Dutch Tt
DUTCH TT
High Temperatures, Hot Competition And Near Misses Highlighted This Year's Dutch TT.
HEINZ J. SCHNEIDER
IT WAS THE SATURDAY of near misses this year on the Drenthe Circuit of Assen, annual scene of the Dutch TT. Only Giacomo Agostini and his three-cylinder MVs scored their predictable wins in the big solo classes, and Angel Nieto narrowly beat his Dutch opponent Jan de Vries to take the little 50-cc Derbi to another win and increase his championship lead.
All other races were won or lost because of bad luck with the bike or simply not using one’s head for what it was made for—a little bit of thinking! Nieto fell off the light Derbi Twin and lost hope for a nearly safe win while leading Dieter Braun in the 125-cc race. The tall German rider scored his fourth success this season and looks like a sure successor to last year’s champ Dave Simmonds, whose Kawasaki lasted the distance and carried him to 2nd place.
Kel Carruthers nearly had his hands on the 250 laurels when his Yamaha stopped two laps from the end. Another of the fast Japanese Twins carried Rod Gould to a surprise victory, but Phil Read, who dearly wants as fast a starter as a runner, would have beat him in another lap, making good nearly a minute lost on the starting grid.
Gradually gaining veteran status, Georg Auer bâcher, in what he calls his last season, stepped a bit nearer his life-long ambition, the sidecar crown, by beating newcomer Horst Owesle on the Fath-designed URS. In a drama-packed race, Georg had forced his BMW into the lead and then spun out, carried away by his own inspired driving. Horst,
a driving genius himself, who does not know a single international circuit, thought Georg had blown another engine and slowed down until his pit crew informed him. The grey-haired Bavarian BMW driver, his face changed from a racingred to a dark lilac, made good the last 20 miles and beat Horst in the last two miles.
50-cc CLASS
From the green light to the checkered flag, eventual winner Angel Nieto, Dutch Kreidler pilot Jan de Vries and Salvador Canellas, on another Derbi, circled the course together. The Dutchman was trying desperately to win and please the local crowd, but the Spanish Derbi proved too much for him and he was beaten by 0.3 sec., with Canellas only 0.3 sec. behind in 3rd spot, one of the closest finishes ever seen. Rudi Kunz, the German Kreidler employee, and more or less a private entry, was relegated to 4th by 8 sec., but he still beat the Dutch Jamathi, which was so fast two years back, and the Tomos of Italian Gilberto Parlotti.
350-cc CLASS
This year Ago had to race for his money and reputation as Phil Read’s Yamaha hoisted the ex-champion off the line into an early lead. Renzo Pasolini, fully recovered from his crash at the Austrian GP, gunned his Benelli Four into Ago’s slipstream. Kel Carruthers and Rod Gould were close behind also, but were running somewhat slower.
Phil’s Yamaha slowed and dropped him back into 3rd place, but the two Italian rivals fought it out tooth and nail and set a joint lap record in the process. With 10 of the 20 laps completed, Pasolini eased off a bit and Ago was content to hold a 10-sec. lead.
DUTCH TT
Rod Gould’s Yamaha went out and the Dutch newcomer Theo Bult’s followed. Jack Finlay heard funny noises from his Japanese Twin and put it away. Walter Scheimann had one plug foul in front of the grandstand crowd.
Retirements helped Kel Carruthers, Kent Andersson and Matti Personen finish well. Three more Yamahas followed, the whole continental circus seeming to have gone two-stroke. Karl Hoppe, Cliff Carr and Billie Nelson filled 7th to 9th, while Jim Currie grabbed the last point on one of his Hondas.
In spite of having qualified on time, sole U.S. rider this season, Marty Lunde, did not get a start because the organizers refused his entry, apparently for no reason. A four-column story in a local paper did not help him a bit. It is a pity how badly even good U.S. riders are treated by some European organizers, and it is time for American official bodies to make sure that a man who carries one of their international licenses is really one of the top-flight competitors.
250-cc RACE
It looked like a start-to-finish affair for reigning world champion Kel Carruthers and his Yamaha. For 15 of the 17 laps he led, 10 sec. ahead of Rod Gould. Possible challenger Gunther Bartusch on the works MZ had come off, hitting a bike someone else had dropped, and Phil Read had taken more time to start his bike than others need to cover a third of the circuit.
Laszlo Szabo’s MZ seized and Dieter Braun, the West German works rider for the East German firm, finally took his mount to 4th place on the only nonYamaha in the rapidly diminishing field.
Times have changed a lot, and in every race they had a pretty fast Dutchman. This time it was Leo Commu, who held 3rd spot for a while until his Yamaha faltered. Jarno Saarinen then took over, but about half-distance Phil Read’s Yamaha cleared its throat and began steaming through the field. With six laps to go, it became interesting to check lap times. Phil clipped about 4 sec. a lap from Rod Gould’s time, but Rod got his warning, and nobody really believed Phil had a chance to finish better than 3rd. There were 15 sec. between them with three laps to go, and on the way around both of them noticed Kel Carruthers, astride his Yamaha, his green U.S.-type helmet shining in the sun, and both saw the chance for a GP win. Phil gained 5 sec., but Rod pulled out all the stops and lost only four in the penultimate tour, and three in the last one, which gave him the advantage of another three at the flag. One more time around the Drenthe circuit and Read would have won. Real scratching one lap earlier would have done the same . . .
