Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B.R. NICHOLLS
THE SCOTTISH SIX DAYS
Victor Boocock, founding member of the Pacific International Trials Society and North Californian trials champion for the past five years, left San Francisco behind to tackle the trial of all trials-the Scottish Six Days. Backed by Bultaco American and supplied with a Sherpa T by the Rickman Brothers, 26-year-old Vic warmed up with a twoday fun event on the Isle of Wight, where he was 4th at the end of the first day and dropped to 6th place the second. Then he spent a week preparing the machine at Sammy Miller’s before going north with the migration of trials riders to Edinburgh to achieve his lifelong ambition. He could not have picked a better year.
It was a week of mounting tension as the lead repeatedly changed hands. The winner was not decided until the final day. The first day always is spent getting from Edinburgh to Fort William, mostly on surfaced roads. But this year, there also were 24 sections to contend with and a 20-mile stretch over Rannoch Moor. It usually is a day when few marks are lost, and surprise names make a brief appearance on the leaderboard. This year the surprise was that Miller was not on it. Super Sam, the Bultaco Man, was not happy; having dropped 11 marks, he did not figure in the first 25 that day.
Don Smith (Montesa) set the pace with 5. With 6 were Peter Gaunt (Suzuki), Bill Wilkinson (Greeves) and the surprise of the day, 17-year-old Chris Milner (Ossa). The second day, Smith held his lead by losing only 3 to gain a lead of 2 over Wilkinson and Mick Andrews (Ossa), who equaled Smith’s performance with a loss of 3 to move into joint 2nd place. Poor Milner, with much attention focused on him, lost 20 and finished the week well down the field. But Miller was fighting back and, with a loss of only 4, moved from 27th to joint 8th with Gaunt, who had fared badly losing 8.
On Wednesday, Sam struck with a vengeance, riding in the superb fashion that only he can when the pressure is on. He completed the 111-mile run, including 21 sections, with a solitary dab to share the lead with Wilkinson, who had lost 6. With 16 lost, they were 1 ahead of Andrews (17). Smith had dropped to 4th with a loss of 10. Gaunt, who lost only 4, had moved into 5th.
With the pressure on, the second half of the week started badly for Smith, who slipped down to 5th. Miller and Wilkinson stayed in the lead. Each had a dab, as did Gaunt, now ahead of Smith, who was 1 mark behind Andrews. At the end of the fourth day, 5 marks covered the first five home.
Friday was the most punishing day of all. Smith was the best of the leaders, losing 9, and so moved into 3rd place, only 1 mark behind Wilkinson. Miller at last was 2 marks clear in the lead.
The final day’s run of 143 miles and 21 sections is usually a formality with little bearing on the result, but this time it was different. Wilkinson was clean, and Miller lost 7, so dropped to 3rd behind Andrews, who kept his score for the day to 2. Smith, with a disastrous 11, dropped to 4th.
So for Greeves and Wilkinson, it was a first ever Scottish win, achieved on a machine that went out of production when Villiers engines went out of supply. Twenty-seven-year-old Wilkinson’s last really good ride was in 1960 when he won the British Experts’ trial. He has won events on the continent, where he is as popular as he is at home for his ability to drink beer with the best of them and enjoy his riding, rather than make it a dedicated task as Miller does.
What happened to the lone Yank in the highlands? Vic said he enjoyed every minute of it, and was full of praise for the organization and the bike, which gave no trouble all week, although he bent the gear selector shaft on the second day. His aim was to finish— which he did, with a first class award in 46th place out of 155 finishers. He hopes to return next year and to persuade a team to make the trip to compete for the overseas team award. It was battled for this year by riders from Canada and Sweden, with victory eventually going to three Swedes from the Karlskoga club. Karlskoga team member R. Bjorck also took the award for the best foreign rider in the trial; he lost 91.
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The trade team award went to Montesa, with Smith backed up by Gordon Farley, who finished 6th, and Lawrence Telling in 9th place. This trio won from the 128-cc Gaunt Suzukis, ridden by Gaunt and the Lampkin brothers, Alan and Martin. Gaunt started the current move to smaller capacity machines, and in Scotland they were most impressive. The day after the event was completed, the national Alan Trophy Trial was won by Gaunt, with Alan Lampkin runnerup.
NEW TIDDLERS
Gaunt’s next move is to prepare a 1 25 Suzuki for motocross. This capacity class is gaining popularity on the continent, especially as there is to be a European title, although this is restricted to riders under 2 1.
