Dutch Tt

DUTCH TT

HEINZ J. SCHNEIDER

BRILLIANT MIKE HAILWOOD made it another three-starts-three-wins-affair at this year's Dutch TT, held on the beautiful flat 4.8 miles circuit of Assen. Winning the 250, 350 and 500cc classes on his works Hondas — being led by MV rider Giacomo Agostini in the opening stages of the big bike event — Mike bettered the figure set by Jim Redman in 1964, who then had won the 125, 250, and 350cc races on the same make bikes. Riders had to cope with half the meteorologist's arsenal, the 50cc race starting when the last drops of heavy rain went down. Later strong winds blew the circuit dry, and when sidecar winner Klaus Enders consolidated his title lead, sun had come through and made one forget his umbrella on the grandstand.

50cc RACE

Tiddler races never produce the greatest thrills, but this year the only fun one gets out of watching the smallest class is betting how many Suzukis will see the checkered flag. The usual team of three, Yoshimi Katayama, Hans-Georg Anscheidt and Stuart Graham held pole positions, but this time it was Japanese Katayama whose 16 bhp twin lasted the distance of eight laps to score a win over Spain's Angel Nieto on a Derbi and Australian Barry Smith, also on one of these simple Spanish two-stroke singles. The Suzukis had been stuck in the middle of the 21strong field, all three having started slowly in the wet.

350cc RACE

Hailwood's Honda six was the first bike to fire in the 350cc event, and the English champion-rider was the first man to disappear through the right-left sequence of full-throttle curves which set an accent to the long straight, running from a fast righthander in front of the starting line to an acute one, a good mile further on. And it was the Benelli four of Renzo Pasolini which was quicker away from the line than the MV three under Giacomo Agostini. Australian Kei Carruthers was impressive, swinging his Aermacchi-Metisse through the starting field, hopping from 21st to an early fifth spot, and poor Mike Duff, on a real motorbike at last, was last away with his new Aermacchi-Metisse. These Italian horizontal push-rod singles seem to start best when they are red hot.

While Mike Hailwood built up his lead to 40 seconds in the end, for 13 of the 20 laps Italian Renzo Pasolini managed to keep his rival Agostini at bay. Experienced from his many mid-field fights the former Aermacchi works rider grabbed his chance of shaking the MV out of his slipstream when it came to lap last man Lewis Young in lap seven. Pasolini caught the Englishman's AJS just before the right-left snake, and Agostini had to stay behind, losing 20 yards. Within a lap these 20 yards summed up to three seconds, which Agostini slowly won back. Six laps from the end Agostini again was sitting on the Benelli's tail, looking all set to pull ahead. He got his chance when Heinz Rosner, holding fifth place on his MZ, was to be lapped. Out of Kniebocht, the 90 mph righthander just before the finish, Ago came in front of the East German rider and Pasolini behind him. Desperately, the Benelli rider tried to recover his place, repassing the MV some hundred yards on in the right-left, but half a lap further on the MV was clearly the winner. The MV's front wheel looked as if it stepped sideways in fast curves, and indeed Pasolini, riding his greatest race so far, gained yards in the bends, less yards, however, than Giacomo won on acceleration. A last attempt to out-brake the MV in the approach to a 45 mph lefthander half way through the circuit failed when the MV pulled clear on the undulating part of the track which followed, and when the flag fell the fighters were separated by exactly half a second. From the winner's rostrum Mike Hailwood climbed on his smaller Honda six for his second win of the day. Side by side he and Yamaha star Phil Read accelerated along the pits, and in the right-left curves Phil squeezed his two-stroke four into first position. MZ's Heinz Rosner and Bill Ivy on the second Yamaha held third and fourth places off the line.

Predicted at the German Grand Prix to be a 125 or 250cc, Jawa-CZ's latest Grand Prix bike, a two-stroke four in Yamaha style — two twins coupled to a V-engine — has turned out to be a 350cc. At last veteran Franta Stastny rode the new bike in its first international outing in this class — for two laps only and in last position. In spite of this rather weak showing the quick appearance of the new engine — Jawa has only worked on modern twostroke racing engines since 1965, and the four is on the bench since last winter — was a bit of a shock to the MZ team, who are working on their 125 three for three years without showing it on the track and without a chance to complete a successful motor. Moving up to a bigger class, the 350, was the only way to make their old twins score.

In his winning ride Mike Hailwood set a new race-record with 88.1 mph, but the lap record went to Giacomo Agostini, who had put his MV round the track at 90.2 mph, showing how hard he had to fight in his duel with Renzo Pasolini.

250cc RACE

Past the back side of the paddock, half way round the track, Phil still led from Mike. Ivy had come up to third place ahead of Honda's Ralph Bryans and the Woodman-Rosner MZ team. Ginger Molloy with Bultaco's latest model — distinguished from the older ones by different rear mud-guard and some new internal features described in the Hockenheim report — led the single cylindered bikes.

