Pistany - Czechoslovakia
On the shores of a very large lake, we found Pistany was a
very attractive small town and very popular with tourists from
across the Eastern Block, even back in the 60's. Arriving rather
late and exhausted from our long journey from Bautzen via West
Germany and Austria, we again elected to take the soft and rather
more comfortable option of booking into a small Hotel on the side of
the lake, but within walking distance of the town.
From
memory, I recall the circuit just outside of the town, encompassed
part of an old air field which had a poor surface, was not
particularly interesting and the paddock left much to be desired of
an International road racing circuit.
Our late arrival meant we had no opportunity to reconnoitre
the circuit prior to practice which was further delayed by the need
for us to deal with lengthy paperwork before the organisers would
let me go out and then it started to rain which lasted for most of
the early practise sessions. Not an encouraging start to the
meeting!
Fitting front mudguards and changing rear sprockets time and
time again on my 125 and 250 Parilla's, all in the pouring rain, I
was not at all surprised to find that I could not get anywhere near
the lap times of Heinz Rosner and the other MZ's or to find that I
would be starting well back on the grids for both the 125 and 250
races the following morning. There was nothing more we could now do
to improve my positions so we packed up and returned to our hotel
for a bath and in my case, an early night, whilst Vic went off with
some of the other riders and mechanics to find the bars and see the
lights of the town.
As
I half expected, things did not go well in the 125 race.After a good
start, and now with more suitable gearing, I was making up quite a
few places and getting some useful tows down the straights. I began
to miss gears and the change mechanism just got stiffer and stiffer.
Less than half way through the race I pulled into the pits and
retired as I did not want to destroy the box! - It later turned out
to be a bearing and oil seal on the gearbox output shaft which was
gone and this was easily rectified.
Things improved in the 250 race when I got an even better
start and this time, after being overtaken in the early laps by a
dozen or more riders, I was able to fight my way back eventually
taking 8th position.
Leaving Pistany with mixed results, we knew we were now off to
the big one, Solitude for the West German Grand Prix and my very
first World Championship meeting!
