1978 Belgian motorcycle Grand Prix

The 1978 Belgian motorcycle Grand Prix was the seventh round of the 1978 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 2 July 1978 at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. These races, along with the Spa 24 Hours touring car race 3 weeks later were the last ever international major events held on the old 14 kilometer Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

  1978 Belgian Grand Prix

Race details
Race 7 of 13 races in the 1978 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	2 July 1978
Official name	Grand Prix Belgique / Grote Prijs België[1][2][3]
Location	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
Course	Permanent racing facility 14.120 km (8.774 mi)
500 cc
Pole position Rider Johnny Cecotto Time 3:48.600 Fastest lap Rider Michel Rougerie Time 3:51.700 Podium First Wil Hartog Second Kenny Roberts Third Barry Sheene
250 cc
Pole position Rider Kork Ballington Time 4:08.000 Fastest lap Rider Walter Villa Time 4:22.400 Podium First Paolo Pileri Second Franco Uncini Third Walter Villa
125 cc
Pole position Rider Ángel Nieto Time 4:23.200 Fastest lap Rider Pierpaolo Bianchi Ángel Nieto Time 4:42.700 Podium First Pierpaolo Bianchi Second Ángel Nieto Third Maurizio Massimiani
50 cc
Pole position Rider Ricardo Tormo Time 5:12.500 Fastest lap Rider Ricardo Tormo Time 5:16.100 Podium First Ricardo Tormo Second Eugenio Lazzarini Third Stefan Dörflinger
Sidecar (B2A)
Pole position Rider Rolf Steinhausen Time 4:15.400 Fastest lap Rider Alain Michel Time 5:03.700 Podium First Bruno Holzer Second Alain Michel Third Rolf Biland

500 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Time/Retired	Points
1	15	Wil Hartog	Riemersma Racing	Suzuki	39'50.400	15
2	2	Kenny Roberts	Yamaha Motor Company	Yamaha	+15.800	12
3	7	Barry Sheene	Texaco Heron Team Suzuki	Suzuki	+18.600	10
4	30	Michel Rougerie		Suzuki	+21.300	8
5	21	Tepi Länsivuori		Suzuki	+1'18.900	6
6	8	Takazumi Katayama	Sarome & Motul Team	Yamaha	+1 lap	5
7	22	Marco Lucchinelli	Cagiva Corse	Suzuki	+1 lap	4
8	9	Alex George		Suzuki	+1 lap	3
9	17	Tom Herron		Suzuki	+1 lap	2
10	46	Dennis Ireland		Suzuki	+1 lap	1
11	39	John Woodley	Sid Griffiths Racing	Suzuki	+1 lap
12	38	John Williams	Team Appleby Glade	Suzuki	+1 lap
13	41	Bo Granath		Suzuki	+1 lap
14	29	Graziano Rossi	Team Gallina Nava Olio Fiat	Suzuki	+1 lap
15	14	Jack Findlay		Suzuki	+1 lap
16	48	Greg Johnson		Suzuki	+1 lap
17	45	Hervé Regout		Yamaha	+1 lap
18	37	Max Wiener		Suzuki	+1 lap
19	33	Leslie van Breda		Suzuki	+1 lap
20	36	Gerhard Vogt	Bill Smith Racing	Suzuki	+1 lap
21	??	Guy Cooremans		Suzuki	+1 lap
22	??	Jean-Claude Hogrel	Buton	Buton	+1 lap
Ret		Johnny Cecotto	Yamaha Motor Company	Yamaha	Retired
Ret		Philippe Coulon	Marlboro Nava Total	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Boet van Dulmen		Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Virginio Ferrari	Team Gallina Nava Olio Fiat	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Steve Baker	Team Gallina Nava Olio Fiat	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Bruno Kneubühler	RSS Racing Team	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		John Newbold	Ray Hamblin Motorcycles	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Børge Nielsen		Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Jon Ekerold	Suzuki Deutschland	Yamaha	Retired
Ret		Dick Alblas		Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Franz Heller	Caramba Racing Team Bohme	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Franz Rau	Kazenmaier Autovermietung	Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Cees Scheepens		Suzuki	Retired
Ret		Steve Parrish		Suzuki	Retired
Sources:[4][5][6]

250 cc classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	31	Paolo Pileri	Morbidelli	9	40:35.0		15
2	56	Franco Uncini	Yamaha	9	+23.1	4	12
3	37	Walter Villa	Harley-Davidson	9	+37.6	2	10
4	9	Patrick Fernandez	Yamaha	9	+37.8	8	8
5	1	Kork Ballington	Kawasaki	9	+1:07.0	1	6
6	21	Mario Lega	Morbidelli	9	+1:07.2	3	5
7	22	Anton Mang	Kawasaki	9			4
8	36	Vic Soussan	Yamaha	9			3
9	20	Pentti Korhonen	Yamaha	9		6	2
10	12	Leif Gustafsson	Yamaha	9		9	1
11	7	Jon Ekerold	Yamaha	9		10
12	48	Etienne Geeraerd	Yamaha	9
13	43	Albert Debouny	Yamaha	9
14	14	Josef Hage	Japol	9
15	29	Pekka Nurmi	Yamaha	9		12
16	62	Reino Eskelinen	Yamaha	9
17	45	René Delaby	Yamaha	9
18	17	Eero Hyvärinen	Yamaha	9
19	63	Clive Padgett	Yamaha	9
20	3	Kenny Blake	Yamaha	9
		John Dodds	Yamaha			5
		Kenny Roberts	Yamaha			7
		Gregg Hansford	Kawasaki			11
38 starters in total, 24 finishers
[4]

