East German Gp

EAST GERMAN GP

HEINZ-JURGEN SCHNEIDER

IT WAS Mike Hailwood time at Sachsenring, one of Germany’s oldest Grand Prix circuits, situated in a beautiful Saxony setting a good hour’s drive from the town of Zschopau, home of famous DKW motorcycles in pre-war days and now the place where “Motorradwerk Zschopau” (MZ) produces 70,000 two-stroke bikes a year.

The four classic solo categories displayed some fine sport in the two-day event, the fifties being cancelled because of lack of entries. Not being allowed starts behind the Iron Curtain, all West German riders were missing. The Italians did not turn up either; Francesco Villa cabled that visa troubles kept them out and robbed Provini of a vital championship chance, the medium fast 5.43 miles circuit being just down his alley and Redman not having the fastest day of his career.

An impressive, crowd of 200.000, 20,000 of them on an enormous grandstand at the grid and many on homemade stands of high engineering standards, made an unforgettable frame to Flying Mike’s three victories out of three starts on his MV’s and a 250 MZ. The win on the East German water-cooled two-stroke twin seemed to be the most cherished he will ever score. The road was blocked with people who wanted to congratulate the man on the top of his career when he went on his 30 minute lap of honor after beating Alan Shepherd on a definitely faster mount of the same stable.

350cc

Early Saturday afternoon Mike Hailwood left his opposition standing at the grid. Never challenged, he took his MV around the 16 laps, setting new race and lap records in the process, and scored his first win of the session in brilliant sunshine and warm weather. Luigi Taveri led Jim Redman for the first lap, then the Champ took command, increasing his advantage over the Swiss lap by lap. At three-quarter distance, however, Jim was handicapped lapping Ian Burne and other slower riders who also followed the ideal line and were fast enough to make passing difficult. The Honda four was not up to its standards and the brakes not much of a treat, so Luigi nipped through and took his 305 twin to second berth.

Being sure of the title, Jim can afford to ease off, but for my money Honda cannot do the same and enter racing bikes that ought to be worked on carefully on a Tokyo workbench. On the other hand, the successes of the medium capacity production racers which will come out next year show that privateers will get material which looks to be more up to date than the famous NSU Sportmaxes were when they came out ten years ago.

Gustav Havel rode his Jawa to a steady fourth, and his fairing showed marks where he had touched the ground leaning his twin well over in the sweeping bends. Like many of the older European riders he is a mature stylist and a pleasure to watch even when he is never fast enough to win a classic GP. Nicolai Sevostianov, who scored his first world-championship poiñts, followed him to a secure fifth place on the Russian CKB which looked much more a piece of advanced engineering without thick iron wire holding vital parts in their places.

After a first lap tussle with Endel Klisa on the other CKB, Mike Duff on his AJS with high level exhaust pipe took the remaining place on the leader board; he also was the last man not to be lapped by Mike.

125cc

Sunday morning, weather had changed overnight, low temperatures and threatening rain upset the carburetion and made two-stroke people cry. They had to try. long shots and leave the election of jet sizes to some quiet-spoken inner voice. 39 riders of the smallest class kept lapscorers busy and made work difficult for the four (!) public announcers who informed spectators from different points on the course, thus completing the pleasure of following the races. Hugh Anderson (his first name is a menace to all nonEnglish announcers) showed them all who is the boss, leading through the 14 laps. Hungarian Laszlo Szabo on the only MZ with an air-cooled cylinder head was second, only to be passed by Bertie Schneider in the second tour. A broken gear-box in the 3rd lap put Laszlo out.

Now Alan Shepherd (MZ), Luigi Taveri, Mike Duff and Werner Musiol (MZs) scrapped for third; behind them Redman, Takahashi, Stanislav Malina (CZ) and Hartmut Bischoff (private MZ) formed another fighting group until the East-German MZ-rider retired. The completely water-cooled motors of the other three MZ riders are of two different patterns; some have a finned cylinder head in addition to water cooling and look a bit like Szabo’s model.

A third group of four formed by three East German MZ private riders and exCamathias-passenger Roland Foil (Honda) moved up one place when Tommy Robb’s production racer packed up in lap 12, holding 11th place. These three groups displayed thrilling sport, swapping places until the last lap.

