ROUND 9: AUSTRIA AUTRICHE: 23RD JULY 1978
You can never keep a good man down, and Finland’s Yrjo Vesterinen came straight out of the starting blocks to show the world that he intended to fight all the way to retain his world championship title for Bultaco. After three laps of twenty tough hazards, which were reflected in the final scores, the single-mark advantage over Schreiber was also a much-needed boost for his morale. For Lampkin it was not such a good day, which was further compounded as he lost 5th position on the tie-breaker with Rob Shepherd. For Beamish Suzuki rider Malcolm Rathmell things went from bad to worse as he posted his worst ever score in a world round with 18th position. French rider Charles Coutard was very happy as he took the SWM back into the points on a much-modified machine. With three rounds remaining could Lampkin maintain his advantage over Vesterinen to take another world title? We would see!.
RESULTS: 1: Vesterinen 136; 2: Schreiber 137; 3: Karlson 140; 4: Lejeune 154; 5: Shepherd 157; 6: Lampkin 157; 7: Soler 161; 8: Coutard 163; 9: Ryysy 172; 10: Whaley 173. CHAMPIONSHIP (9/12 ROUNDS): 1: Martin Lampkin (350 Bultaco-GBR) 99; 2: Yrjo Vesterinen (325 Bultaco-FIN) 91; 3: Bernie Schreiber (325 Bultaco-USA) 89; 4: Ulf Karlson (350 Montesa-SWE) 71; 5: Rob Shepherd (306 Honda-GBR) 47; 6: Mick Andrews (320 Yamaha/310 Ossa-GBR) 44; 7: Jean Marie Lejeune (310 MontesaBEL) 25; 8: Toni Gorgot (Bultaco-ESP) 21; 9: Manuel Soler (Bultaco) 12; 10: Jaime Subira (Montesa-ESP) 12; 11: Malcolm Rathmell (325 Suzuki-GBR) 11; 12: Charles Coutard (280 SWM-FRA) 11; 13: Jean Luc Colson (Montesa-BEL) 10; 14: Marland Whaley (Montesa-USA) 10; 15: Nigel Birkett (Montesa-GBR) 7.