GRAND PRIX CHAMP. WITH PROBLEM Discombe looking for someone with “a sack full of money”

Press, 26 April 1979, Page 24

GRAND PRIX CHAMP. WITH PROBLEM Discombe looking for someone with “a sack full of money”

By

ROD DEW

The fine win by the experienced Cambridge road racer, Trevor Discombe ('Yamaha TZ7SOE), in the New Zealand open grand prix at Ruapuna Park at Easter was his fifth in this meeting of long tradition. Most assuredly, it wil! not be his last. However, he is currently “looking for someone with a sack full of money’’ to buy the two big, four-cylinder racers he has in his stable — the TZ7SOE he used at Ruapuna to win the grand prix, and an equally impressive Niko Bakker-framed TZ7SO which carried him to victory in the same race two years earlier. As with other riders, Discombe is unhappy about the amount of

money which has to be tied up in top-class racing machinery and he is seriouslv considering stepping down a class or two. “I want to keep going if it is at all possible, and I might even go back to racing a 350. The racing is very competitive and it really is a lot of fun riding in this class.” he said. Discombe should know. He made his first big impact in the sport in the .350 class. His first New Zealand grand prix win back in 1967 was in the junior race on an aircooled Yamaha. Before that, he rode a 350 A.J.S. That is something not too many of today’s racers could claim. For many

years, Discombe was regarded as the “king of the 3505” in New Zealand, as he chalked up win after win in the national championship series. It was the advent of the

now defunct Marlborough international series which probably prompted him to step up to the open class racing. He did this with typical efficiency and effectiveness. He was never far behind the overseas stars who came to conquer, and in consistency had few equals. But in recent years costs of machines have sky-rocketed, and the amount of prize money available has dwindled, chiefly because, like everyone else, .sponsors have also been feeling the

financial pinch. Yamaha is producing a new 500 cu. cm racer, but Discombe has it on good authority that this will cost $21,000 to put on the track in New Zealand. Would be consider racing a Suzuki in the 500 class

“1 would never ride anything but a Yamaha. I have always had a good run from Yamaha and I would never change now.” In spite of the enormous

cost for the new Yamaha 500. Discombe is not completely discounting the possibility of getting one of these. He is certainly interested because the 750 class at world championships level is to be “killed

off.” Japanese manufacturers will be turning their racing attention back to the 500 class. The effects of this might take a little time to reach New Zealand, but unless there is a change of heart by the F.I.M. the 750 class is doomed. It started out as an idea to provide cheap racing on a type of factory modified production roadster. But the bikes are now the most costly in the sport. Discombe has been reluctant to take either of his two mounts onto the track

this year. “If it means taking $15,000 to $20,000 worth of motor-cycle out on the track for a chance to win $5O in prize monev, I stay home.”

He has picked his races carefully in recent months and ignored the possibility of winning the national open championship series. Had he done so, John Woodley (Blenheim) might not have had things quite so easy. Even so, Discombe has probably finished third behind Woodley and the former champion, Rodger Freeth (Auckland). Discombe is now 36, and, on the evidence of his great duel with Freeth in the recent grand prix, there is no fading of his powers. He seems genuine in his belief that he might step down to the 350 class again. He freely admits that “your heart is in your mouth the whole time” on the 750 bikes. Discombe is a skilful! and careful rider, but he has had his share of spills.

One of the worst he has had was in the Penang grand prix in Malaysia last year. “I had mumps at the time and really shouldn’t have been racing. I just blacked out at over 130 miles an hour.” It was three months before he was able to return to his motor-cycle business in Cambridge and, he says, his left arm will never again be the same.