LEADING THE WAY
Jarno Saarinen and Hideo Kanaya entered the 1973 500cc world championship on the new 80hp water-cooled Yamaha OW20/YZR500S. Saarinen won the opening round at Paul Ricard, while Newcombe finished fifth in both the 500cc and 350cc races. The 85hp Konig 500 was now more reliable and faster in a straight line than the factory MV Agusta. The lanky Kiwi placed third at the next round at the Salzburgring, behind Saarinen and Kanaya. Tingate had taken up the offer to help prepare both machines. “It was fantastic. We were all ecstatic seeing Kim on the podium,” said Tingate. Read won at Hockenheim on the new fourcylinder MV Agusta, however Newcombe didn’t finish due to mechanical problems. A week later, Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini were killed in a preventable Monza incident in the 250cc race. Organisers cancelled the 500cc race, and Yamaha withdrew its team for the rest of the year. With riders able to drop several of their worst rounds, many GP riders attended the Renzo Pasolini Memorial meeting at Misano, rather than race at the Isle of Man. Newcombe was second behind Dieter Braun, while rider-mechanic Tingate crossed the line third on his Yamaha 354 to share the podium with his close friend. The Yugoslav Grand Prix was held at Opatija, on June 17, on a challenging road circuit lined with brick walls, houses and a cliff face. Newcombe set a new lap record on his way to an astonishing victory on the low-budget Konig 500, to become the first New Zealander to win a premier-class Grand Prix. Although a talented off-road rider, Newcombe had been road racing less than four years, and now he lead the world 500cc championship. Tingate remembers the occasion. “We went out to the prizegiving that night at the town hall, where all the tables had national flags on them. It was quite surreal to know Kim was leading the 500 world championship. Everyone was very happy but we were all really tired when we got back to the pits in the early hours. Kim took it all in his stride – he realised there were more meetings to go, but even so he was quite rapt, as you could imagine.” The world 500cc points table read; Kim Newcombe, 31 (Konig): Jarno Saarinen, 30 (Yamaha): Phil Read, 27 (MV Agusta). Six days later at the Dutch TT, Newcombe turned a poor start into second place after a great ride in front of 150,000 Assen fans. Read’s win closed the gap to a single point behind Newcombe’s 43, who still lead the world 500cc title chase. Agostini then won at Spa Francorchamps, ahead of Read, with Newcombe fourth. The German-speaking New Zealander held third until a 10c rubber O-ring on the water pump drive failed, allowing Australian Jack Findlay through on the last lap. Read now enjoyed a three point advantage over Newcombe, with Findlay third. Newcombe crashed from fourth on the old Brno circuit thanks to an intermittent misfire, but came back for third at Anderstorp, Sweden. The Kiwi led the race for 10 laps until a mistake let Read through – the gear lever touched the asphalt which put the transmission into neutral. The Finnish Grand Prix at Imatra was another fast, bumpy and dangerous road circuit, where Newcombe crossed the line fourth. Second behind Agostini in the race, Read had amassed enough points to win the 1973 500cc title at the penultimate round. The FIM world points scoring system in 1973 allowed riders to count half of their best scoring rounds, plus one round, for their final points count. The incredible Newcombe-konig combination was second in the championship with one round remaining, with Agostini third. But it was to be Newcombe’s final Grand Prix.
“AT THE SEASON-OPENING NURBURGRING, NEWCOMBE SURPRISED THE WORLD BY FINISHING ON THE PODIUM IN HIS DEBUT 500CC WORLD TITLE RACE.”