Continental Report
CONTINENTAL REPORT
B.R. NICHOLLS
BROWNING STEALS LIMELIGHT
The winter television motocross series, run entirely at the Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire, provided some excellent viewing for the audiences sitting comfortably at home and has brought a new name for the public to remember. Jeff Smith is in Canada, Wild Wade is not in the best of form and John Banks is still getting used to his two-stroke CZ, so the experienced Arthur Browning has been showing them a thing or two on the 410cc works AJS.
At the final meeting of the series he and John Banks (CZ) stole the limelight in front of an estimated eight million viewers. In the first race Badger Goss (Maico) seemed set to enjoy the sweet taste of victory when he led with one lap to go but then Browning whistled past, only to find that he in turn was being blown into the weeds by Banks on his 1972 400cc works CZ. “He took advantage of a sick man,” quipped Browning, who was fighting an attack of influenza.
The final World of Sport trophy race provided a showpiece to end the series with Goss gating fractionally ahead of Browning, who took the lead before the end of the lap. Chasing hard were Dick Clayton (Greeves), Goss, Dave Bickers (CZ) and the Husky pair of Wade and Andy Roberton. Banks had tangled on the line with another CZ rider, Stuart Nunn, a youngster who is improving rapidly and learning a lot from his neighbor Bickers. But it did not deter Banks from fighting back to get on the leader board by the halfway mark. Then Wade made his big effort and fought right through past Banks to take 3rd place, but that was the end of his progress as he could not shift Goss from second spot and Browning held on to win.
It was a great swan song for it was the last ride for the Birmingham ace on the works Ajay as he signed to ride a Bultaco for Comerfords, the dealers well-known to Americans who come over and buy a machine on the personal export scheme. Browning, though, will have a problem before long I think, as he is no mean shakes at cinder shifting on the speedway. This clash could mean that he will not reach the top unless he concentrates on one or the other.
For Banks it meant his first win in England on the CZ and he must have set off on his overnight trip to Belgium with some degree of confidence for the international meeting at Lummen, now considered to be the big opener to the new season of motocross.
LUMMEN OPENER
There were plenty of aces there including Ake Jonsson and Adolf Weil (Maico), Hakan Andersson and Jaak van Velthoven (Yamaha), Sylvain Geboers, Roger DeCoster and Joel Robert (Suzuki), and Heikki Mikkola, Pierre Karsm akers, Gerrit Wolsink (Husqvarna). Banks was the lone top flight CZ rider present.
The Yamaha camp was most impressive with 360, 400 and 490cc machines present for Velthoven to choose from,, while a 250 was ridden by Andersson and he acquitted himself well with fifth overall, this being the combined result of two races each of 35 minutes duration over a most difficult course of fast, bumpy straights, badly rutted corners and big jumps. One can never really overstate the enthusiasm of the Belgians for motocross and at the same time can anything divide them more than support for their fellow countrymen in the shape of French speaking Robert and DeCoster and the Flemish tongue of Geboers?
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Geboers has possibly the biggest fan club of any motocross rider and they travel far and wide to see their hero race. He certainly gave them something to cheer at Lummen as he won both legs to gain overall victory. All three Suzuki men were riding the new 370cc models but, while Geboers had no trouble, Robert had a collision on the first lap of the first race with Weil and retired a short while later, taking no farther part in the meeting.
DeCoster thrilled the crowd with his dice in the first leg with Geboers, but then in the closing minutes his exhaust fractured and the piston picked up so he had to be content with 2nd place. He replaced the piston during the break and pulled out a lead of a couple of seconds in the second race, only to be sidelined by losing his exhaust system again, leaving Geboers with an easy victory, followed home by Weil, whose first lap crash and subsequent repairs in the paddock kept him out of the overall results. Second overall was Mikkola with 5th and 3rd places, while Wolsink was 3rd overall from a 6th and 5th.
Andersson on the 250 Yamaha finished 5th overall behind Banks. Mechanical troubles plagued Velthoven, who failed to finish in either race.
