Top North Island riders racing in TV scramble

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32861, 9 March 1972, Page 18

Top North Island riders racing in TV scramble

(By

R. O. DEW)

POUR of the North Island’s most accomplished riders— A.. Collison (Palmerston North), P. Ploen, P. Lintett and L. Love (all Wanganui) — and almost every member of the South Island representative team will face the starter in the invitation motor - cycle scramble, to be held at the Kaiapoi club’s circuit at Moody’s Fann on Saturday.

The main event, to be decided over three heats of about lOmin in duration, will be for the CHTV3 Trophy and will be the first scramble to be televised live in the South Island. If it proves a success, it might well mark the birth of an annual series, similar to the English 7.V. Trophy meetings held during the European off-season. The stars of the show should be Collison (400 C.Z) and Ploen (400 Suzuki). Both have been in tremendous form this season and promise to be the leading contenders for the New Zealand open championship in the Wairarapa on May 14. Collison currently shares this title with the experienced Christchurch rider, A. Sabiston (499 8.5. A.), who

will also be racing on Saturday. Ploen is the holder of the New Zealand 500 c.c. scramble title, which he won at Clarkville at the start of the season. To do so he had to defeat Collison and this is something few others have achieved. But Collison does not regard the Clarkville circuit as one of his favourites and he should prove a far harder nut to crack at Moody’s Farm. It was on this circuit earlier this year that he handed out defeat to the English international, R. R. Owen.

The main challenge to the superiority of these two outstanding North Island riders will probably come from Christchurch’s G. J. Stapleton, who is expected to ride the 350 c.c. Kawasaki trail machine (fitted with a race kit) which has served him so well in the South Island gold star series this season. In the last six races for the South Island 350 c.c. scramble championship, he has scored five wins and one second. He has also shown ability to overcome the considerable weight of the Kawa-

saki and bring it home ahead of specialist racing machinery in the 500 c.c. and open classes on more than one occasion. This will be one of his last appearances in scrambling before returning overseas to ride speedway for the English first division team, Wimbledon. He will no doubt be wanting to leave behind a favourable impression with the armchair spectators.

Other South Island riders who should make a strong impression in the upper levels of the three races will include P. Doecke (400 C.Z.), Sabiston, R. Austin (400 Suzuki), G. Holland (360 C.Z.), R. Happer (360 C.Z.) and G. Reid (250 C.Z.). Doecke recently took delivery of a new 400 C.Z. and in the last two gold star meetings has been improving his form with every outing.

At Dunedin, recently, in the penultimate round of the gold star series he was unbeaten in the three heats of the 500 c.c. championship and won two heats of the open championship as well. However, he has no chance of winning either of the South Island titles at stake in the series. His form earlier in the season on the Norjo Kawasaki now being raced by Stapleton was not good.

Happer and Sabiston lead the 500 c.c. and open classes, respectively, in the gold star series. Sabiston, one of the few riders in New Zealand using an English four-stroke machine, won the Canterbury championship earlier this year. He has a perfect blend of consistency and skill and is never better than when the going is tough.

Austin, a former South Island 500 c.c. and open champion, has had a lot of machine trouble this year and is now changing

mounts. On Saturday he will make his debut on the 400 Suzuki, formerly raced by Holland. This might mark the start of a climb to greater heights after a period of indifferent form. An outstanding prospect as a schoolboy, Austin might yet realise the great potential he showed a year or two ago. Reid, bn his smaller capacity C.Z., should lead home the 250 c.c. riders. Forty-four riders will start in each of the three T.V. races. There will also be three races of smin duration for enduro machines. Thirty-three en-

tries have been received for these. The circuit will be a little smaller than usual because of the requirements of television but the organisers have still managed to include some very testing sand traps and areas where riders will And difficulty keeping their front wheels on the ground. The South Island selector (Mr W. Campbell, of Christchurch) will be an interested spectator at the meeting. "It should give me some idea how the South Island team will go in the inter-island scramble,” he said.