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MOTORRAD drives 125cc classic racers
MOTORRAD drives 125cc classic racers
Dream job
30 years ago he was allowed to sit on it as a young bungee. Now the dream of MOTORRAD editor Werner “Mini” Koch has finally come true at the Nurburgring: a real race on the Maico RS 125.
Werner Koch
01/10/2003
I really didn’t expect that call on Friday afternoon. “Walter Nieser, hello. I have?? Heard you had nothing to do on the weekend. Do you want to drive one of my RS 125s at the Nurburgring? «Reported the head of the historic Maico racing team. And whether I want to, no question. So quickly packed your clothes and hit the ring for the classic race for the Jan Wellem Cup. I on the Maico 125, the RS 3rd start number R 20, the class of Grand Prix machines built up to 1978. Jesus, who would have thought?
Review. Early seventies ?? as a youngster with a 5.3 hp moped, the racing bug had already attacked me? the Maicos were big on the rise. On Saturday morning, the 100 kilometers from Stuttgart to Hockenheim were torn down. Through a loophole in the fence of the north curve it went unnoticed into the paddock. Dieter Braun, Phil Read, Giacomo Agostini ?? everything there that had rank and name. Right in the middle of it all is the Swabian Legion from Pfaffingen. Walter Nieser, the mastermind and maker of the Maico RS production racers, is surrounded by the Swede Borje Jansson, his successful world championship factory driver, and a whole pack of Maico privateers. Toni Gruber, Gert Bender, Rolf Minhoff ?? our heroes. Not only were autographs given, we were even allowed to sit on the racers. Heaven on earth.
Back to the ring. “Open up, press on, after the acceptance it starts right away.” Walter Nieser gives the Maico a nudge ?? raaang, raaang, raaang. She runs, no, screeches, screams. And zap, is it back again, the tingling in the stomach, the concentration, the tension ?? Racing just.
There are still five minutes until qualifying and I have no idea what is really important here. Hennes Fischer, an old specialist who actually works in Yamaha product planning, makes it short: “Most of them do their laps easily, just like that. And then there are a few who still have a tit. The one with 39, Erich Sander, you have to be careful, he has no relationship. «Sander, Sander? Heard it somewhere. It doesn’t matter now, it starts.
As clean as the little rotary valve motor burns out, no hole, hardly any vibrations, but tasty up to 12500 rpm. Strong 30 HP, certified by the test bench, push the racer quickly across the home straight. Not quite stylish, but the disc brake compresses the flounder with a bite. Make a jagged turn, the gas cord to the stop, and the Maico irons the first bunch on the outside lane.
Oha, even on the uphill section, the Swabian arrow pushes out of the slipstream and quickly flattens a group of upright Ducati 350 and TZ-Yamaha. But the euphoria is suffocated by the dull bang of a Honda CB 450 with a chic Drixton chassis in red. The older man shoots in from the outside, swings in front of the front wheel with crackling knee pads and flies up and away. Are those coming now with the titmouse? I turn around: THIRTY NINE !!! The start number plate, the size of a cinema screen, not a hand’s breadth behind my seat hump. For God’s sake – the sander. The black and white flag saves me from, well, from what actually?
Barely out of the leather, the bag of tricks is unpacked for the race. Mechanic Walter listens intently. “Gearing half a tooth shorter, jetting a bit leaner, pretensioning the springs at the back, and actually harder tires on it, they are at the end.” Walter grins satisfied, because he likes that ?? Just racing. In the box next door, the team is already sitting with beer and snacks, clanking and laughing until it is booming. Chef Michael decapitates a Black Forest Tannenzapfle and drills a huge portion of the Swabian goulash “Reusten Art” onto my plate. Yummy.
Sunday. The race. “Are you excited?” Asks Walter. “Yes, as if it’s about the World Cup.” “That’s great,” grins the foreman, floods the carburetor and says goodbye to me with a clap on the shoulder. The plan is in place: full soup right from the start.
12,000 revolutions, let the clutch slip, the upper body pressed flat on the tank. I frantically force my 75-kilo hopscotch around the first bend, jerk the gas harshly, hastily pushing through the gears. But the Maico doesn’t like such a hectic pace. Now the stalls are rocking, hovering, and dancing off the track. I don’t hit anything anymore, no line, no braking point. I only meet the sander with the number 39. Or better: he me. When I put the brakes on the 39, I immediately click the Maico in the slipstream, ready to counterattack. But that is massively thwarted in the bit curve, the sprightly gentleman mercilessly slams the door to me and slowly but surely sails out of sight in an elegant, fluid style.
Okay, then we’ll just make it even. “It’s not about anything in the classic races,” I was told. Just do your rounds, not fast, God forbid, just nice and even, because you get points for that. But how did the former editorial colleague and classic racing driver Siegfried Guttner always preach: “Even on the last groove is even.” He is right.
Schwabenpfeil
Against the strict will of company boss Otto Maisch, at the end of the 1960s, some Maico employees developed the successful 125cc racer based on the MD 125 road machine. A proud 146 pieces of the 4900 Mark RS 2 raced around the world’s race tracks. With countless national championship titles and third place in the 1971 World Cup under Borje Jansson, the brand, which is mainly known for off-road machines, has also established itself in road sports. Engineer Gunther Schier and the team around Walter Nieser and Hans Hinn continuously developed the single-cylinder rotary valve engine with the smallest budget. In 1974 the elegant, almost 30 hp RS 3 with water cooling was created. GP driver Peter Frohnmeyer was one of the iron Maico pilots who stubbornly defended themselves against the superior two-cylinder machines from Morbidelli, Derbi and Malance. The era of the Maico racers came to an end in the mid-1970s. Information and contact to the Maico Historic Racing Team: Telephone 07073/6568 or www. classic-motorrad.de.
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