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Lummen can hardly be taken as a guide to what will happen during 1972; nevertheless, it will have given Geboers a wonderful morale booster for the big money twin meetings for the Lente trophy, which will be reported next month.
It consists of two separate meetings—one in Belgium and the second in Holland—with two races at each meeting where the prize money for each race is $650. The Lente trophy goes to the rider with best performance throughout all four races.
Yamaha is still maintaining its interest in road racing and has increased the strength of the team by signing the brilliant 21-year-old Barry Sheene, who only just missed taking a world championship last year at his first attempt. That was in the 125 class on his ex-works Suzuki, but there will be no more Suzuki rides in 1972, for his contract is to ride Yamaha in the 250 and 350 world championships, though he will also have a 354cc machine to contest the 500 class at British meetings. Yamaha has not excluded him from the 750 class, but has made the stipulation that he must not ride any other make of Japanese machinery. He joins Rod Gould, Kent Andersson and Charles Mortimer in the road race lineup for Yamaha.
SURPRISE WINNERS
Sheene was at the first big national meeting of the British season with his new bikes and won the 250 final with ease, but got into trouble when challenging Barry Randle for the lead of the 500 final. As he tried to outbrake him at the hairpin, a 2-ft. gap suddenly disappeared and Sheene was unable to avoid dropping it. Although he was on his feet in a flash, a footpeg had broken off so he was unable to continue. Randle, also on a big Yamaha, went on to win.
Winner of the big 750 class was Brian Adams (750 Weslake Seeley). The 350 final provided a surprise as Ken Redfern (350 Yamsel) came through from a sluggish start to catch and overtake the reigning 350 champion Tony Rutter (Yamaha). He then pulled away, his awkward style disguishing his obvious ability to ride the corners faster than the opposition.
Biggest surprise of the day, though, came in the sidecar final when Peter Williams, not to be confused with the Norton Villiers development engineer, rode a 875cc KGB Imp with aerofoils front and rear and servo assisted clutch with tremendous verve to soundly thrash the more conventional motor cycle engine-powered outfits like the BSAs of the Hanks brothers and Bryan Rust.
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Drifting the outfit superbly and with the four-cylinder automobile engine sounding beautifully crisp it looks as if Williams will be a hard man to beat in the 1000cc class of sidecar racing, though it will be interesting to see how he fares against Chris Vincent when Chris comes out with the four-cylinder Munch outfit with the reputed 80 bhp. Yes, Horst Owesle, the 1971 world 5 00cc sidecar champion, has retired and will spend 1972 as the mechanic behind Chris Vincent because he is the man who knows the engine inside out and achieved his ambition last year when he won the title. It will not be an easy task for Vincent, as he has never done a full season of continental grand prix, neither has he raced a four-cylinder powerhouse like the Munch.
SIDECAR BATTLE
It is part of an Anglo-AmericanGerman tie-up with a wealthy American financier, George Bell, promoting Vin cent with the Munch racing engine. It means that the sidecar class of the world championship will be a real battle ground, for BMW has persuaded Klaus Enders out of retirement in its efforts to win back the crown they lost to Owesle last year.
Can you imagine the battle with all those BMWs fighting to retrieve German pride from the hands of a lone English man who now has the chance to prove just how good he is. With Enders back it could be a vintage year for sidecar racing. Maybe it will be a Vincent year as well.
Paul Smart must be thinking he has made the right decision in riding for Kawasaki in the United States for, since making his decision to join Gary Nixon and Yvon Du Hamel with Team Hansen, the BSA/Triumph organization has al most withdrawn from racing with most of the bikes being sold and John Cooper being the only man to have the services of a works mechanic for the BSA which he will race. Even he had to fight for that basic necessity so essential if he was to stand any chance of keeping the bike in tune to win races. It makes one wonder whether the new board at BSA really does think that anything is to be gained from racing even after the fan tastic performance put up by Cooper at the end of last season, when he twice beat world champion Giacomo Agostini and then won the really big one at Ontario.