The fourteenth and last lap brought the big bang; looking like a safe second behind his teammate, Bert Schneider started an argument with his little twin. Frank Perris had had one in the first lap and lost it. Bertie could only persuade his bike to carry him over the line, forcing him to give nine-tenths of a second away to Alan Shepherd on the Zschopau runner who thus relegated him to third.

500cc

MZ having their best chances in the 250 event, it was scheduled as the last heat. So the big bikes warmed up for their 17 lapper. Mike Hailwood made another runaway start, followed by Minter who has taken back his place in the Scuderia Duke team since Ulster. Well, it definitely was no Duke-day, as Hartle’s four broke a fender brace half way round the first lap. This defect, shameful as it is on a well prepared racing bike, cost John more than a lap. After a hurried repair at the pits he listlessly went around another five times and then put his fire engine away. A non-impressive Minter arrived second (mind you he has had serious vertebral injuries and it is a wonder he races at all), Alan Shepherd and Mike Duff, on Matchlesses which are not so private as your ride to work job, were third and fourth. Jack Findlay finally collected some points on his McIntyre Special after a triangular dice with Roland Foil who eventually retired and Vernon Cottle who took the first Manx to 6th place. South African Ian Burne made up for an exceptionally bad start and took his Norton, rebuilt since the Belgian crash, to seventh place in front of Dan Shorey and Hungarian Gyorgy Kurucz, who had a Government sponsored Manx at his disposal.

With this victory, which also brought him lap and race record honors, Mike now has increased his lead over his nearest championship rival, John Hartle, to a margin of 12 points, so the title looks to be his.

250cc

Shouting “Paulchen! Paulchen!” the crowd motioned the chief time-keeper to set his traffic-light working and release the 24 riders for the last motorcycle event of the day. Alan Shepherd held pole position on the water-cooled MZ twin, Taveri on the Honda twin and Redman on the Honda four had qualified for the next positions followed by Szabo and Musiol on the second and third MZ. Mike Hailwood started the race from ninth place.

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Szabo and Redman made the best starts, but Shepherd came back first from the opening lap leading Redman, Hailwood, Szabo, Stani Malina on the CZ, with Luigi Taveri in close pursuit. Tommy Robb (four) and K. Takahashi (twin) held 7th and 8th places. Back from lap two Hailwood came through in front of the world champion, some 11 seconds behind the leader. Lap by lap he closed the gap in spite of his slower motor, and during his ninth tour he managed to snatch the ever increasing lead over Alan.

Laszlo Szabo held a steady fourth, Luigi well behind him; then came Malina and Tommy Robb in a close fight. Live laps from the end the Hungarian ran out of rear brake approaching an acute left hander, and in spite of feverishly changing down the six speeds he could not avoid taking the slip road. That let the Swiss nip through, but ignoring the missing brake, brave Laszlo stormed after him and managed to pass his rival in the last two kilometers. Both riders had a hell of a time trying to avoid people on the track who wanted to congratulate Mike on his success on the bike he had wanted to ride all season as a private entry. This fine plot had not worked out to his liking because of the Last German mechanic’s visa trouble.

Stani Malina led Tommy Robb over the line, followed by Werner Musiol, who had pushed Takahashi so hard that the Japanese had to call it a day with his four sounding rough. Australian Jack Lindlay on his double ignition Mondial, the medieval battle iron now giving much better results with a production Honda’s double coil instead of the two Bosch units, was first private entry home followed by East German NSU rider G. Kehlig and Kunimitsu Takahashi, who pushed his mount over.

Poor Les Allen came in last, out of luck as usual. Having dropped the 125 Bultaco in the first possible bend, he had a sparkless Aermacchi when the plug lead came off at the very bottom of a hill. That forced little Les to push the heavy thing up the long exhausting ascent until he was able to restart it.

More than half an hour after his start, Mike’s victory car came back from the lap of honor, led by a battered picturepeople’s side-car outfit which in the morning had been the pride of MZ’s advertising department. The car itself, an army vehicle built for the utmost of strength, lasted the distance in one piece, but its floor was covered with pocket knives and other small items enthusiastic people had thrown in as souvenirs. It was a picture not likely to be seen again in road racing under the gray skies of Central Europe. •