Joel Robert is keenly interested and has become financially involved with a Puch-engined machine called the Dalesman Puch. It is being produced with a Reynolds 531 frame by Peter Edmondson of Otley in Yorkshire; there lies the clue to the name, for that county is famous for dales that cut into the Penine moorlands. There is also a trials version of the machine.
Incidentally, there was an experimental 250 works Puch motocross machine at the 500-cc Austrian GP. It was ridden in a supporting race, but without success.
250 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Joel Robert (CZ), who started the season with victory in the first two rounds of the 250 title, went on to make three in a row when he won in Yugoslavia, demolishing the opposition with victory in each leg. To underline the present Belgian supremacy in this class, Sylvain Geboers (CZ) chased Robert home in the first race, but in the second, Torsten Hallman (Husqvarna) split the Belgian pair. As Hallman had managed only 5th in the first race, he finished 3rd overall, his best so far. Jiri Stodulka and Karel Konecny (both CZ) were 4th and 5th, with Olle Pettersson (Suzuki) completing the first six.
A week later Robert met his Waterloo in the Czech round when he failed to score. He had injured a leg in a midweek meet in Belgium. Despite this and a bad start, he was working well through the field when he had an argument with a post, so decided to call it a day.
This left the way wide open for Geboers, who seized his good fortune and won, with Konecny and Pettersson 2nd and 3rd, respectively, in each race. Hallman retired, and 4th overall went to young AJS teammate Andy Roberton, his best championship ride to date. His teammate Malcolm Davis was sabotaged by someone who put sugar in his tank. Later, in a “We have sacked him-I have quit” mystery, Davis left the AJS team and will ride CZ in the future.
From Czechoslovakia the riders moved to Poland, and once again it was Robert all the way. In the first leg, he took the lead at the first corner and was never headed. Hallman moved from 6th on the first lap up to 2nd, but could not catch the leader. After a bad start, Geboers moved into 3rd, with Konecny 4th and Pettersson 5th. Robert was unchallenged at the start of the second race until Geboers got past Hallman and disputed the lead with his fellow countryman. Under pressure, Robert moved away and Geboers settled for 2nd. Hallman, however, was down to 5th, having been passed by Pettersson and also by his young teammate, Bengt Arne Bonn. This did not affect the overall result of a win for Robert, 2nd for Geboers and 3rd for Hallman.
To complete the first half of the 250 championship (six consecutive weekends of championship competition), the riders went to West Germany. Robert was sidelined with food poisoning. When the cat’s away the mice will play, and the mouse in this case was none other than Adolf Weil, a fugitive from the 500 class. He had ducked the Dutch round so Maico could have a works entry in its home round of the 250 title. Robert’s misfortune was exploited to the full by Weil on a wet and slippery track where passing was difficult. He mastered the conditions to win both races. The expected challenge from Geboers did not materialize, as the Belgian punctured a tire when 3rd in the first race, though he still finished 6th. Hallman had a recurrence of the back injury that troubled him last season. Pettersson, who finished 3rd in the first leg, retired in the second, as did Roberton, with a jammed rear chain, after a 4th in the first race. Konecny finished 3rd in the first and 6th in the second to take 2nd overall. Geboers was 3rd.
At the halfway stage of the championship, Geboers leads with 67 points from Robert with 60. These two have a considerable lead over Konecny (38) and Hallman (32). There seems little doubt that either Robert or Geboers, barring injury, must win the title, with the odds on Robert as he has four wins to his credit.
Suzuki obviously needs a second rider to Pettersson. If the firm seriously intends to contend the title next year, then Geboers could well be the one.
The AJS fracas has left Roberton with a tremendous task in which he has now been joined by the young Scottish rider, Jimmy Aird. The most they can be expected to do is gain experience necessary for a full scale onslaught next year.
Arthur Browning has had very little luck riding his Greeves, and the Russians have failed to show up well, so they may not appear in the second half of the series. Their best man has been Leonardo Shinkarenko, who ran two 7ths and a 6th in the three eastern bloc meetings.
500 MOTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
While the 250s have covered half their program, the 500s have completed only three rounds, but it promises to be a far more interesting championship. It is wide open at the moment. The leader is a Swedish rider, unknown outside Sweden until he won his home round, the second of the series.
