Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B. R. NICHOLLS
WELL, THE INTERNATIONAL Six Days trial is over for another year. See the full report of the event elsewhere in this issue; suffice to say that the British effort was poor in the extreme with two riders out of the trial on the first day. Every congratulation must go to the M.Z. mounted riders of East Germany who carried off the Trophy and with it the right to stage the event next year. With politics demanding that they stay at home when they want to go road racing this victory will be a little bitter sweet no doubt but we can only hope that soon the road race machinery of the M.Z. factory will be seen along side the other great racing marques of today.
East Germany had a fair share of the sport recently for the last round of the 500cc moto cross title was held there and the winner was Jeff Smith on the 420cc works B.S.A. machine. Run over two legs, Smith won both but this was not sufficient to give him second place in the final championship table as Sten Lundin on his works Lito was second overall and so clinched second place in the championship. It was touch and go for the Swede though, for he finished the second race with only second gear working. So the final order is Tibblin, Lundin, Smith, Persson, Lampkin and Nilsson. In the 250cc Trophée des Nations team race moto cross event Sweden gained revenge for her 500cc defeat when she beat the British team in the most unsatisfactory event run in the short history of the series. The course laid out by the Belgians to whom fell the task of organizing the event this year was hopelessly small for a field of sixty riders. Following protests it was decided to run the contest over two races using three riders from each team in each race with one rider permitted to ride in both races. With world champion Torsten Hallman riding in both races for Sweden and winning them both he virtually won the trophy on his own. Britain was runner up with Czechoslovakia third and West Germany fourth.
One pleasant aspect of the end of the season road racing is that we have three Consecutive weekends of big meetings where the continental aces usually appear, especially the sidecar boys. This year has been no exception and meetings at Cadwell Park, Scarborough and Mallory Park have given the crowds the opportunity of seeing Deubel and Camathias in the chair races and a Honda 4, in the hands of German champion Gunter Beer, culminating in the Race of the Year at Mallory where first prize was over three thousand dollars with the chance of seeing Minier on the Gilera against Hailwood on the M.V. The little Swiss ace Florian Camathias won his class at all three meetings beating world champion Deubel on each occasion. Deubel, who has said he would retire at the end of the past two seasons, was non committal before returning to the continent about his racing future. There can be little doubt in anyone’s mind that he would have to be very lucky to beat Camathias in the title fight next year; indeed he was very lucky to win it this year.
Outstanding feature of the Cadwell meeting was the appearance of sidecar ace Chris Vincent on a 125cc Honda who proceeded to blast off all the opposition and win the race. He also won his sidecar heat but went out of the final with gearbox trouble just when it looked as if he was going to give Camathias a hard fight. Gunter Beer won the 250cc whilst John Cooper won the 350 class which he also won the following week at Scarborough.
It was at Scarborough that Phil Read won his first race on a Gilera with Minier having dropped the plot on the first lap two hundred yards from the start. It is a tricky circuit, set on a hillside, with three hairpin bends to play hell with the clutches. Tommy Robb won the 250 race on a production Honda after Beer had been gardening and dropped to last place on the third lap. Not at all despondent with his excursion off course which took him into a rose bed, the German fought back to finish third.
Then came the Mallory meeting which had fifty thousand spectators thronging the one and one third mile long course in the Midlands. There was no getting away from the fact that Gilera versus M.V. in the shape of Minter and Hailwood had proved the big draw and was the race everyone wanted to see. But before the big race, to be held over forty laps, there was a twenty-five lap senior final which also brought Hailwood and Minter out on the Italian four cylinder devices to do battle. Then came the sensation of the day for with Hailwood out front leading Gilera mounted Minter and Read, Alan Shepherd took up the fight and passed first Reed and then Minter. That a single cylinder G50 Matchless should put up such a performance had the crowd cheering their heads off. Shepherd was repeating the dose in the big race when he got into a slide at over the ton. In correcting it he smashed his fairing with his arm but maintained third place to the end of the race. Hailwood won by over thirty seconds leading from start to finish in a wonderful display of riding ability that was at first thought to be his swansong of racing in England, but speaking to him in the paddock Mike revealed that Count Agusta had made him such a big offer to ride the M.V. again next season that he could hardly afford to turn it down.
Therefore, it seems ninety percent certain that Mike will be on two wheels again next season for the classic meetings as well as driving cars when the opportunity arises. If he does ride bikes then the chances are that you in the States will get the opportunity of seeing him ride for next year’s world championships start with the U.S. Grand Prix in February. If M.V. carries on next year, and it seems unlikely that they would without Hailwood, what machinery will there be? Well, there is still a six cylinder five hundred lying around somewhere in the Gallarate race shop which could re-appear but it is more likely that there will be a new three fifty. The present model is virtually a small five hundred and is consequently very heavy by comparison with the Honda. Will Gilera race again next year? No decision has yet been made but if MV. withdraws then I think Gilera will also as they could gain little from winning after M.V. had left the scene. Far more serious is the news from A.M.C. Ltd. that there will be no race machinery produced at all for 1964 so that means the end of pro duction for Manx Nortons, the Matchless G50 and 7R A.J.S. This is what we had feared would happen and the promise of production of spares for the more modern machines does little to soften the blow. Whether or not production will be re sumed for the 1965 season is not known but seems doubtful. But I do not believe that this will be the end of five hundred cc racing although the format may change with the twin cylinder engine becoming more popular. The biggest problem will be the enormous gap in performance be tween the private runner and works ma chinery. Even now there is a marked lack of riders capable of handling M.V., Gilera, Honda, M.Z. Suzuki and Yamaha racers. In fact I can think of only two who have not had works rides who could do them justice. The first is Jack Ahearn who will not be racing next season at all un less a factory signs him. Jack is a little old for a first string rider but would make an excellent team rider able to help in development.. The other is Gyula Marsov sky, a Swiss naturalised Hungarian who has ridden with great determination this season and who held second place in the five hundred race at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza until his chain broke. Mike Duff and Alan Shepherd have both had the odd works ride and will probably be regular team men next year whilst others who must be in the running are Joe Dunphy, Fred Stevens and Den nis Ainsworth. Of these three only Stevens has any continental experience which is so essential for any rider wishing to prove himself. Three years ago every rider was after the one solitary place in the M.V. equipe, next year it is the riders who will be in short supply - I suppose these things go in cycles! In past years the Manx Grand Prix races in the Isle of Man have been a guide to the following year's works men but though records were broken in both races this year neither Peter Darvill, who won the 350, or Griff Jenkins who was the first man home in the 500 race could yet be ready for the classics. Of the two, Darvill has by far the greater experience having taken part in successful record attempts with B.M.W. machinery and also won production races on_the same marque.
Enough of road racing and let us pay tribute to Ove Fundin the 1963 world speedway champion who won his fourth title at Wembley. Real showman stuff this for he rode with an ankle in plaster with three broken bones and had pain killing injections for the evening. He must be the world's greatest ever in this branch of the sport for in eight years he has won the title four times, has been second three times, and third once; no other rider has won more than twice. •
