Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B.R. NICHOLLS
BRITISH ROAD RACE OPENER
The opening meeting of the road race season in England is usually a very cold affair at Mallory Park. 1970 was no exception, with many competitors complaining about the start being so early in the year. Most people seem to think that Good Friday should see the first road race of the year, but the plain fact is that riders will compete at every opportunity, particularly at the smaller club meetings. The first two rounds of the British championships were to be held at Oulton Park on the Saturday after the Mallory opener and Cadwell the day after that. Although snow fell during the week, the track was cleared at Oulton and it was decided that racing could take place the next day. Four inches of snow fell during the night . . . With Oulton canceled Saturday morning, thoughts turned to Cadwell but as snow was falling there too, skiing became the order of the day.
The two cancellations allowed little opportunity for the riders who had made names for themselves at Mallory to prove their success was no flash in the pan.
The winter layoff has made no difference to the form of Chris Vincent who, with passenger Keith Scott, made no mistake in racing to victory in the sidecar final. Though he has been entertaining thoughts about the 750 Honda, Vincent is using the tried and faithful 654 BSA engine that he has raced so successfully in the past.
In the solo classes the established stars took a knock from two outstanding young riders. Barry Sheene showed a lot of potential last season, and he started the day with a brilliant win in the 250 final, riding a mongrel that Rod Gould made so fashionable, a Yamahaengined Bultaco. Steve Machin, who had his Yamaha TD2 in a home-built frame, managed to get ahead for one lap, but Sheene fought back to win. Sheene was sidelined from the 350 final when his chain broke in a heat. As it was a brand new chain, Sheene’s father looked rather rueful as he quipped the old cliche, “Too much power.” But there must be some poke in the Bultaco unit because later, on a 360 model, Sheene won a 500 race heat.
In the 350 final, John Cooper made the early running on his Seeley-framed Yamaha. Down tubes had to be added to accommodate the engine, and Cooper reports that the bike handled perfectly. It certainly looked rock steady. Unfortunately, with gearbox problems, he could not contend with winner Tony Rutter’s Yamaha.
The 500-cc events saw the first implementation of the American clutch start instead of the usual bump start employed in European road racing.
Sheene on the 360 Bultaco won the first heat; Bob Heath, who works at BSA, took the factory 500-cc singlecylinder motocross engined special to victory in the second; and the third heat went to Rex Butcher (Matchless Metisse).
As the riders came to the grid for the final, Sheene found his gearbox leaking oil and withdrew. As the flag fell, Heath hurtled off to another brilliant start. His dashing style was curbed somewhat a couple of laps later by a lurid slide at the Esses, so his healthy respect for this hazard on subsequent laps gave Ron Chandler (Seeley) the chance to close up slightly. But there was no catching Heath, who went on to win from Chandler, Mick Andrew and Pat Mahoney, all mounted on Kuhn-Seeleys, and John Cooper (Seeley). With those scalps under his belt, it was small wonder he made all the headlines, as few had even heard of him before that meeting.
Sheene finished the day as he started—in winning fashion, adding victory in the 125 class which he led from start to finish. However, the real heroes were the spectators who braved the bitter wind and weather for the five hours of racing.
THE BATTLE OF NEWBURY
Victory still eludes Suzuki motocross men Joel Robert and Sylvain Geboers though they did finish 4th and 6th respectively in Belgium. The following week, Robert rode at the annual Battle of Newbury meeting against a starstudded British lineup and Sweden’s Bengt Arne Bonn on works AJS machinery.
It was the same weekend that had the road race cancellations, consequently, the ground was frozen hard with mud on the surface, making riding very tricky. Not the sort of conditions under which one would expect to see a works man with the world championship trail ahead of him pulling out all the stops.
The Battle of Newbury was a threeleg event, and in the first race the big surprise was the 2nd place that Vic Eastwood (Husqvarna) held at the end of the first lap behind John Banks (BSA). Eastwood is still trying to find form after a diastrous leg break 18 months ago. The crowd rose to this performance for he kept his place right to the end beating Browning, Andy Roberton (AJS), Goss and Taylor.
Eastwood was in 2nd place behind Banks in the second moto when he lost a footrest and slid off. The final, bitter blow came in the third race when he stalled at the start and could not get going again.
In the third race Robert eventually got going, having finished well down in the first and retired in the second. He fought up to 4th, with Banks the winner, but not until Roberton had slid off after leading for eight of the 10 laps.
The overall result .was a win for Banks with Roberton 2nd and Browning 3rd. Malcom Davis and Rob Taylor were 4th and 5th, giving AJS three men in the first five. Taylor is obviously a man to watch in 1970.