Arne Kring, a 28-year-old bicycle mechanic, has never won a Swedish championship and had never figured in results abroad, although he had ridden in Czechoslovakia as far back as 1963. Yet he went to the Swedish round with his privately owned 400-cc Husqvarna and reveled in the mud, winning both races and leading a Swedish 1-2-3-4-5, all on Husqvarna. In both races, Austrian winner Bengt Aberg was 2nd, and Hammargren recovered from his Austrian crash to finish 5th in the first race and 3rd in the second to take 3rd overall. In the first leg Weil got his Maico up to 4th, but his 8th place second time out reduced him to 6th overall. The BSA boys did not figure at all. John Banks went out with a bent chain guide, Dave Nicoll crashed without injury and Keith Hickman was hit in the eye by a stone.
Reigning champion Paul Friedrichs retired with chain trouble in the second race, but worse was to come to him a week later in Holland. He caught his foot under the peg and as a result may miss the next round. If so, four meetings without scoring could mean the end of his title hopes.
Kring won in fairy tale fashion at the Dutch meeting. He traveled all the way from Sweden without an entry in the hope that the organizers would accept him. They did, and he now leads the championship. Kring has realized that he is just as good as the next man and, because he is experienced, there is no wildness about his riding that marks the flash-in-the-pan winner.
The Dutch circuit was not popular with the riders; some thought it downright dangerous. It started with a lap of an open field and then hurtled through almost two miles of woods along narrow paths which gave little chance to overtake.
In the first race, Banks got a brilliant start, with Kring and Aberg not far behind. After a couple of laps, Kring took the lead and Aberg also got past when Banks was momentarily blinded by mud from Kring’s machine. In 4th place came the darling of the crowd, local boy Frans Sigmans (Husqvarna), who will be riding in the States. His very young looks belie his 21 years and he’s due for a lot of “I.D.” trouble. But the girls will love him. Then Sigmans goofed, but fought back to 4th, and that was the order at the end of the race with Jef Teuwissen (Husqvarna) 5th.
Heading the pack at the start of the second race as they broadsided round the field and into the first jump was Banks, with Teuwissen close behind. The race settled down with Banks leading, but Aberg up to 2nd, Teuwissen was 3rd, Dutchman Jo Lammers (CZ) 4th and Kring 5th. Then Aberg crashed and was out of the race. Kring moved into 2nd behind Banks. This position assured him of overall victory and, safe in that knowledge, he made no attempt to battle with the BSA man.
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So Arne Kring won the Dutch from Banks; Teuwissen was 3rd and Sigmans 4th. With his victory Kring took the lead in the title table, with 30 points to the 27 of Aberg and 24 of Banks. The interesting thing at the moment is that only one man in the top 10 has scored in all three rounds—Jan Johansson of Sweden, in 4th place with 1 8.
Banks may not be leader of the world title chase, but there is no doubt who is top dog in the 500 British title chase. He leads with 32 points, an unbeaten maximum. Nearest him is Vic Allan (Greeves) with 12, so it’s odds on John for British champion in 1969.
THE THRUXTON 9 HOUR
If BSA is shining on the motocross front, they cannot claim the same in production machine racing. This is a branch of the sport for which the FIM awards one of its lesser known titles, the Coupe d’ Endurance. Of the long distance production machine races, the No.
1 event is the Barcelona 24 Hour. The British round is the Motor Cycle sponsored event, started 15 years ago as the Thruxton 9 Hour. Now run over a distance of 500 miles, it is known simply as the Thruxton 500, though it has not been held at that circuit for the past four years.
However, 1969 saw a return to the Hampshire circuit close by the new AJS headquarters at Andover. A very strong entry challenged the 2,50, 500 and 750 classes into which the race is divided.
Works machines from BSA, Norton and Triumph battled for the top honor of overall victory, which at one time was dominated by Norton, but now has become the Triumph reserve. Last year saw a complete upset, when all the big machines fell by the wayside and a 490 Triumph was 1st home. This year “cubes” prevailed, and Triumph lashed the opposition in no mean fashion with six in the first seven.
What happened to the Dunstall Norton? This year Dunstall entered a works Triumph. Each machine has to have two riders and riders’ times are controlled, so Rex Butcher joined Ray Pickrell to ride it.
Triumphs were favored to win, and their No. 1 team of Percy Tait and Malcolm Uphill obviously was the one to beat. After the first hour they were just in the lead from Pickrell with Norton Commandos 3rd and 4th. Then one cylinder on Uphill’s machine tightened, so he cruised into the pits. After a quick check and plug change, Tait took over for a couple of gentle laps before giving it the gun again.
At the end of the second hour, Pickrell/Butcher led, and Triumph held the first two places. The sole remaining Commando of an entry of three was 3rd.