Still making good for his bad start, Ralph Bryans also passed Ivy before the first lap ended. Phil Read's engine caused trouble and the bike slowed down. Half way through second lap Hailwood was first, never to be challenged again. And a further 4.8 miles on Phil had even dropped back behind Bryans to third position. When Phil finally retired after eight laps of 17, teammate Bill Ivy really screwed it on, catching up with Bryans and finally winning ten seconds from the Honda rider, taking second place.

East German Heinz Rosner well and truly beat his English team-leader Woodman, riding the MZ into fourth place after Read's retirement, but then the two-stroke twin packed up. So Woodman on the slower bike took Zschopau machinery to fourth.

The new race record of 83.6 mph Mike Hailwood had set, by the way, would have netted him a win in last year's 500cc event from lim Redman.

125cc RACE

These incredibly fast 125cc Yamaha two-stroke fours are likely to spoil their good record this year by simply refusing to start, but just that provides some hard racing. The field was underway, with 50cc winner Yoshimi Katayama leading from Holland's Cees van Dongen, when Phil Read's four fired. And 20 seconds later, when his rivals and teammate had disappeared, Bill Ivy also got his bike going. Then a chase started, which will be hard to equal.

Half a lap was enough for Phil to pass the whole field except Stuart Graham and Katayama, and Bill Ivy screamed past the back side of the paddock in the middle of the 24-strong field. After a lap he was sixth behind van Dongen and British Jim Curry, both on Honda twins, and only 18 seconds separated Phil Read from the leader. East German Jochen Leitert had been unlucky, coming off when his air cooled private MZ seized, injuring his neck badly.

The Yamahas provided the thrill of the race, when Phil Read clipped off second by second from Katayama's lead, catching and passing the Japanese rider in lap 10 of 14. The next lap saw Ivy ahead of Graham, and still one more done Bill was second ahead of the two Suzukis, now about to chase his teammate. He did fastest lap with 87.3 mph in the process, bettering the 86.7 figure set up by Hugh Anderson in 1965. Also with three laps to go young Stuart pulled out all stops and passed his tired teamster to take a well deserved third, less than two seconds behind Ivy. Having kept up this speed over the whole distance the English rider would have stood a chance to come home second.

500cc RACE

Third and last win of the day was Mike Hailwood's hardest fought one. From the drop of the flag reigning champion Giacomo Agostini had grabbed the lead, and Mike simply could not pass him, having been nine-tenths of a second faster than the Italian in practice. In the race, that bit more power was not enough to streak past the rival at any point of the track, so Mike settled down just inches behind the Italian and waited for his chance. Like a tandem the two swept round the circuit, using the last grains of asphalt in the bends. Mike's chance came when Dutch Bert Oosterhuis and Englishman Lewis Young, on his brand-new engined Matchless Metisse were to be lapped. Having led for eight laps of 20 the young Italian got confused and Mike drew past, now gaining up to four seconds a lap just as he liked. Having set lap record of 93.1 mph, with a race average of 91 mph, Mike won the first Assen event over the 90 mark.

Peter Williams, leader of the 500cc championship after Hockenheim and the

TT held third place from the start, with Dan Shorey challenging him hard, the British short circuit rider having one of his faster days on the continent, and one of his faster bikes too. For a lap Dan managed to lead Peter, but then Williams again put his disc-braked Matchless in front of the Norton.

SIDECARS

The sidecar event proved to be the final showdown of this year's series, although there still are meetings to run in Belgium, Finland and Italy. With three wins and two seconds now Klaus Enders looks like becoming the title holder after taking the laurels in the hard fought Dutch TT. From the start George Auerbacher, who had to win the race and the following ones to win the championship, led the 12strong field with fastest practicer Helmut Fath, and his fast four, second. Doing his lawnmower trick Pip Harris forced through from third row position to third place, and TT winner Siegfried Schauzu tried to snatch a good position diving between Auerbacher and Fath but somehow was kicked back. With George Auerbacher holding his lead for a lap and a half, a general boxing and pushing match started in the field, and there seemed to be no one who was not forced on the grass verge at least once, the first six thundering round in one big sausage of outfits.

First to give in was Auerbacher, who, while being passed by Fath, was attacked by Klaus Enders on the third lap. Frantic waving of yellow flags showed that something must have happened on the second half of the circuit, and Georg was missing when the pack flew past the third time. His outfit had spun in a righthander and toppled over, damaging the fairing but leaving the crew unscathed. Next man out was leader Fath, when his URS four was struck by piston trouble — which had not yet occurred on this home-built engine. (One day later one of the Fath motors in a solo frame won a national Junior's race on Berlin's AVUS track.) Four outfits remained at the top, separated by less than five seconds. Enders on his pretty red and white kneeler kept the lead, never to give it up, and won with 79.8 mph. ■