One of the most interesting machines in the race was 6th place man Andy Lee’s Cheney-BSA. The engine is a 494 BSA on which Lee did a lot of work during the winter. The Cheney frame is constructed of 16and 17-gauge Reynolds 531 tubing. Oil is in the frame; Cheney forks are fitted, utilizing an MZ Six Days machine front hub and Rickman rear hub. Weight with gas and oil is 220 lb. If you are a Ducati fan, then Cheney has just the thing for you. His latest brainchild is built around a 450-cc desmo Ducati five-speeder with an open frame to allow a downdraft carburetor. With the engine unit having the oil in the sump, the frame has been built with no under-the-engine loops. Instead it has 1.75-in. diameter top and front down tubes with duplex seat tubes extending downward and to the rear, meeting the sub-frame to form the swinging-arm spindle point. Cheney forks, Elektron hubs, and light alloy gas tank, fenders and sidepanels all help to keep the weight down to 222 lb. If you are interested, the address is Eric Cheney, Redfield Works, Crondall Lane, Church Crookham, Hampshire, England.
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HUSKY TAKES TV MOTO-X
The BSA win by Bob Heath will have sweetened the bitter pill of the motocross television meeting the previous day when both BSA stars, Dave Nicoll and John Banks, were eclipsed by Badger Goss, who made a clean sweep of the three races on his Husqvarnas. For Goss it was sweet revenge for his defeat at the hands of the two BSA men in the previous round. Main ingredient of his success was his brilliant starts, the first of which came in the 250 race. He headed the pack into the first bend with Vic Allan (Greeves), Arthur Browning (Greeves) and John Banks (BSA) in hot pursuit. Throughout the race Goss was never in danger even though Allan tried hard in a desperate last bend effort. As a result of his win, Goss now leads the 250 Grandstand Trophy table with 21 points. In 2nd place is Arthur Browning, who has 18.
Things were much the same in the 750 race, with Goss off to a good start chased by Allan. The latter got ahead of Banks when the Beesa man dropped it, but Banks recovered to finish 4th behind Dave Nicoll, who had won the previous three rounds. AJS hopes fluttered briefly when Rob Taylor held 2nd place in the opening stages, dicing with Goss and Banks. But he lost his chain and that ended his challenge. Nicoll still leads the Trophy table with 28 points to Banks’ 19.
LATE MX AND TRIALS NEWS
Just at presstime, Sylvain Geboers took the 1970 world championshipchasing 250-cc Suzuki motocross model to its first victory at an international motocross meeting in Genk, Holland. The race was held in extremely difficult conditions that Dave Bickers described as “racing through wet cement”-just the conditions that Arne Kring excels in, and he won the 500-cc two-leg motorcross.
On the following day the same riders went to the traditional season opener meeting at St. Anthonis. In the presentation parade, they looked rather weak, but once on their machines all signs of the gruelling previous day seemed to disappear, particularly for Bengt Aberg (Husqvarna) who opened up a big lead in the first race over Vic Allan (Greeves). Allan had spent the previous; day cleaning up the Grandstand Trophy TV meeting in England, winning both 250 and 750 races and an invitation for good measure. Indeed it was his weekend, for a good 3rd place in the second race (when Aberg retired) made Allan overall winner.
Away in Spain, Mick Andrews was throwing a monkey wrench in the trials world works by riding his works Ossa to a win in the Spanish round of the European trials championship. He lost 45 marks to the 65 of runner-up Rob Edwards (Montesa) with the favorites Sammy Miller (Bultaco) and Gordon Farley (Montesa), tied for 3rd at 69.
Mick was riding a brand new Ossa trials model, completed only four hours before the trial began. What a tense battle it must have been as the world’s best trials riders fought to show which was the best Spanish trials iron.
OSSA 250 TRIALS
Completed just in time for the Spanish round of the European Trials Championship, the new 250 Ossa trials machine is the outcome of nearly a year’s testing of prototypes. Despite Mick Andrews’ overwhelming victory in the trial, held at Tarrasa north of Barcelona in the spring, Ossa’s design team is still not content. Before the new machine goes into full production later this year, it will be testing other frame designs.
The latest prototype Ossa is claimed to weigh 2 lb. less than the Bultaco 250 Trials machine. The wide loop frame gives one inch less ground clearance than the existing 250-cc trials bike, but Andrews experienced no problem on this score in the very rocky trial at Tarrasa.
The bulky fiberglass rear skirt is discarded in favor of an aluminum rear mudguard with plastic fuel tank and seat section.
Dual ignition is employed, and the electrics are adequately protected from water.
At present the gearbox remains with four speeds, and Andrews, who does all prototype testing for Ossa, does not consider a fifth gear necessary. However, the production machine may have an extra gear fitted, and so follow the present fashion of five speeds on Montesa and Bultaco machines.
In the Spanish trial, Andrews’ machine had a very low compression ratio, but he intends to try higher ratios when the machine is brought to England before the end of March.
The engine is completely new, and a short test ride on Andrews’ machine immediately after the finish of the trial in Spain revealed that it has a tremendous spread of power. Over the predominantly rocky terrain, handling was faultless.
Apart from further development tests in Spain, Andrews will ride the new machine in the Scottish Six Days Trial in May. Although he will be on an extended trials demonstration tour of America in September and October, Andrews hopes to jet across the Atlantic regularly to take part in the early rounds of the 1970/71 European Trials Championship series, and challenge Sammy Miller for the title which he clinched when he took 3rd place in Spain.