By the end of the third hour, Triumph had 1-2-3, and this was extended to 1-2-3-4 at the four-hour mark, when Peter Williams crashed the last Norton without personal injury. Two works BSAs were 5th and 6th. Then came the action. A broken connecting rod put out the 2nd place Pickrell/Butcher Triumph, Tony Smith collapsed in the pits after pushing the works Spitfire a mile (mostly uphill) after running out of gas, and the other Spitfire was retired when Alan Barnett came in with gearbox trouble.
In the 250 class, an Ossa ridden by Brian Hunter and Brian Smith led by several laps, but was sidelined by a crash after four hours. So the lead was taken over by Frank Whiteway/Stanley Woods (Suzuki), and they won the class by four laps.
At the end of the second hour, the 500 class was claimed by Ray Knight/ Martin Carney (Triumph), and they stayed there for eventual victory.
And there was no stopping Tait/Uphill, who won at an average speed of 84.3 mph and covered four more laps than the 2nd team home, John Cooper/ Steve Jolly.
Smith, who had collapsed in the pits, recovered to do a further riding stint on the BSA he partnered with Pat Mahoney, and they finished 4th. The other six of the first seven were Triumphs. A standard Trident took 7th spot. It was not the only Three entered, as a Kawasaki finished in 23rd place (60 starters are allowed). Perhaps the best effort was the Newman/Gray Suzuki Cobra, ridden to the circuit and raced perfectly standard with small gasoline tank. It pitted every 25 min. and finished 19th, averaging about 22 mpg.
NORTH WEST 200
The big road race of the month was the North West 200, which in recent years has lost a lot of its glamor. This sorry state of affairs was brought about mainly by the withdrawal of the British and Italian factories in the late 1950s. At that time it was used as a testing ground for the TT.
This year the 200 was to be a baptism of fire for the Read-Weslake. But during practice the machine struck oiling problems brought about by an underslung tank and surge of the lubricant to the rear which even the baffles would not stop. Phil Read is confident that the answer is a conventional tank, and steps are being taken in the hope that the TT will see its race debut.
Read, however, was not without machinery in the North West. He rode a brand new Yamaha TR2 into 2nd place in the 350 race behind Rod Gould, who was similarly mounted. Rod was the star of the day. He set an absolute record for the course with a lap at 108.61 mph, and also won the 250 class from local hero Tommy Robb (Yamaha). Perhaps the biggest cheer was for Czech ace Franta Stastny, who, with his works Jawa machines, gave a touch of the good old days to the meeting.
The big surprise came in the 500 class, when John Blanchard (Seeley) raced to victory ahead of local rider Brian Steenson, who was similarly mounted. Blanchard, who is one of the select number that have lapped the TT course at over 100 mph, also set a record lap for the 500 class, albeit slower than the 350 class, at 107.69 mph.
The battles for the British road racing titles continue with the efforts of Chris Vincent and Keith Scott in the sidecar class on the 654 BSA, the complete model of consistency and supremacy. After four rounds, they have maximum points, with the equally consistent, but not quite so supreme Peter Brown 2nd in every round.
Charles Mortimer, now on a Villa, holds the 125 lead with 49 points, well ahead of Dave Simmonds, who has ridden only two meetings for his 30.
Tony Rutter, with a faultless ride at Mallory Park, has moved up to 2nd place in the 250 title to Dave Browning, who has 37 points—only 2 ahead of Rutter.
The 350 and 500 classes had one of those unfortunate clashes when the Scarborough round was on the same day as practice for the 500-mile production race. So the aces missed it. The results did not affect the tables set from the previous round at Castle Coombe. That event saw one of the finest battles ever fought on a short circuit in the 500-cc race. The usual aces went at it hammer and tongs for eight laps. The lead constantly changed before that vital moment when the winner’s flag fell to Croxford, ahead of Tait and Barnett. Barnett retains his title lead at 40 points. Croxford has narrowed the gap and has 37 points.
The 350 race was a nerve tingler as well, with Mick Andrew (Seeley) putting it across Mahoney and Barnett. Mahoney now leads with 32 to Barnett’s 30. If anybody needed convincing that Phil Read is a real champion, they should have seen him at the short circuit Brands international meeting on his TR2 Yamaha. He was last away, and at the end of the first lap Gould led him by over 10 seconds. Phil carved through the field in meteoric style to take the lead after 12 laps and set a new lap record at 76.53 mph. He improved on this still further in a later unlimited race by setting an absolute motorcycle record for the course at 79.43 mph. [Q]
