Russian Wins First Ice Cup

RUSSIAN WINS FIRST ICE CUP

BENGT BJORKLUND

THE FIRST Federation Internationale Motorcycle Ice Cup races saw 30-year-old Russian Boris Samorodov, an engineer from Ufa near the Ural mountains on the Siberian border, take the Cup in the 10th event. The scene was the Ullevi International Stadium at Gotenburg in Sweden before a small, for ice racing, crowd of 3,500 people. It was extremely cold and several of the riders, including some of the newer ones, seemed tired.

Kjell Svensson of Sweden fell and was seriously injured, as was the Russian Neri toy, so the cup passed not without per sonal sacrifices. Samorodov rode his Czechoslovakian Eso to an excellent vic tory, winning six of the ten events leading to the cup in a series that was witnessed by as many as 20,000 people in Russia. The State-supported Russian machines out classed their Swedish, Norwegian and Fin nish opponents as they were the only bikes supported in a "factory" manner using the best and most expensive equipment. This is not meant to slight S~morodov's accom plishment; he demonstrated ice racing at its professional best.

The 500cc Russian Eso machines, using two-speed gearboxes and powered by single cylinder, four-cycle engines, were consid erably faster than the Swedish-built spe cials using British JAP speedway engines. Swedish master of the ice, P. 0. Soder man, was running very well but the Rus sians outpowered his machine.

Russians Gart Kadyrov and Sevoled Neriteve were second and third, followed by Ake Ostblom and Kjell Svensson of Sweden. Then came a Finn, then a Rus sian, and last another Swedish rider. Points are awarded using the F.I.M. sys tem as applied to road racing, moto-cross, etc., awarding 8 points for first place, 6 for second, 4 for third, 3 for fourth, 2 for fifth and 1 for sixth place.

Most of the Scandinavian riders were enthused with the competition and are looking forward to the Russians returning in the spring to compete with their best Speedway riders. S