1968 West German GP Grand Prix Nurburgring - 3-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article

Description

1968 West German GP Grand Prix Nurburgring - 3-Page Vintage Motorcycle Article
Original, Vintage Magazine article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
MORE THAN ONE KIND
OF EXCITEMENT MADE
TH IS YEAR'S EVENT
A RACE TO REMEMBER
FIVE lap records smashed, the first ever
world championship win by a home-
made machine and a forest fire — the West
German Grand Prix run over the 4.8-mile
south loop of the famous Nurburgring
circuit in late April had everything.
It even had wonderfully warm sunny
weather, a distinct improvement on the
snow and rain that have plagued this spring
meeting at the Nurburgring for the last few
years.
The first of the 12 meetings that count
towards the road racing world champion-
ships, the West German GP was a two-day
affair which started on Saturday afternoon
with the 125cc race.
And little Bill Ivy, reigning title holder
in the class, was soon among the records as
he hurled his four-cylinder Yamaha round
the tricky course which snakes up and down
thru the pine forests of the Eifel Mountains.
Despite lack of real opposition Bill knock-
ed 15 seconds off Hugh Anderson’s old
Suzuki lap record as he and team-mate Phil
Read gave the crowd a high-speed demon-
stration ahead of Hans-Georg Anscheidt,
out on one of last year’s works Suzuki twins.
But on the tenth lap of the 13-lap race
Ivy’s Yamaha stopped with engine trouble,
Bill was not sure what had broken, and
Read was left to win alone ahead of An-
scheidt. Behind the Suzuki, West Germans
Siegfried Mohringer and Dieter Braun bat-
tled thruout the race on single-cylinder
East German MZ machines, finishing less
than half-a-second apart.
The 350cc class was a thriller as rival
Italians Giacomo Agostini (MV) and Renzo
Pasolini (Benelli) fought it out. Pasolini
had beaten the MV man twice in succession
in recent Italian meetings but at the diffi-
cult Nurburgring the tables were turned as
Agostini piled on the pressure.
In great form, the Italian world cham-
pion shattered not only the 350cc record,
by nearly 11 seconds, but Mike Hailwood’s
old 500cc figure as well with a lap at 92.83
mph. This was too much for Pasolini who
settled for second spot.
An even tighter dice for third place was
eventually won by Australian Kel Carruth-
ers (Aermacchi-Drixton) who just beat New
Zealander Ginger Molloy on the new works
air-cooled Bultaco racer. For most of the
race Dan Shorey had been with this duo
but his six-year-old Norton had not quite
got the speed to match them on the straights.
So he eventually let them go and settled for
fifth place ahead of Bohumil Stasa of
Czechoslovakia riding a factory 350cc four-
stroke Jawa-CZ racer.
That was the end of the Saturday pro-
gram and with tire majority of the 50,000
spectators settling down to camp in the
forest, camp-fires sprung up all around tire
course.
SUNDAY dawned bright and beautiful and
with spectators arriving thruout the night
the crowd had swollen to 160,000 by the
time that racing re-started at 10 a.m. with
the 50cc event.
For two laps Australian Barry Smith, rid-
ing a Spanish Derbi, managed to keep tid-
dler champion Hans-Georg Anscheidt on the
lone 14-speed twin-cylinder Suzuki in sight.
Then the Spanish two-stroke began to
fail and Barry eventually stopped with a
cracked cylinder head. Anscheidt carried on
to win, equalling but not breaking the old
lap record set up by Luigi Taveri on a
Honda.
Again the four-cylinder Yamahas com-
pletely dominated the 250cc class. And
again Ivy was in record breaking form,
carving his way thru the field from a slow
start to knock six seconds off the old record.
This time the bike kept going and little Bill
won the race.
Read on the second Yamaha was not so
lucky. He stopped on the third lap when
the cooling system of his Yamaha sprung a
leak and the engine temperature shot sky
high.
With Read out Mohringer, on a works
twin-cylinder MZ, took over second place.
This young West German was trying just a
shade too hard and he eventually crashed.
Rod Gould, who had been fourth behind
the MZ on his unique Yamaha-powered Bul-
taco, was in trouble with a blowing cylinder
head gasket and eventually it was Malloy
(Bultaco) who finished second with Swe-
den’s Kent Andersson (Yamaha) just beat-
ing Gould across the line to snatch third
place.
With Hailwood sidelined by the Honda
decision not to support the world champion-
ship races Agostini knew that no one could
challenge him in the 500cc class. Sure
West German Grand Prix, Nurburgring April 20-21. Results:
125CC (13 laps = 62.54 miles): 1 P. W. Read (Yamaha);
2 H-G. Anscheidt (Suzuki); 3 S. Mohringer (MZ); 4 D.
Braun (MZ); 5 K. Anderson (MZ); 6 K. Carruthers (Honda).
Time: 44m 29.9s = 84.75 mph. Record lap-. W. D. Ivy
3m 22.0s = 85.81 mph.
350cc (20 laps = S7.20 miles): 1 G. Agostini (MV); 2 R.
Pasolini (Benelli); 3 K. Carruthers (Aermacchi-Drixton);
4 G. Molloy (Bultaco); 5 D. F. Shorey (Norton); 6 B. Stasa
(CZ). Time: lh 3m 41.1s = 90.97 mph. Record lap: G.
Agostini 3m 6.7s — 92 .83 mph.
50cc (13 laps — 62.54 miles): 1 H-G. Anscheidt (Suzuki);
2 R. Kunz (Kreidler); 3 R. Schmalzle (Kreidler); 4 L.
Fassbender (Kreidler); 5 C. van Dongen (Kreidler); 6
J. F. Stefe (Tomos). Time 50m 36.2s = 74.19 mph. Fast- ■j
est lap: H-G. Anscheidt 3m 49.5s = 75.50 mph.
250cc (17 laps = 81.83 miles): 1 W. D. Ivy (Yamaha);
2 G. Molloy (Bultaco); 3 K. Andersson (Yamaha); 4 R.
Gould (Yamaha-Bultaco); 5 J. Findlay (Bultaco); 6 S. Her-
rero (Ossa). Time: 55m 51.9s = 87.86 mph. Record lap: »
W. D. Ivy 3m 13.4s = 89.60 mph.
500cc (19 laps = 92.40 miles): 1 G. Agostini (MV); 2
D. F. Shorey (Norton); 3 P. Williams (Arter-Matchless);
4 G. Marsovszky (Matchless); 5 B. Stasa (375 CZ); 6 R.
Gould (Norton). Time: lh Im 23.3s = 89.35 mph. Record
lap: G. Agostini 3m 8.6s = 91.84 mph.
Sidecar (13 laps = 62.54 miles): 1 H. Fath (Urs); 2 G.
Auerbacher (BMW); 3 S. Schauzu (BMW); 4 J. Attenberger
(BMW); 5 H. Luthringshauser (BMW); 6 O. Kolle (BMW).
Time: 47m 31.7s — 78.97 mph. Record lap: K. Enders
(BMW) 3m 34.0s = 80.96 mph...
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