125 cc classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	3	Pierpaolo Bianchi	Minarelli	8	38:12.2	3	15
2	32	Ángel Nieto	Minarelli	8	+3.3	1	12
3	30	Maurizio Massimiani	Morbidelli	8	+11.1	10	10
4	1	August Auinger	Morbidelli	8	+1:29.3	9	8
5	37	Patrick Plisson	Morbidelli	8	+1:34.5	7	6
6	26	Eugenio Lazzarini	MBA	8		6	5
7	31	Hans Müller	Morbidelli	8		5	4
8	4	Rolf Blatter	Morbidelli	8			3
9	45	Cees van Dongen	Morbidelli	8			2
10	21	Matti Kinnunen	Morbidelli	8			1
11	47	Bennie Wilbers	Morbidelli	8
12	41	Jean-Claude Selini	Morbidelli	8
13	24	Walter Koschine	Bender	8		12
14	17	Clive Horton	Morbidelli	8
15	6	Enrico Cereda	Morbidelli	8
16	22	Bengt Johansson	Morbidelli	8
17	10	Yves Dupont	Morbidelli	8
18	18	Jan Huberts	Morbidelli	7
19	40	Bernd Schneider	Bender	7
20	43	Jan Ubels	Buton	7
		Harald Bartol	Morbidelli			2
		Thierry Espié	Motobécane			4
		Stefan Dörflinger	Morbidelli			8
		Jean-Louis Guignabodet	Morbidelli			11
38 starters in total, 20 finishers
[4]

50 cc classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	36	Ricardo Tormo	Bultaco	6	31:52.3	1	15
2	19	Eugenio Lazzarini	Kreidler	6	+56.1	3	12
3	48	Stefan Dörflinger	Kreidler	6	+2:23.2	2	10
4	23	Claudio Lusuardi	Bultaco	6	+2:24.6		8
5	21	Peter Looyestein	Kreidler	6	+2:32.9	11	6
6	42	Pierre Dumont	Kreidler	6	+2:48.7	7	5
7	15	Hagen Klein	Kreidler	6		12	4
8	28	Patrick Plisson	ABF	6		8	3
9	38	Cees van Dongen	Kreidler	6			2
10	35	Theo Timmer	Bultaco	6		10	1
11	14	Jacques Hutteau	ABF	6
12	26	Wolfgang Müller	Kreidler	6		4
13	9	Joaquín Gali	Bultaco	6
14	10	Ramón Gali	Bultaco	6
15	32	Günter Schirnhofer	Kreidler	6
16	4	Daniel Corvi	Kreidler	6
17	40	Chris Baert	Kreidler	5
18	46	Marcel van der Steene	Kreidler	5
19	5	Michel de Poligny	Scrab	5
20	47	Dirk van der Donckt	Kreidler	5
		Otto Machinek	Kreidler			5
		Ingo Emmerich	Kreidler			6
		Aldo Pero	Kreidler			9
40 starters in total, 24 finishers
[4]

Sidecar classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Passenger	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Grid	Points
1	12	Bruno Holzer	Karl Meierhans	LCR-Yamaha	9	47:50.0	7	15
2	18	Alain Michel	Stu Collins	Seymaz-Yamaha	9	+22.7	5	12
3	4	Rolf Biland	Kenny Williams	TTM-Yamaha	9	+28.3	3	10
4	32	Rolf Steinhausen	Wolfgang Kalauch	Seymaz-Yamaha	9	+2:22.2	1	8
5	11	Bill Hodgkins	John Parkins	Windle-Yamaha	9	+3:01.0		6
6	44	Jock Taylor	James Neil	Windle-Yamaha	9			5
7	30	Cees Smit	Jan Smit	Seymaz-Yamaha	9			4
8	8	Gérard Corbaz	Roland Gabriel	Schmid-Yamaha	9		9	3
9	10	Dick Greasley	Gordon Russell	Busch-Yamaha	9		6	2
10	26	Siegfried Schauzu	Lorenzo Puzo	Busch-Yamaha	9		8	1
11	16	Helmut Luneman	Micha Stockel	Gespann-Yamaha	9
12	35	Heinz Thevissen	Lothar Klein	HTS-Yamaha	8	+1 lap
13	37	Max Venus	Norbert Bitterman	CAT-Yamaha	8	+1 lap
14	7	Boy Brouwer	Jan Oostwouder	Coan-Yamaha	8	+1 lap
		Werner Schwärzel	Andreas Huber	Fath			2
		Göte Brodin	Per-Erik Wickström	Yamaha			4
		Hermann Schmid	Kenny Arthur	Schmid-Yamaha			10
30 starters in total, 14 finishers
[4]

References

1. "Alle Grand-Prix uitslagen en bijzonderheden, van 1973 (het jaar dat Jack begon met racen) tot heden". Archive.li. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
2. Mitchell, Malcolm. "1978 500cc Class (FIM Grand Prix World Championship) Programmes - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". Progcovers.com. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
3. Mitchell, Malcolm. "Spa-Francorchamps - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". Progcovers.com. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
4. Coleman, Barry (ed.). Motocourse 1978-1979. Hazleton Securities Ltd. p. 103. ISBN 0-905138-06-6.
5. "1978 Belgian MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database". Motorsportmagazine.com. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
6. "BELGIUM GRAND PRIX · 500cc Race Classification 1978". Motogp.com. Retrieved 30 November 2018.

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