pound bundle of dynamite looking for somewhere to explode. He rides Matchless but will be spending the next couple of years taking examinations and scrambling ready for the day when he can have a crack at bringing the most coveted scrambling title back to Britain. But for 1962 the battle for top honours will take place between former winners Sten Lundin and Bill Nilsson with yet another Swede, Gunar Johansson, as a good outside chance. •
