Teamorders, nu weer actueel, kende men ook al in 1968:
Phil Read vs Bill Ivy, 125cc and 250cc world championships, 1968
On signing with Yamaha for the 1968 season, Phil Read and Bill Ivy made gentlemen’s agreements that Read should win the 125 world title and Ivy the 250 championship. The agreement had the backing of Yamaha and each rider was expected to back up the other in his respective class and allow him to win without making things look too obvious. Things had gone to plan in the opening two Grands Prix of the season but at the TT, Read told Ivy he wasn’t going to hang around in the 250 class waiting for him. Incensed by Read’s remark, Ivy set a scorching pace in the race and was leading by 14 seconds when Read suffered a puncture and handed his team-mate the win.
Although he had no intention of reneging on his agreement with Yamaha, Ivy determined he would ride as hard as it took to lead Read in the 125 TT to make him think he was going for the win. Only when he had proved his point would Ivy throttle off and hand the victory to his team-mate.
After Ivy set the first ever 100mph lap by a 125cc machine, his Yamaha team suspected he was going to break the (unwritten) team orders and sent a mechanic up to Governor’s Bridge with instructions to stop Ivy to allow Read through. They needn’t have bothered. With an 11-second lead, Ivy coasted to a halt at Creg-ny-Baa on the last lap and cheerfully asked a spectator who was winning. He eventually cruised home allowing Read to win by over a minute and when asked if he’d thrown the race, Ivy claimed – with a wide grin – that his engine had ‘gone off song.’
The rest of the 125 and 250 seasons continued in the same vein. After Ivy had helped Read secure the 125 title as agreed, the Luton rider then announced that he was bucking team orders and going for the 250 crown as well. Read suspected Yamaha was going to pull out of racing at the end of the season so felt he had nothing to lose by disobeying team orders. It was a devastating knife in the back for Ivy after he had upheld his end of the bargain, but he fought with everything he had to claw back the points he had given away to Read. It was all decided in a final showdown at Monza where an oiled plug scuppered Ivy’s chances of winning the title that should have been his and Read completed the 125/250cc world championship double.
Even today, Read defends his actions. ‘After I won the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix Ivy pulled up and shouted “You bastard, you should have ridden to team orders and let me win.” But everyone knew if I’d slowed down to let him win there would have been no glory in it for him because I was letting him win. It obviously upset the Japanese, the way things worked out, and it upset me as well.’
Read was never given a factory Yamaha again and the feud left Ivy so disillusioned with bike racing that he tried his hand at car racing. In 1969 he returned to two wheels but was killed at the Sachsenring in East Germany on July 12.
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bikesportnews.com te vinden onder de link. Meer interessante rivaliteit, oa Rainey/Schwantz, Fogarty/Russel en Rossi/Biaggi