The Motorbike Archives

Twenty four 45-minute motos made up the twelve title rounds and in the 22 of those races that he competed in, Heikki won 12 of them. never finished lower than fifth throughout the Championship season and retired on just one single occasion! Even that was due to a melee caused by another rider that snapped off his front brake lever!

By the time the Grand Prix circus had completed the tenth race in the series, on the tree-dotted "Citadelle" circuit at Namur in Belgium, Mikkola had clinched the Championship beyond any doubt. At the close of the season he had crushed Suzuki's Roger De Coster by 272 points to 219.... even without contesting the final Swiss round with its possible 30 available points.

In actual fact, before the season was even half over it was glaringly obvious that Mikkola's drive for the title was all but unstoppable. For after a fourth place in the season opener the hard-charging Finn took an almost-upprecedented string of seven high-point efforts in succession!

The signing of Mikkola to Yamaha last winter was one of the major surprises in motocross history. He had ridden for the Swedish Husqvarna factory since the early seventies and had captured two World Championships for them.... the 500cc title in 1974 and the 250cc Championship in 1976.

With another World Championship gold medal in his trophy cabinet from the season that he had just completed, it seemed totally unlikely that Mikkola would switch from the machines that he had ridden throughout his motorcycling career. As well as two world titles, Husqvarna had given him the 1973 Inter-AMA Championship in the USA and Finnish National titles in motocross, enduros and ice-racing [he was also a national snowmobile champion!

So why switch brands while a reigning World Champion? For Heikki the answer was a simple one. He had a chance to try Yamaha's 1977 500cc racer and summed it up as "a better machine!"

The motocross season opened in Austria where Mikkola debuted the bike with a satisfactory fourth place overall by taking third place in the opening moto and fifth in the second.

Then, at the Dutch round that was next on the Calendar, the Finn literally shattered the motocross world with two absolutely runaway wins and overall victory. The Blitzkrieg had started!

From then on the 1977 season was virtually a Mikkola walkover. In Sweden he followed Brad Lackey to second place in one moto but won the next to take another overall win.

At home in his native Finland it was another [and extra-satisfying] double moto sweep, while in Germany he continued the overall win streak despite losing one moto to Dutchman Gerrit Wolsink. Heikki had won the first 45-minute battle and this second place assured him of another top score.

In Italy Heikki again topped the points, winning the first race and pressing eventual winner, Roger De Coster, in the next.

It was across the Atlantic for the next two rounds, the American GP at Carlsbad in California and the Canadian event a week later.

Heikki has never been a great fan of the hard-packed, spectacular Carlsbad track but he took a workmanlike fourth place in the opening moto and won the second after a mishap between Brad Lackey and Roger De Coster.

By a quirk of the American regulations Heikki was denied the overall win despite the fact that he was the highest Championship points scorer! He and Gerrit Wolsink had tied on their moto placings with Heikki taking a fourth and a first for a total of five race points. Wolsink totalled the same with a third and a second. The American supplementary regulations decreed that any ties would be decided by whoever had completed the two motos in the shortest elapsed time... and by this method Wolsink took the win.

Strangely enough, the World Championship points system bore no relationship to the American Motorcyclist Association race scoring and on a Championship points basis Heikki had taken 23 points to Wolsink's 22. And for Heikki, that was what really counted. Whatever the American regulations said, he had topped the Championship points and extended his lead over De Coster and Wolsink!►

◄In Canada a week later, Mikkola hammered the point home with another overall win by means of victory in the first moto and third behind Wolsink and Lackey in the next.

The British Grand Prix event opened with Heikki's one and only retirement on his way to the title. A slower rider brought off Roger De Coster on the opening lap of the first moto and Mikkola was involved in the melee. The ensuing tangle broke off his front brake lever.

As the race went on, the lack of a front brake caused Heikki to crash on a fast downhill and, though he remounted, he retired shortly afterwards as his goggles were filled with mud and he was already out of the points.

Just to emphasise the fact that he was on top of the world, Mikkola came back to dominate the second moto and tie up a second place overall behind popular American, Brad Lackey.

Then came the tenth race of the Championship year, with Heikki poised on the verge of winning his third World title.

And win it he did! Roger De Coster made a desperation effort to keep the title out of Mikkola's hands by winning the first moto but Heikki was right on his shoulder in second spot.

In the second moto Suzuki's Wolsink took up the challenge and he and Mikkola were locked in a torrid dice for almost the whole of the race until Gerrit crashed the Suzuki at speed.

From that point on it was just a case of cooling the champagne! Heikki Mikkola and Yamaha were World Champions!

Just to round out the season, Heikki emphasised his superiority with yet another win... this time in Luxembourg. He did it by winning one moto and taking a third place in the other. From every angle the Luxembourg Grand Prix was a great day for Yamaha as, in addition to Heikki's win, Sweden's Bengt Aberg won the first moto on the XT500- en g ined four-stroke entered by Swedish Yamaha Distributors, Hall-- man & Eneqvist. It was the first Grand Prix win for a four-stroke in over ten years!

The final Grand Prix of the year came in Switzerland but was anticlimactic from the Yamaha point of view. Mikkola had injured his hand in a race crash the previous week and, although he tried to start the first moto, he was unable to compete. He pulled out of the first race after a few token laps for the benefit of the Swiss crowd and was then a non-starter in the final moto.

The disappointment was lessened, however, by a celebration barbecue after the race organised by Yamaha and Camel Cigarettes, sponsors of the GP series.

Riders, mechanics and friends from all of the rival teams joined with pressmen, trade personnel and fans to toast a winning combination —Heikki Mikkola and Yamaha.■