Scotsman Ian Simpson, riding the Bill Simpson Racing Yamaha TZ 350, regained the lead in the ICGP 350cc Championship after winning both legs of the fifth round of the series at Le Mans, France.

Report by Chris Carter

The 43-year-old former British Supersport 600 champion, fastest in qualifying, climbed from second to first in the standings, to go into the final round at Aragon, Spain on October 27 and 28 with a 31-point lead, where there are only 50 points to be won.

Frenchman Guy Bertin (Kawasaki 350) was top of the points’ table coming into this meeting, 19 ahead of Simpson, but nothing went right for the 57-year-old former Grand Prix star.

In practice and qualifying his super-quick, ex-Toni Mang Kawasaki KR 350 twice broke a crank, forcing him to miss the second qualifying session and leaving him second fastest after just seven laps on the track.

Bertin then missed the first race completely because of ignition failure and was then forced out of race two on the third of ten laps, when lying second to Simpson, with a broken disc-valve.

Despite breaking his clutch very early in the race, Simpson battled on to victory in race one, after a good battle with 37-year-old Luke Notton, who was making his first appearance in the series this season, on one of Lew Batty’s Yamaha 350s.

Ives Glauser, the 32-year-old Swiss racer, better known for his racing efforts on Classic four-strokes, on another Batty Yamaha 350, was third home beating Ant Hart (Yamaha 350) by just half a second.

Eric Saul (Chevallier), the 58-year-old Frenchman who set up the ICGP series, was fifth home, first of the 250s. Saul’s comfortable lead of Andre Gouin (Lago Team Yamaha 250), was rapidly shrunk on the last lap, after Saul’s gear-lever broke off, leaving him stuck in second gear. In the end he hung on grimly, to head Gouin home by just 1.5 seconds.

British racer Chris Rose, the 55-year-old garage owner from Twickenham raced the Lea Gourlay-prepared Yamaha 350 intp seventh place overall. There was a certain amount of confusion at the end of the ten-lap race, because after those top seven had taken the chequered flag the red flags came out around the circuit.

Instead of crossing the finishing line some competitors went into the pit lane. Positions from eighth place down were then based on the running order at the end of lap nine, Franz Patrick Dorfner, the 37-year-old Austrian motorcycle dealer, on the Bakker Rotax, was eighth, third 250, his worst result of the season!

Frenchman Bruno Lefrancois (Bimota 350), who only qualified 17th fastest, was ninth over the line, four seconds ahead the German, Stefan Tennstadt (Bakker Rotax).

Yves Hecq (Armstrong), the 51-year-old Belgian, a 250cc class winner in the opening round at Catalunya, crashed out on the second lap

Simpson was clear cut winner of race two leading from start-to-finish and winning by over nine seconds. It took Glauser, who was down in sixth place at the end of lap one, seven laps to catch and pass second-placed Hart and the pair then passed and re-passed all the way to the chequered flag.

Hart, delighted with the performance of the Arnie Fletcher prepared machine, gained revenge for his first-race defeat by taking second spot by less than a fifth of a second from Glauser.

Those points lifted Hart to fourth in the standings. Notton was pushed back to fourth by the battling duo, just over two seconds further back.

Gouin was sixth, first 250, but he was lucky. He and Saul had clashed on the second lap, forcing Saul off track and costing him over seven seconds and dropping him from eighth place to 14th. Undeterred Saul set off after Gouin. Two laps later he had caught him and a lap after that Saul was in front holding sixth spot. Once in front Saul pulled away, only to have his chain break two laps from home. There was some consolation for Saul though with the news he had set the fastest lap.

Mike Hose (Yamaha 350), a non-starter in race one, was sixth overall. Lefrancois was seventh overall and Dorfner eighth, but crucially second 250.

That result took Dorfner, in his first full season in the ICGP 250 class, to an unbeatable 231, making him the 2012 champion, with one round still to go.

Simpson cannot yet celebrate winning the 350cc title, but he has a comfortable lead going to Spain and after topping qualifying here, two wins and two fastest laps the Dautel Cadot champagne must have tasted particularly sweet!

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