125-cc RACE
The long interval while the traditional band of drumming girls marched up the pit straight did not help to cool the sun-drenched competitors. The ultra-light Derbis had their full tanks covered with wet blankets to keep the petrol from evaporating. No one even bothered to pour hot water into the radiators.
Again a Dutchman was fast with Wil Hertog on his Yamaha chasing Angel Nieto’s Derbi, while Dieter Braun followed. Wil soon slowed and retired and Aalt Toersen moved his quick Suzuki up into 3rd. Dieter Braun led for a short lap, but Nieto pulled away and gained almost half a minute by mid-distance in the 14-lap race.
From the back of the field Dave Simmonds, with his Kawasaki, and Gunther Bartusch on the new MZ tandem moved up. The MZ stopped with a misfire, but reigning champion Dave carried on to gain place by place.
The race looked run, but suddenly Nieto turned up with no windscreen and the engine spitting, all indications of an excursion into Dutch agriculture.
Braun was still 2nd, far behind, and Nieto stopped in the pits to get his bike sorted out. It never ran properly, however, and Braun won the event with no challenge from Simmonds. It looks like Braun will win the title this year.
MZ privateer Laszlo Szabo’s Single finished in front of Toersten’s Suzuki, which was being strongly challenged by Toni Gruber’s simple Maico production racer.
500-cc CLASS
German veteran Karl Hoppe managed to lead world champion Agostini’s MV for a lap, and then trailed the Italian wonder boy for another two tours. But his URS blew a piston and he was forced to retire.
Despite their professional-looking oversized van, the Munch/URS team looks pretty disorganized at the moment. Apparently nobody can look after the engines properly now that Fath has left. On top of that, they have lost their number one rider, Ferdinand Kaczor, who crashed fatally in Austria the week before.
Chased by the URS, the MV showed a violent wobble in the fast bends. Competition would really improve even this consistent winner.
Paul Smart, another of the fast Englishmen to come over this season, and Peter Williams, on his artillery-wheeled Arter Matchless, took over and tussled for 2nd position. Then Williams’ bike slowed and Paul motioned Peter into the Seeley’s slipstream.
With half the race run, the Italian contingent got going. Angelo Bergamonti rushed his 380-cc pushrod Aermacchi past the 500s of Williams and Smart and gained a minute on the more powerful British bikes. Alberto Pagani, on one of the few Lintos still in GP racing, followed his compatriot, and as soon as the two-strokes had devoured enough fuel to partially drain their oversized fuel tanks, their riders got moving as well. Ginger Molloy snatched 3rd from Pagani, who played a waiting game behind the Kawasaki rider.
The Kawasaki Three carried nearly eight gallons of fuel, which made it nearly unridable in the opening laps. Ginger lost his 3rd place again on the last lap when Pagani played out the Linto’s superior top speed. And to top it all, the Kawasaki ran out of fuel on the last curve, giving everyone, including its rider, the impression it was going to seize!
The Strokers are really catching on in the big class. Behind Paul Smart, who managed to keep his 5th place, Dutchman Rob Brown gunned his race-kitted Suzuki over the line, beaten by Paul’s better riding and a tenth of a second. Peter Williams, on his tired Matchless, and Ron Chandler, on a Seeley, fought off the challenge of Gyula Marsovsky, who rides a Kawasaki now instead of his Linto.
Johnnie Dodds was trying the König boat-engined bike. On that melting hot day the water-cooled Four ran hot, which it had never done before, and the Aussie had to retire. The bike now looks like a real motorcycle. It has a lighter frame, a bit on the Seeley lines, and a bigger radiator. The Schafleitner sixspeed gearbox has been turned 90 degrees, and the primary chain is shorter as a result.
Under its builder, Kim Newcombe, who works for König, the 1969 model won a national race on the Avus, and this year’s bike has already collected a few good placings. Now Dodds is sorting out the handling and hopes to make it a real GP machine.
Stricken by bad luck since he sold his MacIntyre Matchless, Jack Finlay retired on a Seeley-framed Suzuki. Like most of the others, Jack feels he has to get some experience with the large two-strokes. “But these powerful things,” he says, “kill the art of cornering. At the moment it seems sufficient to have a lot of power on tap, you must then be fast out of a curve and down the straight and not be concerned about a clean line!”
SIDECAR RACE
The dark gray outfit of Pip Harris thundered into the lead from the second row. From the rear of the field Horst Owesle’s URS followed. After half a lap the four-cylinder machine had taken over the lead. Klaus Enders, who was fastest in practice, slowed with a faulty ignition diode. This is the second race he has lost because of electrical difficulties with his clean but complicated machine.
Owesle seems to be the only man in the URS camp now who knows how to work on the engines. His machine ran cleanly, but at some places the engine seemed slow. If the U.S.-sponsored Munch team remains next year, Horst looks like a sure champion.
Third placer Georg Auerbacher proved that he has become a driver who can match his tuning abilities. He beat Harris and a lap later passed Owesle, but instead of slowing down he spun his outfit and got going again and caught Harris. Fair as he always is, Pip, who had one of Auerbacher’s engines, let Georg pass.
The URS had used up all its rear tire tread and became harder and harder to drive. Georg closed up and outbraked his rival in the approach to a hairpin turn at the far end of the circuit. A faulty gas line put Harris out in the last few miles after one of his best races. Sigfried Schauzu and the Petri-BMW thus got a 3rd, this being the first time the delicate four-valve engine has lasted a GP distance.
For next year, the team will try fuel injection in place of this year’s carburetors and a six-speed gearbox. [Ö]
